CNN and the Tea Party Express

20 December 2010 |permalink | email article

CNN plans to host a Republican presidential primary debate.next year with the Tea Party Express the first week of September in Tampa, Fla., site of the 2012 GOP convention. It raises questions as the television networks race to lay claim to major primary forums.

NBC, joined by Politico, was the first media linkage to announce a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California’s Simi Valley next spring among the leading GOP primary candidates. Nancy Reagan said “Ronnie would have been thrilled to be there.”

What’s different here is CNN’s clear linkage with the Tea Party Express, at the center of a furor this summer when it was expelled from the National Tea Party Federation after racially inflammatory statements by its national spokesman, radio host Mark Williams. The PAC, which featured Sarah Palin at its first and continuing events, is raising money for an ad campaign against President Obama.

CNN political director Sam Feist sought to compare the joint debate to past forums the network has hosted with groups like Rock the Vote and the Black Congressional Caucus, calling the “tea party” a significant part of the Republican coalition. Organizers said Tea Party Express is now “full partners” with CNN, moving such collaboration to a questionable new level.

The good media news, despite Fox News as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, is the courage of Shepard Smith, anchor of the evening “The Fox Report,” in excoriating Republican senators holding up a $7 billion bill to assist 9/11 first responders who suffer from medical problems as a result of helping at Ground Zero. Smith told Fox News colleague Chris Wallace “How do they sleep at night after their vote on Ground Zero first responders?” 

Brays and Trumpets

“So here we are about six weeks after the election that repudiated the agenda of the other side,” and those whose would repeal don’t-ask-don’t –tell “are acting in direct repudiation of the message of the American people.” – An enraged and hostile John McCain throwing a tantrum on the Senate floor, and clueless that polls actually showed support for repeal.

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