* Reporter Derides Anti-Tax Tea Parties: "Not Family Viewing"
CNN's Susan Roesgen: "You know, Kyra, this is a party for Obama
bashers. I have to say that this is not entirely representative of
everybody in America....[to protester] You're here with your two-year-
old and you're already in debt. Why are you here today, sir?"
Man holding child on his shoulder: "Because I hear a president say
that he believed in what Lincoln stood for. Lincoln's primary thing
was he believed that people had the right to liberty and they had the
right-"
Roesgen, interrupting: "Sir, what does this have to do with
taxes?...Do you realize that you're eligible for a $400 credit?...Did
you know that the state of Lincoln gets $50 billion out of these
stimulus? That's $50 billion for this state, sir....We'll move on
over here. I think you get the general tenor of this. It's anti-
government, anti-CNN, since this is highly promoted by the right wing
conservative network, Fox. And since I can't really hear much more
and I think this is not really family viewing, I'll toss it back to you."
-- Live coverage of anti-tax protests during the 2pm ET hour of CNN
Newsroom, April 15.
Tea Parties = "Group Therapy" for Crazy Conservatives
"All of these tax day parties seemed less about revolution and more
about group therapy. At least with the more widely known protest
against government spending, people attending the rallies were
dressed patriotically and held signs expressing their anger, but
offering no solutions."
-- New York Times reporter Liz Robbins in an April 15 online article
about that day's anti-tax "tea parties." The paragraph was taken out
of the version that appeared in the Times' April 16 print edition.
Just a Front for Corporate Interests
"Cheered on by Fox News and talk radio, the hundreds of tea parties
today were designed to protest the bailouts, the stimulus plan, and
President Obama's budget....But critics on the left say this is not a
real grassroots phenomenon at all, that it's actually largely
orchestrated by people fronting for corporate interests....While the
Boston Tea Party in 1773 was about taxation without representation,
critics point out that today's protesters did get to vote -- they
just lost. What's more, polls show most Americans don't feel overtaxed."
-- ABC's Dan Harris on World News, April 15.
CBS's Dean Reynolds: "They came to vent their outrage in big
gatherings and small groups over what they see as runaway government
spending, and the tax hikes they suspect are right around the
corner....While he [national organizer Eric Odom] insisted these
events were non-partisan, a fistful of rightward leaning Web sites
and commentators-"
Clip of FNC Host Glenn Beck at rally: "Everything is big in Texas."
Reynolds: "-embraced the cause."
-- CBS Evening News, April 15.
Announcing His Disdain in Advance
"There's been some grassroots conservatives who have organized so-
called 'tea parties' around the company, country, hoping the
historical reference will help galvanize Americans against the
President's economic ideas. But I tell you, the idea hasn't really
caught on. The RNC has jumped in. A few other talk radio hosts have
jumped in, but it hasn't galvanized the party the way they would hope."
-- NBC's Chuck Todd on Today, April 15, hours before the anti-tax
rallies began.
* Juvenile Journalist Turns Tax Protests Into Dirty Joke
CNN analyst David Gergen: "Republicans are pretty much in
disarray....They have not yet come up with a compelling alternative,
one that has gained popular recognition. So-"
Anchor Anderson Cooper: "Teabagging. They've got teabagging."
Gergen: "Well, they've got the teabagging....[But] Republicans have
got a way -- they still haven't found their voice, Anderson. They're
still -- this happens to a minority party after it's lost a couple of
bad elections, but they're searching for their voice."
Cooper: "It's hard to talk when you're teabagging."
-- CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, April 14. "Teabagging" is a vulgar
slang term for a certain variety of oral sex.
Lauer "Worried" Obama Won't Be Able to Dictate to Business
"I'm worried if you think if that's a good thing [for Goldman Sachs
to pay back its bailout money early]. Are they doing this because of
financial stability, or might they be talking about that simply to
get out from under the thumb of the federal government and be allowed
to go back to running the business the way they want to run it, as
opposed to the way the government wants them to run it?"
-- NBC's Matt Lauer to Obama economic adviser Christina Romer, April
14 Today.
Obama's Week Through ABC's Prism: "Cool Kid in the Class"
"George, as we wrap up the week we wanted to take note of these
images we've been looking at, particularly this one where other heads
of state are seemingly trying to get close to the head of the class,
or the cool kid in the class, if you will, President Obama."
-- ABC anchor David Muir, over a photo of Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arm-in-arm
with President Barack Obama during the G-20 group photo session,
April 4 World News.
"The last President we had that went to Europe, I mean no one wanted
to see him. There was great hostility. This President's changed the
tone. Just changing the tone was a great plus for the United States."
-- Retired ABC News veteran Sam Donaldson on HBO's Real Time, April 3.
Washingtonians Flocking to YouTube to Watch Obama
"He spoke of the modern realities and the modern difficulties that
we've had in our relations with other countries. How many times have
you heard people say 'I'm going to go on YouTube and watch the
President's speech because I heard it was so good'? And I heard that
all over Washington this week. And that is just an amazing thing."
-- NPR's Nina Totenberg on Obama's speeches in Europe, April 11
Inside Washington.
Impossible to Mock Near-Perfect Prez
"Obama, so far, seems to occupy a place in the popular culture beyond
humor. Ridicule doesn't touch him. His personality defies easy
categorization. Of the few running gags to emerge from the Obama
administration -- aides not paying their taxes, Treasury officials
rewarding fat-cats -- the only one that pertains to the President
himself is the straight-faced devotion he inspires. Obama may not
actually be perfect, but so many poor souls out there think he is."
-- Boston Globe Washington Bureau Chief Peter Canellos, in his April
7 "National Perspectives" column, "In a Stroke of Brilliance, Obama
Defies Easy Caricature."
Drooling Over Michelle -- "She's Almost Overtaking Oprah!"
"Michelle is so authentic, and so real, and so today, and so, you
know, J. Crew, and the whole price point thing and not designer
clothes....With Michelle, you can almost feel those warm arms. You
know, there's a kind of real red-blooded feel to her. But there's
also -- I mean she's almost, like, overtaking Oprah, I think, as the
kind of inspirational 'it' girl at this point."
-- Former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown on CBS's Early
Show, April 3.
Katie Pushes Holder from the Left on Guns
"What about reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun
show loophole? Do you think that would stop the flow of weapons into
Mexico from the U.S.?...Did someone tell you to back off?...It's been
reported that Democrats on Capitol Hill are getting increasingly
chummy with the NRA and receiving more campaign contributions from
that organization than in previous years, and nobody wants to get the
NRA riled up."
-- Anchor Katie Couric to Attorney General Eric Holder, April 8 CBS
Evening News.
CNN Cheap Shot: Blaming Fox News for Cop Deaths
"That weekend tragedy involves a man who allegedly shot and killed
three police officers in cold blood. Why? Because he was convinced --
after no doubt watching Fox News and listening to right-wing radio --
that quote, 'Our rights were being infringed upon.'"
-- Anchor Rick Sanchez during the 3pm ET hour of CNN Newsroom, April 8.
Anchor Derides "Nut Case" Conservatives, Then Slams MRC's "Partisan Agenda"
"Who is the real nutcase? North Korea's Kim Jong-Il or any
conservative who wants to bomb him?...Former House Speaker Gingrich
says we should have bombed North Korea before the launch. Is Gingrich
crazy to talk like that, or is it dangerous to hope sanctions will do
the trick?....And back to crazy talk for a moment. How in the world
do you explain people like Chuck Norris calling for a second American
Revolution to defeat President Obama's policies? And what about
conservative Congresswoman Michele Bachmann appearing to tell her
constituents to start stockpiling weapons and ammunition....Now
Bachmann claims she was talking about information. In any case, folks
we just had and election and guess what? Obama won! And yet the
rhetoric from the wing-nuts is getting crazier by the week."
-- Substitute host David Shuster on MSNBC's Hardball, April 6.
"[In David Shuster's] 'Hypocrisy Watch' segments this year, the
conservative Media Research Center points out, 34 of the targets have
been Republicans or conservatives -- including Rush Limbaugh twice
and Karl Rove five times -- and only four have been Democrats or
liberals. Shuster says the group is funded and run by die-hard
conservatives with a clear partisan agenda' and that his work on the
now-defunct program 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was hard hitting on
both parties.'"
-- Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, April 13.
* Prime Time Drama Pushes Wacky 9/11 Conspiracy
"9/11? Inside job, plain and simple....I am talking about a massive
neo-conservative government effort. It's been in the works for over
twenty years....One problem: How you going to put it into action? I
mean, the American people are never going to go for s**t like that,
right? You're damn straight. No, what you need is an event, an event
that gets everyone's heads turned around the right way. What you need
is a new Pearl Harbor. That's what they said they needed. You're
looking at a guy who went to 58 funerals in 26 days, I can tell you
that is sure as s**t what they got."
-- New York City firefighter "Franco Rivera," played by Daniel
Sunjata, on FX's Rescue Me, April 14.
* Even NBC Now Mocking Matthews' Obama Infatuation
"A new comic is being published this summer called 'Barack the
Barbarian' which features the President in a loin cloth. Also
featuring the President in a loin cloth: Chris Matthews' daydreams."
-- "Weekend Update" news anchor Seth Myers, April 11 Saturday Night
Live.
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
MEDIA ANALYSTS: Geoffrey Dickens, Brad Wilmouth, Scott Whitlock,
Matthew Balan, and Kyle Drennen
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE: Michelle Humphrey
END Reprint of April 20 Notable Quotables
- Brent Baker
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