Thursday, April 29, 2010

They Try So Very Hard Not To Get It

Powerline:

You'd think the Lamestream Media would give it up, but no: they are determined to push the absurd claim that Tea Partiers are "racists." Never mind that the issues driving the Tea Parties--the constitutional role of the federal government, bailouts and government takeovers, spiraling deficits and out of control spending--self-evidently have nothing to do with race. The smear is the only kind of argument most liberals know, so they press on doggedly.

This time it's Newsweek, carrying out its new mission as a limited-circulation journal of liberal opinion. ("Limited circulation" isn't a strategy, of course, it's an admission of failure.) Newsweek's headline reads, "Are Tea Partiers Racist?" Note the impeccable logic with which the piece begins:

Ever since the Tea Party phenomenon gathered steam last spring, it has been plagued by charges of racism. Placards at rallies have depicted President Barack Obama as a witch doctor, denounced his supposed plans for "white slavery," and likened Congress to a slave owner and the taxpayer to a "n----r." Opponents have seized on these examples as proof that Tea Partiers are angry white folks who can't abide having a black president. Supporters, on the other hand, claim that the hateful signs are the work of a small fringe and that they unfairly malign a movement that simply seeks to rein in big government. In the absence of empirical evidence to support either characterization, the debate has essentially deadlocked.

Is the author of the Newsweek piece a child molester? In the absence of empirical evidence either way, apparently it's 50-50...

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Read the rest of the post for a description of the questions on a survey which Newsweek proceeds to wildly misinterpret.

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