Are the mainstream media playing fast and loose with their coverage of the tea parties and what the tea party activists believe? Andrew Breitbart says they are, and points to accusations of racism.
Breitbart spoke at one of the tea party events held near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. on April 15. He said his involvement in the movement began when he realized how the media would react to the Tea Party movement and detailed an incident in which Contessa Brewer's MSNBC cropped out the face of a black man in footage of a tea party event to make the movement appear to lack diversity.
"I think that we're going to have a problem if we want to start talking about founding fathers, the founding documents, what the origins of our country because the mainstream media is not going to like what you have to say, and so I volunteered myself," Breitbart said. "And on day one, I had to contend with the fact that you guys were called ‘teabaggers.' And I had to deal with the fact an unfortunately named sister, by the name of Contessa Brewer on MSNBC, before you even spoke, told you what your grievances were to the country and our dissent his patriotic presidency. This person took a photo and cut off the head of a black man, and asked is the tea party nation - are the people who are protesting Barack Obama racist? The person was black."
Despite this instance, nothing has changed according to Breitbart.
"She still has a job," Breitbart continued. "MSNBC is still on the air. Janeane Garofalo say ‘racist, racist, racist.' This is what they do my friends. This is what they do. It's evil."
Breitbart explained his conversion to conservatism occurred after watching the media's handling of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearings in 1991 and how the Democratic Party and the media handled the assault on his character.
Breitbart recounted the recent history of the Democrats unpopular health care unpopular health care "reform" brought about by "bribes" and with a full effort by the media to sell it, all the way up to the day of the bill's passage, when according to Breitbart, Democratic members of Congress paraded themselves before individuals protesting the bill out on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
"What did they do?" Breitbart asked. "They pulled a Contessa Brewer on you. And so, I don't know - I study media. I pay attention to media. I've gone to the circus. I know a trick when I see it. And I see Barney Frank walking around. I see the Congressional Black Caucus, I see Shelia Jackson Lee taunting with a V-sign. I'm like, what on God's green earth is happening here? A half-hour later, you see Nancy Pelosi with a s**t-eating grin, holding that gavel."
Although some on the left have acted outraged over Republican members of Congress participating in the anti-ObamaCare protests with their own flag waving, etc., Breitbart insisted that it wasn't the GOP attempting to provoke the protesters, as Maxine Waters has alleged. But instead, he said it was the Democrats that day that were the provocateurs.
"This was a stunt," he continued. "They wanted to provoke you my friends. They wanted to provoke you and guess what you did - you did nothing wrong. You did nothing wrong. You said, ‘Kill the bill.'"
The Web entrepreneur said he found it difficult to believe that in this age of new media - with ubiquitous cell phones, cameras, Blackberries - anyone could have really shouted racial epithets without someone recording it and it eventually being aired somewhere.
"Look at that mainstream media, you bulls**t artists," Breitbart exclaimed. "You hateful bastards - how dare you impugn these people's reputation. Even if there was one person - the ease with which you used it to ruin the whole - it's despicable."
Breitbart continues to offer a reward, which started out at $10,000 and now has grown to $100,000, for anyone that can offer a video of anyone hurling racial slurs at Reps. James Clyburn, Emanuel Cleaver, John Lewis and Andre Carson on March 20 as they walked through the protest to the Capital. To date, no one has taken Breitbart up on that offer.
Thus, as Breitbart explained, the "narrative" is no longer in the hands of the old media.
"We have the power to change the narrative in this country," Breitbart said. "The new media is taking over where the old media has failed. Yes, they've failed my friends. Your obligation is to keep the fight up."
