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Shocker: Boston Globe misrepresents Brown statement on Tea Parties
Hot Air ^ | 12:55 pm on January 14, 2010 | Ed Morrissey

Posted on 01/14/2010 10:57:03 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

Give Greg Sargent credit over at the Plum Line blog for a good catch here.  Read the following exchange, for which Sargent will have audio shortly, and see what it means to you:

QUESTION: “Scott, what do you think about the Tea Party movement and what they are trying to do?”

SCOTT BROWN: “I am not quite sure what you are talking about, what are they trying to do?”

QUESTION: “The anti-smaller government, sort of anti-establishment organization that is trying to take over the country.”

SCOTT BROWN: “Taking over the country. I think that is a little bit of an exaggeration.”

QUESTION: “Well, they are all over the place and they are trying to take down moderate Republicans. . .”

SCOTT BROWN: “All I know is that. . . “

QUESTION: “Are you completely unaware of that organization?”

SCOTT BROWN: “I’m not quite sure what you are referring to. But let me just say that this is a big tent campaign. I have people who are Democrats, I have people who are Independents, Republicans, young, old, liberal, conservative, moderate involved in this campaign because people are looking past the letter behind my name and they are looking at my 30 years of military service. They are looking at the fact that I have been a municipal and legislative leader with over 6000 votes, and more importantly they are looking at the stark differences between Martha and me on health care on cap and trade, on the expiring tax cuts, on the war tax, on how we treat people who are trying to kill us, on the fact that Afghanistan has a very real and vital national interest. They’re looking at those issues, and I welcome everybody’s support, because, literally, it’s me against the machine.”

How did the Boston Globe report those remarks?

Republican State Senator Scott Brown toured a medical device company in Chelmsford, using the event to again blast Democratic efforts to overhaul health care and tamp down Democratic efforts to paint him as a Republican in lock-step with the national GOP.

“The allegation that I vote 96 percent of the time with Republicans is inaccurate, but I’m proud of the fact that I’ve stood up against out-of-control spending and taxation in Massachusetts,” he said.

He also claimed that he was unfamiliar with the “Tea Party movement,” when asked by a reporter. When told that different people labeled him a conservative, moderate and a liberal Republican, he responded “I’m a Scott Brown Republican.”

Clearly, Brown meant that he was unaware of the assumptions built into the rather biased question coming from the reporter, ie, “trying to take over the country.”  Brown even called that an exaggeration, which would indicate to most people that Brown was well aware of the movement — as is obvious, since he reportedly spoke at a few Tea Party rallies.  Opponents tried to hang a charge of dishonesty on Brown using the poor reporting of the Globe, but as the transcript shows, the biggest problem here is the reporter who had a huge axe to grind in his or her questioning.

However, not all of the Globe’s reporting has been bad in Massachusetts.  Martha Coakley’s opponents are having a field day with this bon mot:

Despite that, there is a subdued, almost dispassionate quality to her public appearances, which are surprisingly few. Her voice is not hoarse from late-night rallies. Even yesterday, the day after a hard-hitting debate, she had no public campaign appearances in the state.

Coakley bristles at the suggestion that, with so little time left, in an election with such high stakes, she is being too passive.

“As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?’’ she fires back, in an apparent reference to a Brown online video of him doing just that. “This is a special election. And I know that I have the support of Kim Driscoll. And I now know the members of the [Salem] School Committee, who know far more people than I could ever meet.’’

“This is about getting people out on a cold Tuesday morning,’’ she says.

Coakley has not been a good candidate, and her choices on campaigning strategy have been in question during Brown’s remarkable rise in the polls.  Instead of retail campaigning after the last debate and with only a week to go before the election, Coakley disappeared to DC to meet with lobbyists rather than meet Massachusetts voters.  Brown has no trouble pressing the flesh, even in the cold at Fenway Park.  Coakley’s revulsion at “shaking hands?” makes her seem perhaps even more imperious than the Kennedys whose seat she wants to win for herself.

An I-know-important-people attitude is not likely to impress the hoi polloi, not even in a state used to political royalty.  And to the Globe’s credit, they reported it straightforwardly.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: bostonglobe; bostonglobe4nyt; bostonglobelies; brown; coakley; jaysonblair; jaysonblairlives; ma2010; medialies; pravdamedia; scottbrown; teaparties

1 posted on 01/14/2010 10:57:04 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

The same Boston Glob that lied yesterday when an Obama administration member shoved a journalist to the ground while trying to get some answers from the Democrat candidate...


2 posted on 01/14/2010 10:58:56 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Al Gore was more concerned with the evil influence of heavy metal than that of radical Imam.)
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To: a fool in paradise

I sometimes read the online edition of the Globe to keep up with the Boston sports teams, but even the Sports page has become a cheering section for the Obamunists.

The Glob and its owner, the New York Crimes, are the Pravda and Izvestia of the USA, or at least the effete snobs living in the Northeastern part of this great nation.


3 posted on 01/14/2010 11:04:24 AM PST by ssaftler (November 2, 2010: Re-Independence Day in America)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

And you are SHOCKED by this?


4 posted on 01/14/2010 11:08:03 AM PST by bigbob
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To: a fool in paradise

Media: That guy just ran into my knife 10 times. I’m no murderer


5 posted on 01/14/2010 11:08:05 AM PST by 4rcane
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Too late for the truth now, he is already being labeled as out of touch with the Tea Baggers,,,eh I mean Tea Party.


6 posted on 01/14/2010 11:09:30 AM PST by BallyBill (WARNING:Taking me serious could cause stress related illness.)
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To: bigbob
No...I just posted the title as it was on the Hot Air Blog....

Should we ignore the Globe Report?

7 posted on 01/14/2010 11:11:18 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Geeze, they can’t even lie well anymore. Pathetic.


8 posted on 01/14/2010 11:19:05 AM PST by mockingbyrd (Sarah speaks for me!)
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To: BallyBill

The funny part of all this is that the “tea baggers” are so in tune with reality and what the media is about,

that any attempt to drive a wedge will not work.

These media types are used to the easily manipulated leftist sheep that buy their material.


9 posted on 01/14/2010 11:21:22 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Those that are unwilling to admit there’s unrest and dissatisfaction in our country right now can go on living in denial....2010 elections will snap them out of it. They can try to sugarcoat and twist and spin, but they are in for a rude awakening.


10 posted on 01/14/2010 11:29:41 AM PST by AutumnFire
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Pssssst......Democrats (and their partners, the MSM) lie!


11 posted on 01/14/2010 11:33:37 AM PST by LZ_Bayonet (There's Always Something.............And there's always something worse!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Just one more example of a DNC propaganda outlet doing its job.


12 posted on 01/14/2010 11:39:28 AM PST by Interesting Times (For the truth about "swift boating" see ToSetTheRecordStraight.com)
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To: Interesting Times

And as many examples of such should be shown ....even if just in the Blogosphere.


13 posted on 01/14/2010 11:50:44 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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