Study: Networks snub, malign tea party movement --oh those poor neglected VICTIMS

[underpants]

**I read this today at lunch and actually busted out laughing. Surely the legacy Brent Bozell is all over Fox News tonight**

The Big Three television networks virtually ignored the massive, grassroots tea party surge in 2009, and so far this year have maligned the movement as teeming with racists and violent fringe figures, according to a new report by the Media Research Center.

"Rather than objectively document the rise and impact of this important grassroots movement, the 'news' networks instead chose to first ignore, and then deplore, the citizen army mobilizing against the unpopular policies of a liberal president and Congress," wrote MRC Research Director Rich Noyes.

The Media Research Center, a watchdog organization founded by conservative L. Brent Bozell, compiled reams of statistics to support its findings about TV network coverage, among them:

• ABC, CBS and NBC aired just 61 stories or segments on the anti-spending movement over a 12-month period, and most of that coverage is recent. "The networks virtually refused to recognize the tea party in 2009 (just 19 stories), with the level of coverage increasing only after Scott Brown's election in Massachusetts" in January, the report said.

• Overall, 44 percent of the network's reports on the tea party suggested the movement reflected a fringe movement or a dangerous quality. "Signs and images at last weekend's big tea party march in Washington and at other recent events have featured racial and other violent themes," NBC anchorman Brian Williams said in a September 2009 report.

• Coverage of the movement pales in comparison to coverage of "protests serving liberal objectives," the report said. For instance, the Nation of Islam's "Million Man March" in 1995 garnered 21 evening news story on the night of the march — more than the tea party demonstrations received in all of 2009.

No one from any of the three networks returned phone messages or e-mails seeking comment.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/14/study-networks-ignored-maligned-tea-party-movement/