Jason Linkins at HuffPo took note of the FOX News website’s attempt to purge the image of teabaggery:
PETOSKEY, Mich. — The Tea Party Express has toured state after state trying to kick up a debate about constitutional rights and cast doubt on the legality of the recently passed health care overhaul, all with an eye toward the 2010 elections.
But while organizers have held the tour as a way to stay front-and-center as a political force, the rallies have also attracted the kinds of mistruths, exaggerations and conspiracy theories that make Tea Party leaders cringe. Though the movement is still trying to shore up its credentials as a grassroots power that’s here to stay, the so-called “fringe” and its accompanying antics continue to give critics fodder.
Just as the astroturf organizations have sanitized their image, the Tea Party Express has managed to remove the most disgusting signs from its magical mystery tour. Yet, as we saw on Easter Sunday, there’s still plenty of ugliness and insanity on offer at a TPE event…and very little in the way of facts.
FOX is still whitewashing. After all, if you actually ejected the John Bircher stupidity from Murdoch’s signal you’d have to lose Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, both of whom have big contracts with FOX.
