Tea And Sympathy

From all accounts, the national tea party held in 750 cities yesterday attracted around 500,000 people. It was good to see citizens exercising their freedom of expression regardless of political persuasions. The diffuse themes, varied programs, and range of attendance supported the belief that the parties were a grass roots effort.

The Atlanta party drew about 15,000 participants to the Georgia State Capitol steps. I'd say it was a typical political rally except for the hype added by the live broadcast of the Sean Hannity Show which began at the conclusion of the official rally. Actually, the Hannity program suffered from a sense of forced spontaneity. It came across to me like a premiere in need of a few more rehearsals. In addition, there were some less than inspiring interviews. I didn't watch much of the event, but I'll bet Hannity was glad to see it end; however, his program did attract 3.2 million cable viewers in prime time.

Interestingly, Fox News crushed the cable opposition yesterday. Perhaps that was expected as Fox is generally regarded as a right-leaning organization and the tea parties played to a primarily right-center audience. You'll get no argument from me on that issue; however, I do believe the network surely approaches better balance in comparison to its competition. That leads me to the "sympathy." Once again, I'm feeling for CNN as its viewership decline continues. The network has undergone several programming and staff changes in an attempt to stem viewer loss. Some changes appear to have worked, but the network still suffers from serious pitfalls. I liken it to rearranging the deck chairs on the RMS Titanic which, by coincidence, sank April 15, 1912. The CNN "deckhand" who rearranged the most chairs yesterday was Susan Roesqen. Here's why:



Is this journalism? Sadly, no. She helped sink CNN yesterday, but don't worry about her. She has a lifeboat called NPR and your tax dollars help keep it afloat. Isn't that special.