What If Fox News Covered Other Protests the Way They Covered the Tea Parties?

For weeks Fox “News” has promoted the recent Tea Party protests with wall-to-wall coverage, not acting as a news source, but as an all-out activism network. Literally every hour of every day they reminded us and urged us to join the “Tea Party Revolution.” Whether it was on their TV network, radio programs, or their new website, it was an all-pervasive media blitz.

With persuasive graphics and dramatic music pumping in the background, the commentators declared: “Tea party protests are erupting across the country!”

When they couldn’t get in enough promotion on their TV outlet, they drove people to their website, “If you want to know more about the tea-party movement, if there is one happening near you, head to our website FoxNews.com/americasnewsroom. We have an entire section devoted to the growing tea-party movement. That’s our America’s Newsroom website online. All the information you need to know. Check it out right now.”

The extent of the propaganda was intense, with unquestioned statements boasting: “In the case of the current crisis the blame appears to have been assigned almost totally to Obama, at least by the thousands of U.S. taxpayers attending near-spontaneous ‘tea parties’ in protest of the Democrats agenda of more taxes, increased spending, higher deficits and a surge of borrowing to pay for it all.”

Watching the Tax Day coverage, it was hard to tell if the tea parties were anti-tax, anti-Obama protests, or if they were Pro-Fox “News” rallies. In the end, the turnouts were shockingly small considering the endless coverage – a fact that demonstrates just how out of touch the Fox “News” wing-nuts have become.

When reality is against you, why not just make up your own – something Fox has been doing quite successfully until recently. When it comes to propagandizing no one does it like Fox. For the past twelve years they have relentlessly created a false reality. They have been, without doubt, the greatest propagandists of our time.

But my question is this: What if Fox “News,” or any of the other “news” networks, covered previous protests the way they did the tea parties? The anti-Iraq War demonstrations drew hundreds of thousands with very little coverage and almost no run-up support from the mainstream media. What about the protests surrounding the Supreme Court decided 2000 Presidential election, or the 2004 Republican National Convention protests that put New York City into a martial law lockdown? What about the many G8, G20, WTO and IMF protests that have been happening frequently for years? Even the recent economic protests organized by A New Way Forward received minimal coverage – the list goes on. What if the news networks gave as much coverage to these protests?

The only difference between the tea party actions and these other protests, other than the fact that the other protests attracted many more people, was that Fox agreed with the tea party people. It was a Republican party organized effort, and as the Republican megaphone and agenda setter, Fox pumped up the non-stop coverage – and the other mainstream networks went along for the ride - even in criticizing Fox, they still stirred up public consciousness and got the word out for the few who agreed with the Glenn Becks of the world.

The bottom line is this: If we had this type of coverage for the truly massive citizen actions after the 2000 election, during the run-up to the Iraq War and during the 2004 RNC, we probably would have never had to endure two terms of Bush/Cheney rule and be in this mess we are currently in.

The Fox sponsored tea parties show how the mass media can create movements and manipulate public opinion, even when there is minimal public support in the first place. Fox “News” has demonstrated how you can create and manipulate public opinion time and time again. The tea party charade was just the latest effort by the Fox Reality Creators.