NYT: ‘Fox News All But Handed Out Lanterns And Pitchforks’ To The Tea Party

In the wake of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert‘s announcement that they will be holding a rally on the the Washington Mall to ‘restore sanity’ the New York Times‘ David Carr takes a look at the media-based origins of the Tea Party and how we got to a place where media figures are playing politicians. Says Carr:

In politics, it seems as if the media is intent on not just keeping score but also calling plays.

Consider that a popular political movement started on one cable network (Rick Santelli’s tea party moment on CNBC) and enabled by another (Fox News all but handed out lanterns and pitchforks) produced a number of victorious primary candidates, including the improbable Christine O’Donnell in the Delaware Republican primary for United States Senate. A former aide to the candidate was quoted in Politico as saying that Ms. O’Donnell had hoped that her political endeavors would yield a television contract.

With his demonstration on the National Mall in Washington on the anniversary of the famed Martin Luther King speech in August, Glenn Beck of Fox News projected real-world political might in a way that the press lord William Randolph Hearst could have only dreamed about.

Perhaps what’s most striking about all these figures (Sarah Palin, arguably most of all) is how much disdain they show for the actual business of journalism. Nevertheless, you have to wonder if President Obama does sometimes fantasize about quitting his job and starting his own O network as a way to effect change with the constant barrage of criticism.