Fox News Urges Viewers to Keep on Tea Baggin' on July 4th (VIDEO)

Posted by Lee Fang, Think Progress at 1:44 PM on June 30, 2009.

This morning on Fox News, Glenn Beck joined the Fox and Friends hosts to promote new anti-Obama, anti-tax tea party protests on July 4. Steve Doocy introduced the segment, “This weekend, of course the 4th of July, Americans are gearing up for a second round of tea parties to protest massive government spending.”

Reprising their role in orchestrating the first tea parties, the lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are again helping to organize the July 4 protests. FreedomWorks is working alongside other right-wing groups on a new website to publicize the events, and Americans for Prosperity is hosting several rallies on the 4th, including one with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

But while these lobbyist-run groups played a pivotal role in financing the logistics and coordination of the tea parties, Fox News was certainly the megaphone for the movement. Just as Fox News became a full-fledged sponsor of the April protests, running back-to-back segments and broadcasting live from protests across the country, the network is attempting to motivate another round of radical, anti-Obama protests on July 4th. In recent weeks and this morning, Fox News has run several segments, including one featuring disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC), to promote tea parties. Watch it:

Already, Fox News contributor and former News Corp. lobbyist Angela McGlowan is scheduled to appear at the Memphis tea party later this week.

Last year, in the final year of Bush’s presidency, Beck penned an op-ed about how Americans should celebrate July 4 by talking not about “our problems,” but by celebrating “what’s right about America.” Beck also downplayed the “much maligned economy” under Bush, and told readers that the media should use Independence Day to take a break from reporting on “crooked politicians” or “high gas prices.”

Though he demanded that the media depoliticize July 4 last year, Beck and his colleagues at Fox News now seem preoccupied with rallying radical opposition to President Obama.

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