Cablers Drown in Tea Time

Hunter S. Thompson famously had the revelation that his own antics were more interesting than the actual news event he was covering. Has Fox News had a similar epiphany? By dispatching anchors to rile up teabaggers in the midst of anti-tax rallies around the country, Fox News regressed to the party press of America's infancy, when newspapers' were defined by political affiliation. Instead of covering the news, they invented it. New York Times media columnist David Carr criticizes the network, along with CNN and MSNBC, for throwing gasoline on the populist fire by encouraging "people who don't come out to rallies but are sitting in a basement steeped in their own misanthropy." Giving generous coverage to incoherent protests with racist overtones doesn't help anybody.