Imagine if CBS News had sponsored, funded and pimped anti-Bush rallies in 2003?

[zulchzulu]

It's clearly obvious that Fox News had their hands firmly trying to pimp the so-called "grassroots" Teabag rallies in the country today. I witnessed one in Madison and there are more questions coming to mind about who actually funded the event and who paid for the staging, the buses, the video satellite feed, the large PA system and the permits needed to set up the event.

The people at the rally were clearly Obama haters. Photos I took as well as others who went to events in their town and mine illustrate their hatred, their ignorance and their utter hypocrisy regarding taxes and tinfoil hat conspiracy theories usually muttered in echoey insane asylums or jails.

So Fox News had a hand in it. They pimped it. They blew turnout out of proportion and tried to act like it was a "grassroots" event. They spent a LOT of money trying to mobilize (and bus) people to events.

So what, one might think. Let people express themselves. Let them express hatred for the President of the United States. I am firmly in the agreement that people can say whatever they want in public except to incite violence.

But imagine how it would be reported if CBS (and let's add Dan Rather in the mix) organized, funded, pimped and reported on anti-George Bush rallies in 2003 leading up to the invasion of Iraq?

What would Fox News have reported? Would they have just said that people showed up with signs and wanted to express themselves on matters like unneeded wars? Would they have called CBS "anti-American"? Would they have asked for CBS to stop the events and the reporting?

I would guess that Fox News would not engage in the same manner that the other news organizations reported today... for the most part, the other news organizations gave Fox News a free pass for what they did today.

Perhaps we can get an investigation where we get an itemized spending budget from the Fox News organization from today's event. Anyone at CBS want to pry under the veneer?