Are America’s Newsroom and Fox News Promoting “Flash Mob” Mentality?
Reported by Ellen - March 25, 2009 -
Guest blogged by Julie
Okay, so we’ve seen that Michael Steele hasn’t worked out too well, so far, for the Republican Party, whose blatant and self-serving attempts to link themselves to African Americans of any stature in order to court minorities have fallen flat. Hip hop alone hasn’t been able to cut it. Stage left, bring in African American Lloyd Marcus, just a simple crooner and tea party organizer whose sole purpose appears to be to fan the flames of right-wing outrage. But are these tea parties really just peaceful protests, or is there a potential for something uglier, a mob mentality? It doesn’t take a whole lot to summon a boatload of Americans these days, using “flash mob” techniques such as text messaging and the internet -- a whole lot faster than the carrier pigeon of olden days. And in some communities, flash mobs aren’t necessarily benign, leaving behind messes for communities to clean up (which, of course, translates into WASTED MONEY, the supposed topic of these protests). Whether this “flash mob” mentality could turn ugly is an open question – but judging by some of the signs held up at rallies, including “An ACORN community somewhere is missing its idiot” and “Capitalism is not the problem. Retarded elitist Ivy League lying politicians are” -- at rallies, it’s not really a stretch to compare these rallies to Palin’s ugly anti-Obama rallies during the campaign, with the resulting fall-out. Already, members of the “ACORN rent-a-mob” went to Connecticut to demonstrate at the homes of AIG executives. Groups being branded “militia” are protesting. And let’s not forget Sean Hannity’s poll question (now-deleted) on his message board: "What kind of revolution appeals most to you? . . . Military Coup, Armed Rebellion, or War for Secession?" All signs point to the fact that Mr. Marcus is a convenient vehicle for the right-wing’s potentially dangerous message, all signs point to the likelihood that Marcus is being used, and all signs point to the fact that Fox News has a heavy hand in fomenting, encouraging, and promoting this national anti-whatever sentiment which could easily spill into violence.
The possibility of a dangerous mob mentality and vigilante-type organizations didn’t bother ol’ Bill Hemmer, though, co-host of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom. On March 24th, his guest was the oh so hip and edgy black maverick Lloyd Marcus, who is the leader of that oh so hip and edgy National Association for the Advancement of Conservative People of Color (or NAACPC), and also the organizer of the national tea parties and the creator of the neo-con theme song, American Tea Party Anthem. The lyrics are about as riveting as the title, with such lines as “so when they call you a racist ‘cause you disagree it’s just another of their dirty tricks to silence you and me.” Lloyd Marcus, the caroling right-wing card-carrier, is also a blogger on Glenn Beck’s 912 Project Fan Site.
Beginning the interview with a trilled, “Mr. Obama, we work hard for our money, don’t give it away,” Hemmer responded, “Nice,” and approvingly read another line: “You want to take from achievers, somehow you think that’s fair, and redistribute to those folks who don’t get out of their easy chair.“
Marcus stated, “We have a President now, like at any time that anybody disagrees with anything that he says, they’re a racist and everybody gets petrified and backs off, oh, no no no no no, we’re like no no no we have to stand up for common sense and for good conservative American values.” (I’m not sure, but I think he took elocution lessons from Sarah Palin; after all, he (re)wrote “Sarah Smile” for her, maybe she returned the, uh, favor.
Helpful host Hemmer coaxed Marcus along, pointing out other lyrics in the song, “We gotta vote out these clowns who don’t love the USA, who stay up late losing sleep fearing what the French might say.” Hemmer and Marcus shared a laugh, and read the last few words in unison. Hemmer finished off with, “Lloyd, listen, I think the requests are gonna come on pretty quickly now because these tea parties only picking up by the week. . . . Nice tune, thank you my friend.”
Nice way to be fair and balanced, Bill.
I gotta say, though, The Family Values Network, Fox News, really knows how to pick its poster children (from Rush Limbaugh to Ann Coulter to this guy). Marcus had a scholarship to the Maryland Institute College of Art but flunked out during his senior year. He got married and had a daughter, but he and his wife descended into drug and alcohol abuse (no word on how the child fared through all that). He met his next wife, Mary, who lived in their apartment complex, when she asked him to help her break into her apartment because she was locked out. After talking with her for hours, kinda feeling a connection, ya know, he dumped the wife (no word on whether he also did a walk-away on the daughter) and hooked up with Mary. Touching love story, I know.
The ostensible reason for the tea parties, according to Marcus, is to demonstrate a grass-roots opposition to the “out of control spending” -- just a simple little jingle writer rallying the common folk. Of course, this conveniently gives the right-wing talking points a forum for venting their anti-Obama, anti-socialism, anti-anything (The Party of No, yes?) outrage. Case in point, the gathering of hypocrites protest coming up in South Dakota on April 15th (organized by local chiropractor and anti-abortion demagogue Allen Unruh). Of course, as it’s been pointed out, “This event brings up all kinds of questions, like, ‘Where were these crusaders for liberty and financial responsibilities over the last eight years of out-of-control spending and skyrocketing deficits?’ or perhaps, ‘How much income tax is someone who's free to attend something like this on a Wednesday afternoon actually paying?’” (It should also be noted that, when it comes to spending government money, South Dakotans are some of the biggest feeders at the public trough: For every dollar of federal tax collected, South Dakota citizens get approximately $1.53 back.) So yeah, organize a revolt and throw some tea around to protest wasteful spending, but kinda sorta forget to mention that a lot of that “wasteful” spending is to your benefit.
The protesters have claimed that their (very coordinated) protests just kind of happened spontaneously, prompted by CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s February 19th tirade against mortgage bailouts. (That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.) Good old right-wing talking point/Foxette Michelle Malkin called the Tea Party protests “a fledgling grassroot movement,” and some of the protesters describe themselves as the vanguard of a “new conservative counterculture.” However, Playboy journalists Mark Ames and Yasha Levine, and others, reported that in the past these sorts of uprisings have actually been coordinated by corporate Wizards of Oz, heavies behind the curtain pulling the strings.
Apparently, news of the protest planned for Chicago was first picked up by ChicagoTeaParty.com and spread from there to the Drudge Report. The ChicagoTeaParty.com domain was registered last summer by the producer of a right-wing radio show in Chicago and is suspected to have ties to the anti-tax group Freedom Works (f/k/a Citizens for a Sound Economy), which is among the sponsors of the current protests and was a major recipient of grant money from conservative foundations and major corporations such as Exxon, Philip Morris, and General Motors. Mark Ames and Yasha Levine alleged in their blog at Playboy.com (later taken down for unknown reasons) that the protests were planned well in advance, coordinated by old-line anti-tax organizations, and funded by right-wing corporate interests. “What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s ‘tea party’ rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine,” they write, “from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called ‘astroturfing’) to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the political landscape. To us, the uncanny speed and direction the movement took and the players involved in promoting it had a strangely forced quality to it. If it seemed scripted, that’s because it was.”
Fair and Balanced Fox News, this time in the form of Bill Hemmer, failed to ask Marcus any pertinent questions such as the goals of the protests, organizers’ mechanisms to avoid spillover violence, and the methods they’re using to reach people (which in itself would be an indication of just what sort of people the organizers are targeting to be in attendance). We ask for news, we get Fox News propaganda – recognizable even when cloaked in a little ditty that could have been written by a 5-year-old.
