Soooo predictable, Item 2 (Item 1 from earlier this morning at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog).
Reporting from Jefferson City, Missouri, David Lieb of the Associated Press understated the number of people expected to attend rallies through the US ("thousands"), misrepresented a previous March 20 incident involving alleged racial slurs at the U.S. Capitol, and waited until his fourteenth paragraph to mention leftist "party crashers" who may be at least as much of a concern to organizers as far-right opportunists.
Here are the relevant paragraphs from Lieb's litter (link is dynamic; 9:13 a.m. version of report saved here at web host for fair use and discussion purposes; bolds are mine):
Tea party leaders anxious about extremists
(Paragraphs 1 through 7)
Organizers of tax-day tea parties are preparing for their biggest day of the year Thursday, as thousands of demonstrators participate in local rallies against high taxes and big government spending. But the leaders are striving to keep the rallies from presenting another image: one of fringe groups, extremists or infiltrators obsessed with hateful messages.
Sensitive that poor public perception could sink their movement, some rally planners have uninvited controversial speakers, beefed up security and urged participants to pack cameras to capture evidence of any disrupters. Organizers want to project a peaceful image of people upset by what they consider to be a growing and burdensome federal government.
"We don't want to be misrepresented, whether it's by someone who is not part of the group and has their own agenda, or whether it's by some fringe extremist who may actually be a racist," said Jim Hoft, a political blogger and tea party activist who is one of the speakers for a rally in suburban St. Louis.
The National Tea Party Federation, a newly formed coalition of regional tea party groups, estimates that between 1,700 and 2,000 tax-day rallies are occurring Thursday in communities across the country.
"What's at stake is showing various government officials of both parties that people are concerned," said Tim Hagle, an associate political science professor at the University of Iowa. "That's why it's important that you don't have distractions from people who are interlopers of one sort or another."
The tea party took a recent publicity hit when three black Democratic congressmen said they heard racial slurs as they walked through thousands of health care protesters - many of them tea party activists - outside the U.S. Capitol on March 20. Some conservatives and tea party leaders insist it never happened. (1)
But it's not the only racially charged incident. A photo posted on Flickr, which has attracted Internet chatter, shows a white man carrying a sign that says: "Obama's Plan White Slavery." The photo claims to have been shot at a tea party rally last year in Madison, Wis. (2)
(Paragraphs 14 and 15)
Tea party leaders also are concerned that opponents may pose as tea party participants and cause a ruckus to damage the reputation of the movement. A Web site has urged people to "crash the tea party" to draw attention to the party's least appealing qualities. (3)
The National Tea Party Federation is urging rally participants to point cameras at anyone acting obnoxious or hateful. The intent is to reprimand true tea party activists, disavow fringe followers or reveal the people as plants by opponents.
Notes:
- (1) -- It isn't just that "tea party leaders insist" that the slurs "never happened." It's that there is absolutely no evidence that they ever happened.
- (2) -- To me, the most notable aspects of the photo in question are that the person holding the offensive sign is standing all by himself, and that the rest of the crowd seems to be ignoring or shunning him.
- (3) -- You would think that Lieb would have wanted to tell readers what the movement's -- not disruptors' -- least appealing qualities are. I say he took a pass because he can't name any that can fairly be attributed to the vast majority of Tea Party participants and leaders.
Expanding on Item (1) a bit, the only reason "the tea party took a recent publicity hit" is that establishment media elites pounced on a story they desperately wanted to report before having any corroboration. But as noted earlier, that's how it rolls with the soooo predictable press.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
