Say What?

On this Tax Day, file this away: watch what you say.


I'm talking to you, journalists.


As we watch our local news stations deteriorate into Layoff Land, many of us turn to cable, where we're all but guaranteed a 24-hour editorial spin cycle.


Today thousands gathered around the country to protest taxes, big government... but mostly Obama. Demonstrators armed with propaganda even hurled tea boxes onto the North Lawn of the White House.


This afternoon, CNN reporter Susan Roesgen stood surrounded by countless protesters assembled at one of Chicago's Tax Day Tea Parties.

"This is a party for Obama bashers," she began, obviously disgusted with the crowd.

One man had adorned himself with a billboard portraying President Obama as Adolf Hitler, complete with the Sieg Heil salute and toothbrush moustache. The protester repeatedly referred to Obama as a "fascist."


"Why," the reporter demanded several times.

The protester shrugged: "Because he is," a message he simply regurgitated from conservative talk radio and memorized for today's occasion.



Roesgen moved on to another demonstrator, who held his young son and a cardboard sign. It boasted: "I'm not even two years old and I'm already in debt."

The angry father criticized Obama for being very un-Lincoln-like, to which the reporter interrupted, "What does this have to do with your taxes?"


While the protester continued with his tirade, Roesgen again cut him off: "Did you know that the state of Lincoln gets $50 million out of this stimulus?" At this point the reporter was wagging her finger and shouting at the ones who were supposed to be doing the shouting.


Roesgen ended her live report from Obama's home state by dismissing the tea party as "anti-government, anti-CNN," and "highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network, Fox." She deemed the environment unfit for "family viewing" before she tossed back to the studio anchor.


Susan Roesgen broke a lot of journalism rules in two minutes' time: she screamed, she debated, she undermined a protest. She even called out a competitor. And she was smug.


Like it or not, those protesters can legally wear what they want to wear and say what they want to say. They're still U.S. citizens, regardless of whether their hatred of government spending contradicts their support for funding the $10 billion-a-month payment on the Iraq mess.


Simply put, most republicans don't mind spending provided it supports their own selfish interests: faith-based programs, marriage protection initiatives and "the war on terror," to name a few. In the same breath, conservatives will point out their contempt for the government meddling in their personal affairs, as they've articulated in hordes throughout the day.


Today's protesting comes on the same day a memo is leaked from Homeland Security. In it the federal government warns the current economy may create "a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists.''


The department wants to avoid "another Timothy McVeigh-like situation," which it says may have been fueled by similar economic conditions in 1995.


It's truly scary (and ironic) that the department our last president created now worries about right wingers buying up guns in bulk in preparation for a revolution.


In simple terms, they fear Obama will take their Second Amendment right. Quite a paranoid thought, considering these are the same people who'd love to rework the Constitution to define marriage.


Bottom line, you can always bank on this: Opinion should stay out of the news. Hitler should stay out of presidential comparisons. And -- if only for the day -- Obama should probably stay inside.



-P.F.