This is the latest in a series on the use of the race card for political gain:
It is hard for the mainstream media to outdo itself in its attempt to portray the Tea Party movement as racist.
But CNBC reporter Meredith Whitney may have accomplished the feat when she declared that the Tea Party movement consisted mostly of “freaked out white men”:
“Call it Tea Party, whatever you will, the fringe element is I characterize (as) freaked-out white men who are unemployed and have been unemployed for three years and they’re scared to death,” she said. “Three to four million of them are about to roll off unemployment benefits in the next three to four months. This is only going to get worse.”
Whitney’s statement is pathetically stupid, but so common in the ignorant media.
The truth is that among the biggest rock stars of the Tea Party movement are women and blacks. But to even point that out is to play into the hands of race- and gender-counters like Whitney.
So I’ll just go to two videotapes:
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Two great videos but I love the People of Color video best because if I had to vote for the best answer it would be this:
“The American color”
🙂
The Tea Party must be demonized, no matter how outrageously untrue the lies told about them.
One step that should be taken is to mark down the liars. Take names of editors, newspapers, television and radio programs that continue to propound these lies.
Then make sure that none of them ever get any government money. That includes NPR as a major offender in telling the lies about the Tea Party. They have betrayed the public trust serially and must be removed from the public teat. Let them ride on the free market and see how long lies sell.
Hey as a freaked out white man, I totally understand her fear.
White males and black males have been the hardest hit in this recession and we’re p!ssed off.
We’ve also watched King Putts out on the gold course every week and vacations every month and NO leadership except now and then he whines and blames someone for the problem and threatens that they better compromise and figure something out. Meanwhile he continues his perfect record of voting PRESENT.
He did it in the senate, He did it Illinois, He did it in Harvard Law. The one thing he took an active part in he was a failure. I hate to say I told you so to the 52% that voted for him and jeered those of us who said there was no there there.
But I’ll do it anyway: WE TOLD YOU SO. WE TOLD YOU HE WAS A FAKE, A PHONEY AND A FRAUD.
The dumocrat party had BETTER fear us freaking white men because we’re going to vote as a block because we know EXACTLY who is at least partially to blame for our situation.
Michelle Bachmann is a man? Herman Cain is white? Wow. Who knew?
Um, isn’t Meredith Whitney a fairly well know stock analyst?
“Freaked out white men”?
Dear Ms. Whitney,
It’s sunny outside and my eyes are still trying to adjust to this dark room … so I sincerely apologize for stumbling into your projection … but the slides you are showing up on the screen of tea party gatherings look like pictures of crowds out to watch a Fourth of July parade … something Norman Rockwell might have chosen to paint.
LukeHandCool (who thinks its liberal journalists who are freaked out … Luke isn’t freaked out, he’s just concerned … and he isn’t white … he’s a swarthy caramel brown).
Meredith Whitney needs to get out of New York and find new friends. She has a neurosis that comes from living in a social cascade that feeds on her ignorance of the “great unWashed.”
On the other hand, she must be one hell of a lotta fun in a carnival “Fun House.”
Freaked out people, white, male, or otherwise, who are unemployed and fear losing their unemployment and extended unemployment benefits, would not support the Tea Party. The Tea Party is a revival of classical liberalism, and as such opposes progressive involuntary exploitation. While they may support unemployment benefits, especially when they are contributory, they would certainly oppose non-contributory extended unemployment benefits.
As for the composition of the Tea Party, it is diverse in the truest sense (i.e., diversity of individuals) and in the “progressive” sense (i.e., diversity of colors and genders).
I remember the Satanic Panic of the 80s, when journalists as a group demonstrated a bent towards demonizing people they considered outre and out there. That’s when I came to understand that it is not journalism’s job to inform us, but to rile us up and keep us feeling helpless. Mainstream Media is not about keeping us up to date, but about keeping us on edge and feeling hopeless.
The various Tea Parties are the new kids in town, and like new kids, like recent arrivals they are going to be abused by the powers that be. Before they can be accepted they need to be tested, and that testing can be harsh and cruel. In about 20 years Tea Parties will become background news in the echo chamber we call politics. Given time everything becomes ordinary, but first it has to go through a period of derision and belittling.
I disagree with your conclusion. Over the past 20 or 30 years, the MSM has increasingly vilified conservatives and the GOP even as the establishment GOP has grown less and less conservative.
The demonization of the the TEA Party is merely the next step in the continued MSM demonization of “non-progressive” elements in America.
Twenty years from now, assuming no change in the MSM’s behavior, The TEAM Parth, conservatives and the GOP will be even more reviled by the MSM.
Time will not cure the bias of the MSM unless time permits more rational people to find employment in the MSM.
Thirty years ago, Walter Cronkite was MSM. Today, Keith Olbermann is the MSM. Can you imagine how loony the MSM will be in 30 years following the present arc…
She was on one of the early shows. Rick Santelli called her out on it, and she seemed very offended. Joe Kernan told Santelli, ” Well you are white, and you are upset”. She was the first to expose the ‘Sub prime mortgage mess. Great book about that called ‘The Big Short’.
The media is at a loss about what individuals in the Tea Party to demonize, therefore, they demonize the whole movement. The Alinsky method doesn’t work here. What they don’t understand that even though the Tea Party itself is huge, there are millions more of us who support them. The media (and that includes the entertainment industry) just can’t seem to get it through their heads that they are destroying their careers with all this derisive talk. You would think they would know to keep their mouths shut. Of course, they have a right to say whatever they want to but they had better be prepared to suffer the consequences because we don’t have to like what they say.
I was an “Angry White Man” in 1994. I’m a “Freaked Out White Man” in 2011.
Ivy League prigs like Meredith Whitney better buckle up.
Professor, Meredith Whitney is not a reporter for CNBC anymore than Sarah Palin is a reporter Fox News. They are both contributors to the respective networks. Your posts seem to be getting more and more lax in their factual accuracy.