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Tea Party ‘Patriots,’ ‘Citizens’ differ ... or do they?; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; May 1, 2010.
As you read this opinion column, keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the Times. In addition to being an entertainer/pundit, Mr. Prose is a part-time reporter covering political stories. Ask yourself this. When a pundit gives his political opinions in one part of the paper, can he be trusted to report politics objectively elsewhere in the paper? After all, would a person whose opinion is 1+1 equals 3 report 1+1 really equals 2? Does he have a “Chinese wall” in his head to keep his opinions from bleeding into his reporting? If it can get worse than that, Mr. Prose has made name-calling and personal attacks a foundation of his columns. If pushed, I’d be willing to bet Mr. Prose would try to excuse his writing by claiming he’s paid to be controversial and stir debate. The problem is, you don’t need to get into name-calling and personal attacks to accomplish those goals.
You can find the archive of my Prose column critiques here.
Mr. Prose’s apparent fear of tea partiers continues. I don’t know if Mr. Prose saw what he said he saw on the Tea Party Patriots website or not, but I have my doubts. First, I went to the TPP website myself and didn’t see anything remotely similar to Mr. Prose’s claims. Second, when you sign up for the TPP website, you are asked to answer yes or no to the question at the end of the following:
“This forum is for tea party activists to talk about issues and topics relevant to the tea party movement. Discussions and blogs must pertain to the core values of fiscal responsibilty [sic], limited government and free markets. You must adhere to those topics or your posts will not be allowed. We don’t allow advertising. No profanity is allowed and advocating violence will not be tolerated. We will not tolerate racism. No attacks on other posters are allowed. This is our private blog for our tea party activist members only. We have the right to set the rules. Do you understand and agree to abide by these rules and do you state that you are a tea party activist that agrees with our core values?”
In fairness, my TPP website membership is pending so I didn’t have access to everything. Perhaps the evil, racist, et cetera stuff is accessible only to registered members. <g> I have to admit I never stop getting a kick out of lefties accusing others of racism.
Could Mr. Prose have seen what he claimed to see? Sure. As far as I can tell, the TPP website is not moderated, meaning what a person posts in a comment doesn’t undergo review before it’s published. This means comments can be published in real-time without delay (a nice feature), but a few people (including trolls) abuse/exploit the process in most non-moderated forums. As a result, offensive material can exist on a non-moderated forum until the grownups learn about it and remove it. The Times, and Mr. Prose in particular (Remember “wildbill?”), knows from experience what can happen with a non-moderated forum. I suspect this is one of the reasons the Times website no longer provides the ability to comment on opinion pieces.
In his research, I wonder if Mr. Prose checked out the now-defunct CrashTheTeaParty.org website. No, that wasn’t a serious thought.
As for the nails-in-the-street part of the story, I attended the tea party and heard the announcement. I dismissed it for two reasons. First, I saw no vehicles with flat tires and no one was in the streets picking up nails. Second, it would have been pretty stupid for either tea party attendees or the BC Peace Links/PA4 PDA people across the street to plant the nails. Even if you didn’t get caught, it was a lose/lose situation because both sides would have been blamed. That said, the world has its share of stupid people. Mr. Prose proves that by blaming tea party attendees without providing any evidence.
Finally, folks, complaining to the Times about coverage is a waste of time. First, media outlets like the Times have their narratives defined and aren’t about to publish anything that tends to undermine those narratives. Second, you have absolutely no control over how your objections are presented unless they make it into a published letter to the editor, and even then I’ve seen the Times give letters misleading titles. For example, you could make a completely reasonable objection yet still have the Times portray you as a wacko.
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