Layers and layers of editors, producers, and fact-checkers hard at work: “TV Reporter: Coffee Party ‘Is Loosely Based on Smaller Government and Lower Taxes.'” Mike Bates spots this howler, at Newsbusters:
It’s incredible what you can learn from television these days. On Saturday, Brent Frazier of Nashville’s CBS affiliate reported on a local Coffee Party. He made no mention of the attendance, but at about 2:06 of the video says:
The Coffee Party, though very much still in the organizing phase, is loosely based on smaller government and lower taxes.
I have to wonder how the newshound came to that conclusion. Was it because the group’s founder, as noted by NewsBuster Matthew Balan, worked as a volunteer for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign? Or maybe it was the Reuters acknowledgment that “America’s conservative Tea Party movement may be on the boil, but the left is brewing up its own version in The Coffee Party USA.” Or perhaps it was the Coffee Party participant Frazier interviewed who volunteered for Obama but is now disillusioned because “they (Democrats) speak an agenda, but as soon as it’s challenged they back down.” Obama’s just not pushing left hard enough.
With reporting skills like that, one thing is clear. Brent has a very bright future in the mainstream media.
The Coffee Party is also based on much smaller numbers, Michael Barone writes:
On Wednesday, the day of Barack Obama’s appearance in St. Louis, 2,225 showed up for a tea party rally in St. Charles County and 2,300 participated in a protest outside a Democratic fundraiser in downtown St. Louis. In contrast, 30 people attended a coffee party gathering in St. Louis on Saturday.
The numbers tell you something. Something that the CNN producers might want to take note of.
As Glenn Reynolds notes, “Actually, I think it’s something they’re trying very hard to ignore . . . .”
Meanwhile, the supposed group that’s “loosely based on smaller government and lower taxes” is doing its damndest to avoid the one TV network that actually pays lip service to the concept.
Update: “And here’s some more background on Coffee Party organizer Baxter Swilley. He was John Edward’s MO political director at the time.”
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