Cincinnati Tea Party Responds to Allegations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cincinnati Tea Party Contact
Justin Binik-Thomas, VP National Affairs and Strategy
justin@cincinnatiteaparty.org
Media Line: (513) 258-0454
Cincinnati Tea Party Responds to Allegations
Cincinnati, OH, April 15, 2010. Freedom has rung loud and clear in southwestern Ohio at the second annual Tax Day Tea Party 2010. Nearly 10,000 conservatives and all local media outlets joined together to celebrate liberty and freedom in the United States of America.
The initial schedule included a book signing, a tea party, and a live television show. Fox News was responsible for all aspects of the book signing and the television show – staffing, funding, and producing . The Cincinnati Tea Party was responsible for all aspects of the tea party – staffing, funding, and producing. Funding and contracting for these events was separate and no funds or contracts were signed between Fox News and the Cincinnati Tea Party.
Shortly after the scheduled book signing (which was canceled) Fox News producers onsite informed the Cincinnati Tea Party senior leadership that Mr. Hannity had to rush home for a personal emergency. The Cincinnati Tea Party expressed a statement of support and concern to Hannity and family.
The Cincinnati Tea Party received information from local media attributing concerns regarding ticketing to a executive vice president at the Fox News Network. The Cincinnati Tea Party has not been able to confirm the authenticity of this message via a source this statement to any @foxnews.com email or http://www.FoxNews.com website. Emails and phone calls to network went unanswered until 7:48 p.m. – more than four hours after the scheduled appearance; this source has not yet put it in writing despite our request.
The Cincinnati Tea Party will honor requests for refunds. A special email address will be setup within 48 hours for this purpose and posted to the blog for supporter access.
Despite the fact “we cannot verify the source we do feel the allegations deserve a response” says Chris Littleton of the Cincinnati Tea Party:
Allegations
Cincinnati Tea Party will profit from broadcasting Hannity Show
The Fox News Network was unaware of paid tickets
Response
No member of the Cincinnati Tea Party has personally profited from any event.
All members are volunteers – we have no paid employees.
The cost of tickets was designed to offset the cost of the event – we did not make a profit.
Direct Expense – Estimate
$50,000 (Facility/Security, Refreshments, Ticketing)
$10,000 advertising and promotions
$9,000 for three speakers (Jonah Goldberg, Bob Murphy, Sonja Schmidt)
$700 rental of tables
$500 security tags and press materials
Decreased Revenue
$2,000 worth of tickets given to sponsors
$2,000 worth of tickets set aside from students and volunteer
Volunteer Hours
3,000+ people hours of planning (includes senior leadership, media, and training)
1,250+ people hours for event staffing (250 volunteers x 5 hours)
About the Cincinnati Tea Party
http://www.cincinnatiteaparty.org
The Cincinnati Tea Party is a grassroots, nonpartisan organization promoting its core values of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets, while strongly opposing wasteful government spending at all levels. We encourage our members to actively participate in government by supporting candidates who share our core values or by running for office. Our goaals include influencing elections to protect the freedom of current and future American citizens, promoting state sovereignty (Federalism), and compelling our elected officials to comply with the Constitution of the United States of America as written. To accomplish our goals, the Cincinnati Tea Party:
• Encourages Americans who value liberty to Voice their opinions through rallies, forums, and town halls
• Supports the Education of Americans for a better understanding of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and the authority granted to our government by the People
• Impacts Elections throughout America by encouraging freedom-loving American citizens to run for office at the local, county, and state levels
The Cincinnati Tea Party was founded in February 2009 by a conservative group of Cincinnatians who love America and want to pass its gift of freedom to future generations. In April 2009, Community Tea Parties were launched to allow local leaders to spread the core values at the neighborhood level.
View Our Founding Documents
United States of America
Declaration of Independence | http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
Constitution | http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
Bill of Rights | http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
State of Ohio
Constitution | http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/constitution.cfm
######
Updated by Mike (1:00am to correct math on volunteer hours)
April 16th, 2010 at 12:03 am
[...] THE CINCINNATI TEA PARTY on the Hannity affair. [...]
April 16th, 2010 at 12:12 am
I think that is a fair response. I appreciate you guys taking the time to lay things out for people to judge for themselves. I hope things work out for the best, as I am sure they will.
April 16th, 2010 at 12:25 am
Heh, if everybody who uses donated money itemized their expenses, then Michael Steele would not have to deal with the Pornstars. If the politicians who use taxpayers’ involuntary “donations” itemize their expenses, we wouldn’t have … politicians.
Thanks for setting an example. I doubt Washington porkers would follow though.
April 16th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Might want to correct the grammar and check your math. 250 x 5 is not quite 10,000.
I understand the pressure was on to get something out.
Proud in Indy.
April 16th, 2010 at 12:33 am
I hope y’all’s lynching party went well without your Grand Dragon to lead the festivities!
April 16th, 2010 at 1:03 am
@Jason – thanks for catching that. I think it was less us rushing than it was exhaustion. We all do this in our spare time and none of us have gotten much sleep in the week leading up to it.
April 16th, 2010 at 1:15 am
A note regarding the “allegations“: I think that the allegation of the proceeds going to the CTP was meant to infer that the profits for a Fox-owned personality hosting a Fox News show should be going to News Corp, rather than to a hosting organization (and not meaning to convey that you guys use the money personally). Still, the allegations are specious at best. The report that I read stated that Fox News learned about the ticket charge at the last minute, and that’s what prompted them to pull Hannity (source still blaming Fox News executives for the pull). Dunno about Cunningham.
You guys got left high and dry by the MSM — who could have provided another host. Who knows if you’ll ever get a straight answer.
April 16th, 2010 at 1:19 am
Here’s an article with the statements from Fox News’ executive Bill Shine:
Fox News yanks Sean Hannity from Cincinnati Tea Party rally he was set to star in
April 16th, 2010 at 1:20 am
Excerpt from article:
Furious, top officials recalled Hannity back to New York to do his show in his regular studio. The network plans to do an extensive post-mortem about the incident with Finley and Hannity’s staff.
“Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity’s television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event,” said Bill Shine, the network’s executive vice president of programming. “When senior executives in New York were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight’s show.”
April 16th, 2010 at 1:24 am
@Jason,uh,sir, maybe you need to ck your math. 250×5 = 1250 which is whats stated. the only 10,000 is in regards to attendence & $10,000 for adv/promo.
April 16th, 2010 at 1:56 am
This is what I posted over at Hannity’s Blog:
Everything that the previous posters have stated is absolutely correct. The first excuse given for Sean disappearance (with hundreds in line to get their books signed) was a “family emergency”. Then as I was walking past the line of fans waiting for the book signing, a female with a Conservative Victory tee shirt (apparently part of Sean’s staff) was explaining to a woman in line that the show couldn’t be broadcast because of some “technical problem”. Then for the third explanation was Fox’s official release regarding the Cincinnati Tea Party “profiting” from Sean’s broadcast.
Ok then Sean, explain to me why it is acceptable for you to come to Cincinnati to profit from the citizens of the city but heaven forbid the Cincinnati Tea Party profit from you broadcasting from THEIR event? I personally don’t believe that the Tea Party profited from you being there. If they did profit, good for them. I guess all of Sean’s prattle about “free markets” is just a lot of hot air.
Regarding the questions as to why anyone would charge for attendance at a Tea Party event, do you think that The University of Cincinnati charges nothing for the use of Fifth Third Arena?
April 16th, 2010 at 2:21 am
I would urge Sean to come back on his own time and leave Fox out of the equation. Seems to me that Fox was about to make money off of the Tea Party, rather than the other way around. It is never cheap to put an event like this together.
Sean, bring Judge Napolitano with you!
April 16th, 2010 at 2:24 am
Bottom line: A clusterfark seems to have developed between the Fox News Management and Mr. Hannity, the parameters of which are unknown, and frankly, not the least responsibility of the Cincinnati Tea party.
I’m sorry you’ve had to go to all the trouble to justify your activities in the face of this mess.
Thank you for all your efforts.
April 16th, 2010 at 3:53 am
“Mr. Hannity had to rush home for a personal emergency”
Who are you trying to convince Justin, us or yourself? That explanation is both LAME and demonstrably false via all available media reports. You look like a bunch of sore losers by posting this kind of lame bunk.
FAIL
April 16th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Hey CincyCapell it’s pretty obvious that reading comprehension your strong suit. Hannity’s crew was the ones making the false excuses, not Justin. In light of your EPIC FAIL, who’s the loser now?
April 16th, 2010 at 4:49 am
Hey CincyCapell it’s pretty obvious that reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit. Hannity’s crew was the ones making the false excuses, not Justin. In light of your EPIC FAIL, who’s the loser now?
April 16th, 2010 at 5:44 am
CincyCapell it sounds to me like Hannity and his crew were the ones making the “LAME & demonstrably false” explanations. I have no idea why you targeted Justin with your comment.
April 16th, 2010 at 5:45 am
Hey CincyCapell you LOSER! all press reports prior to latest version did have Hannity heading home for “personal” reasons. Don’t let something like FACTS get in the way of good nasty retort filled with lefty stupidity though!
April 16th, 2010 at 6:56 am
“You look like a bunch of sore losers”
Who are YOU trying to convince Cincy? You earned your own cup of FAIL when it comes to reading comprehension.
The statement clearly indicates what they were initially told was the reason for the cancellation.
Loser.
April 16th, 2010 at 7:17 am
@cincycapell
If your read Justins report, you would know that the first statement from Fox News was that Hannity had a personal emergency…..so, FAIL
April 16th, 2010 at 7:21 am
Come on, CincyCapell – don’t you read? “Shortly after the scheduled book signing (which was canceled) Fox News producers onsite informed the Cincinnati Tea Party senior leadership that Mr. Hannity had to rush home for a personal emergency.”
The personal emergency story was Fox’s, not Justin’s. It was the information CTP received at the time; if it was false, as seems to be the case, how were they to know it then? Given the same information, how would you have responded? Talk about losers and their lame bunk.
April 16th, 2010 at 7:31 am
Personally I wouldn’t have invited Sean Hannity as he has been a cheerleader for the Republican Party. The same party that spent just as unwisely as the Democrats. I support him in his work each summer supporting the troops & their families. Thats about it.
Don’t let any politician or “conservative star” ride this wave of revulsion at DC. The political class in DC of both parties are lying thieves, the offspring of corruption & incompetence. They have spent money like drunken teen in Vegas using Daddy’s visa card.
The TEA party inspires many to get involved like never before.
Stay true to the vision. Don’t get side-tracked & stay strong folks. We will prevail.
April 16th, 2010 at 7:33 am
Gee Cindy… you sound, um, like a troll. I think this lays out the facts well. These types of misunderstandings happen in live events from time to time. I’m sure Justin was originally given the “personal emergency” as a reason at the time… and now he has taken the time to lay out the facts. So give the guy a break, I’m sure he’s pissed off enough without YOUR comments.
April 16th, 2010 at 7:42 am
Do you need contributions to cover costs? Let your fellow Tea Party Patriots know and we will try to help.
Screw the Left Stream Media. Don’t watch, don’t read, don’t listen.
Fox New is not Left Stream, but we must honor their effort to try to remain fair and balanced. I wouldn’t want them supporting a Madow affair.
April 16th, 2010 at 7:50 am
Of course the event did just fine without Hannity, and in no way is Fox News essential to these protests. Who lost out to some degree was the nation wide viewers.
April 16th, 2010 at 7:55 am
CincyCapell: You need to read the statement again. The ““Mr. Hannity had to rush home for a personal emergency” statement refers to what Fox News told them and not to what they are promoting as the truth. They go on to state what their follow-up actions were to find out the truth. Can you Lefties ever just argue on the evidence without resorting to distortion and vitriol?
April 16th, 2010 at 8:15 am
C’mon, Cappell: that sentiment is unnecessary and unhelpful.
Chris/Mike: I think that you should make a plea on your “refunds” page to encourage ticket buyers to “donate” their refund back to the group. I know your sales were about on-parity with your expenses, and, if properly written, it could be a way to remind people that the rally wasn’t a Hannity road show, but supposed to be celebrating something they all believed in, and they should reconsider their demand a refund simply because the corporate headliners were called back.
I’d like to know what other “recommendations” that so-called “average guy” Joe Wurzelbacher’s comments provided. The only one quoted by the Enquirer was his solution to immigration problems: “Put a fence up and start shooting. That’ll do it.” – a sad and juvenile comment to say the least. Every time this man speaks he proves that he is less representative of Americans, and more of a unique, sophomoric lunatic. It is no wonder he never got his plumber’s license. He is obviously under the mistaken assumption that you can create a new federal program to build a fence between us and our neighboring countries, staff it full time with armed sharpshooters, and not increase taxes to pay for any of it. In other words, the GOP platform in a nutshell (or a nutcase!).
April 16th, 2010 at 8:16 am
“CincyCapell” — they’re reporting what they were told. Calm down and brush the chip off your shoulder.
April 16th, 2010 at 8:38 am
let me get this straight, people got to hear Jonah Goldberg, Bob Murphy, Sonja Schmidt speak and still want a refund? No offense to Sean but i would have rather have heard these speakers anyway……
April 16th, 2010 at 9:14 am
David,AMEN!
Hannity is nothing more than a Statist Republican shill. I almost didn’t go last night because he was going to be there. What a pleasant surprise that the coward didn’t show. Fox showed their true colors, i.e. it’s alright for them to profit from a movement, but event organizers cannot attempt to recover the cost of events.
Republicans, I don’t need a contract with, to or from America. I already have the United States Constitution.
Don’t let the Re-puke-licans co-opt our movement!
April 16th, 2010 at 9:17 am
David,AMEN!
Hannity is nothing more than a Statist Republican shill. I almost didn’t go last night because he was going to be there. What a pleasant surprise that he didn’t show. Fox showed their true colors, i.e. it’s alright for them to profit from a movement, but event organizers cannot attempt to recover the cost of events.
Republicans, I don’t need a contract with, to or from America. I already have the United States Constitution.
Don’t let the Republicans co-opt our movement!
April 16th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Coleman:
Great idea on the refunds. I planned on letting the CTP keep it anyway.
Profits? The majority ticket price of $5 should be a good indication that the CTP weren’t intending to profit on the event.
Thanks CTP, I had a good time.
April 16th, 2010 at 10:29 am
One thing I think is getting a little lost is this…How could the Fox News Execs NOT have known how one of their biggest “stars” was being handled/used for this event? I’ve been checking the CTP site for nearly 2 weeks and they never hid the fact they were billing Hannity as the main attraction. No Exec bothered to check into this until the last minute?
CPT wanted people there so they billed the biggest name…FNC wanted to protect their legitimacy…Sean was trying to be there to cover something he believes in, I believe, quite dearly. I get everyone’s agenda; I just find it hard to believe that a giant entity such as FNC couldn’t have seen this conflict coming sooner and avoided it.
I was disappointed Hannity wasn’t there, but the event was fine otherwise with great speakers. Let’s not lose track of why we go to these events: to build a unifying force of like-minded patriots working to save the USA. Stay Focused!!!
April 16th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
[...] angry citizens just showing up to protest Washington wasting their money . . . and yet the event cost over $70,000 to put on. Hmmm . . . sounds like [...]
April 16th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Ox: Hannity is Hannity because Fox News provides the forum for him to spread his image and “brand”, as long as the two don’t tread on Fox’s interests (the same goes for Beck, BTW).
My best guess is that Fox News wants to retain the rights to the brand that they consider to be their own. Hannity still works for Fox News, and as such is probably under a non-compete agreement that he must oblige. I am sure that most of you working professional jobs are wholly familiar with such a concept.
Fox News probably doesn’t want the proceeds from an event meant to headline Fox News personalities to go anywhere else than to Fox News. They are in the business of making money, and someone at corporate decided that this would probably set a precedent that might impact that motive.
My question for all of you free marketers: Why the outrage? Isn’t this the “freedom” that you are supposedly fighting to preserve? Welcome to your fabled “Free Market”, where actions are driven by what is perceived as most profitable, and not what is fair.
Fox (News Corp, actually) considers Hannity to be one of their icons. The Cincinnati Tea Party was using Hannity’s popularity as a character on the Fox News Network to publicize their event for fundraising purposes. The agreement between Hannity and the Cincinnati Tea Party was to give all income that didn’t pay for the costs of the event to the Cincinnati Tea Party PAC. Naturally, Fox News wanted more of a cut of the profits to go to them. Unfortunately, Hannity didn’t consider this and apparently made the agreement without properly vetting it with Fox. Maybe Fox is incompetent, or maybe they aren’t. There’s no authority that exists to “make it fair” if Fox was incompetent (that’s what you guys call “socialism”). Hannity probably got chewed out last night regarding provisions of his contract with which he was in conflict. You also have no recourse against the attempted smokescreen that was created blaming the problem on a “personal” or “family” issue. Again: the free market at work: if you buy the excuse they are selling, that’s your fault.
April 16th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I don’t have enough time to respond to all comments, but want to be completely clear about something. Coleman – you have a lot of good points, but I want to respond to your last post.
Fox and CTP had no contract or monetary relationship. They took care of production for their show and we put on the event. We paid for it and it is not clear if we ended up making or losing money on the event.
Regardless, it isn’t profit. CTP is *not* a PAC and is not a for-profit organization. If we made anything on the event, it would go to a future event. None of the proceeds went to support a candidate, nor did any event organizer encourage anyone to vote for or against any candidate. Additionally, we are 100% volunteer and nobody earns any income from the organization.
Our relationship with Hannity’s producers was verbal/email only and they were completely aware of tickets being charged to cover costs. Keep in mind that when we set prices, we had no idea how many tickets would sell and whether or not we would end up in the black or the red.
It isn’t clear if executive Fox management knew, but as you said – that’s the fault of Hannity’s producers to communicate.
What drove this was Media Matters creating controversy. My guess is that the executives didn’t care until they started getting negative feedback.
April 16th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I was shocked to find that we had to pay to protest in the first place! Both Cincinnati and Dayton charged for the protests. I have personally been to protests all over and this is the first one that I was going to that charged admission, most ask for donations. Isn’t charging to protest a rather unamerican thing to do in the first place???
I knew last night when the camera men weren’t even recording a minute of it and that Sean Hannity didn’t mention a word on his show about it that it was due to the admission. Worst of all though I found the speakers to be uninspiring and in some cases misinformed on a few key historical facts. My only hope is that CTP regroups and that anyone was attending their first protest will not judge the cause do to all this.
April 16th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
@Coco – how many protests have you been to that drew almost 10,000 people? There aren’t many free or low cost spaces that can hold that kind of crowd and in April, we felt that going somewhere indoors was safer from a weather perspective.
Last year, we got negative feedback that people couldn’t hear at our open air events at Fountain Square.
Please keep in mind that none of us are professional event organizers.
April 16th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Mike: I have been to many states and many rallies, throughout Texas, last night included they had upwards of 20,000 people and charged a $5 parking fee and that was it, their venue was donated and the corprate sponcers they had, along with donations payed for everything.
I understand that at times an inside venue is needed. However most cites either find a donated venue or drive fundrasing even further, increase corprate sponcers etc.. or much like DC believe that anyone willing to protest will brave the heat or rain. The fact is even though I did not like it, I still paid for the ticket because I truly believe in this cause and feel that all those who attend feel the same as I do. You do need to sit back and look at the big picture however, that charging for any protest is unamerican. If the situation were reversed and it was a liberal rally and they charged admission we would be the first to say how unamerican it is. We need to think outside the box when it comes to raising funds.
April 16th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Also Mike, I understand the not hearing when you are at outside venues, this is where you need to get in touch with either local bands, theaters, ect..to donate sound systems of good quality aa well as amplifiers. Last night, I couldn’t hardly hear a thing either, the sound system was bad.
April 16th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Also Mike another thing you can do is get in touch with local freelance columnist in local Cincinnati papers (there are many local writers) and see if you can find some that believe in this movement and will write an article or two to drum up support! There are many ways to get out some free advertising!!
April 16th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
this event = FAIL
April 16th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
There will always be people who will believe only in what they want to believe in and others who know the truth and continue on. This was not a Sean Hannity event. Fox’s decision to bow to the lefts pressures is their issue, we have far more issues to deal with. Count me in with an extra contribution at the next meeting.
April 16th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I am distracted by Coco’s grumpy blather and poor spelling. Perhaps she/he should volunteer to be the organizer from now on! No one should complain about a $5 charge…or even more for better seats. Have you ever tried to put something like this together…especially during hard economic times? Nobody’s holding a knife to your throat! We CHOOSE to support the American way of showing our love of country. Whining is, as Coco might opine, “unamerican!”
April 16th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Coco:
You aren’t willing to fund your own freedom?
If you’re lucky enough other people will decide to fund theirs and you can ride along for free.
Otherwise, look around. This is what happens when people don’t pay their own way.
April 16th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
I’ve been saying since day one that none of the Fox people are conservatives – especially Hannity and O’Reilly. When people are going to wake up to this simple fact is beyond my ability to understand. We align ourselves with this crowd at our peril – they will turn on us at the flip of a switch. The Tea Parties will lose all credibility if it aligns itself with Republican shills.
April 17th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Completely open your books – cancelled check etc for the world to see.
April 17th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Thanks for clearing up my misunderstanding regarding the Cincinnati Tea Party. I was under the impression that it was running as a PAC like many similar one across the country that participate in the political process.
As for “profit”, if you are donating “leftover proceeds” to a future event, that is called a profit. That’s specifically what Fox executives were concerned with, that a Fox News personality and TV show was being used to generate more revenue for a non-profit, without consent.
Nobody alleged that you’d take the money for yourself, or Justin, or Chris, or any other member of the organization. It is also not being alleged that the organization is using it to donate profits to Tea Party candidates (in spite of the actual fact that furthering the Tea Party’s ability to host events likely benefits your own campaign, Mike). Basically, adding the money to your organization’s cash-on-hand is exactly the “profit” that they are talking about. Their argument is that charging higher prices for closer access to Sean Hannity was even more likely to be using his celebrity (and News Corp’s personality rights) directly to advance your organization.
April 17th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
I hate that Sean wasn’t allowed to participate, but the rest of the event was very good. I really enjoyed the speakers. It was certainly worth coming to, even without Sean. I hope no one asks for a refund. This was for our cause!!!! They had to pay to use the arena & for other expenses. The Cincy Tea Party was not at fault! If you ask for a refund, you’ll be doing just what the liberals want you to do!!! Don’t let them win!
April 17th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
When are they going to post the address to get a refund? I was one of the ones that paid $100 to get up front to listen to Hannity (I was a big fan). I don’t mind chipping in a few bucks to help out the Tea Party movement, but nobody was passing around a plate – if you wanted to get in, you had to pay. I paid a lot of money to be up front just to see Sean, and he didn’t show – I want my money back.
April 17th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Does it not occur to anybody that the panic (among the Fox execs) that set off this chain of events was deliberately induced by the very progressive (leftist) publication, Media Matters? The timing of the release of the (non)story was just too precise to have been an accident. I say non-story because there were *no* rules broken, there were only *insinuations* of wrong-doing from an organization that feels threatened by true patriots banding together. And they did a good job – the resulting uproar is testament to that. They also did a good job at choosing their target – there were several elements present that made the Cincinnati event especially attractive not the least of which was the hi-profile headliner. Oh, yes, Media Matters got a lot of bang for their buck on this one!
My fervent hope is that, when everyone recovers from the loss of dignity, we will band together with even greater resolve recognizing the insidiousness of the opposition we are up against.It pleases me greatly to see that so many commenters recognize that something about this whole fiasco smells fishy – and it ain’t the Cincinnati Tea Party!
April 18th, 2010 at 9:45 am
SummerBreeze: Your pitiful whining about the “leftist” publication Media Matters involvement falls on deaf ears. The Fox News host who was lined up to speak has built his career upon the politics of destruction and defaming the reputations of others who don’t believe like him.
Sean (or his Freedom Concerts “charity”) isn’t a true patriot as this story broke earlier last month: http://www.debbieschlussel.com/20046/responding-to-schlussel-expose-charity-navigator-downgrades-hannity-charity-freedom-alliance-rating-now-only-2-stars-needs-improvement/.
The people organizing this event may be true patriots, (and I would consider my liberal self to be a “true patriot” as well). It is extremely sad that the News Corp propaganda machine has warped your sensibilities so much that you consider “conservative” to be a pre-requisite to “patriotism”. It will be a sad, sad day if your attitude becomes the mainstream, and will be the end of democracy.
April 18th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Coleman: Sounds like my “pitiful whining” hit a nerve. Your heated response, albeit rambling, accusing and off-point, is all the verification I need that my speculation was right on target. BTW, your buddy Mike isn’t likely to get his $100 back because there weren’t any $100 tickets. The “$100 tickets” were a fabrication of one of your MSM buddies. Boston Sun, I think it was.
C’mon, Coleman, read up on American history and find out why America was declared “the hope of the world” at its founding and has fulfilled that promise for over 200 years. In that time the progressives you regard as heroes have tried time and again to make socialist utopias work and, noble motives notwithstanding, they just don’t. They inevitably collapse amidst a great deal of human suffering. I wish you well, my friend, in your search for Truth.
April 18th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
BTW, your buddy Mike isn’t likely to get his $100 back because there weren’t any $100 tickets. The “$100 tickets” were a fabrication of one of your MSM buddies. Boston Sun, I think it was.
I never said there were $100 tickets. However, there were $20 tickets. Are you sure you don’t mean the Boston Globe (yeah, I know, easy to get them mixed up, both are big, round objects)?
In that time the progressives you regard as heroes have tried time and again to make socialist utopias work and, noble motives notwithstanding, they just don’t. They inevitably collapse amidst a great deal of human suffering. I wish you well, my friend, in your search for Truth.
Yeah, “socialist” policies like rebuilding Europe after WWII, battling election fraud (yeah, go read the history of Cincinnati and other big cities), getting women’s voting rights, protected voting rights for all men, protection of the rights of people, strong regulation to ensure purity of drink, food, and other products, and oh a whole slew of other accomplishments that have been achieved in spite of Conservative whining about what impact it will have on “the market”.
By the way, if your going to tell me that the US “fulfilled” the promise of being “the hope of the world” for 200 years after its founding, I would have to argue that you are intentionally ignorant. To ignore things like slavery, robber barons, the f–king Civil War, or the Trail of Tears just baffles the mind. It wasn’t even until the time that Teddy Roosevelt (R-progressive) came into office that the work of building the United States into a leading country in the world began and started paying off. You choose to be ignorant, and you watch the media that plays to that fancy: a selective ignorance which always tells you that you are blameless, and your actions and wants have no consequences.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:14 am
Coleman: So let me see if I have this right – you are not refuting or denying that Media Matters deliberately sought to disrupt our lawful and peaceful meeting by planting a bogus story but you are saying that the principles on which America was founded are faulty and without merit. Is that about right?
April 19th, 2010 at 11:00 am
SummerBreeze: No. What I am saying is that the tactics you accuse Media Matters for America of using are the exact same tactics employed by the agencies you love (and who were to be part of the event).
These tactics are the natural evolution of a market-based media which relies upon “gotcha journalism” to feed an audience that craves sensationalism over the boring reality of day-to-day life. You are seeing the “Free Market” in action here, where Media Matters has convinced Fox that it was in its own best interest to yank Sean Hannity from the event, lest it tarnish Fox’s reputation even further.
Not everyone can be a winner all the time in the free market, and you just lost the marketing battle on this one. What I am saying is that you should shut up and stop whining about it, because it is plainly representative of the free-market world you are fighting to preserve: Fox made the profit-motivated decision to pull Hannity.
See? Media Matters is exercising their “freedom” to criticize Fox and Hannity. Just as Debbie Schlussel is exercising her “freedom” to criticize Sean Hannity, and just as Fox News exercised their “freedom” to tell you a smokescreen story, initially, that Sean Hannity had to leave for “personal reasons”, and just as Sean Hannity exercised his right to be an ignoramus on Live TV when he defended the Boy Scouts of America’s “freedom” to keep out gays stated “But they can have the Gay Scouts if they want, if they don’t like the values of the Boy Scouts.“.
Media Matters exists to write stories in criticism of what is said in the mainstream media. Fox, being the most mainstream of the mainstream media (by viewers), is a natural target. Media Matters did exactly what their viewers/readers wanted: It broke a sensational story about the blurring of the lines between media organization and political party. People read it, circulated it, and the amount of publicity it drew caused Fox News executives to re-think the event, because, as a media organization, extending the tent rather than closing it is the way you make more money.
This just reinforces my personal belief that you don’t really want a “limited government” or “free market”, you just want one that gives you everything you want at the expense of everyone else’s freedom.
The responsibility we all bear living together in a country that aims to be “free” is that we must build institutions designed to protect these freedoms above all else, including market forces. This is the purpose behind “public space”. This is the purpose behind regulatory agencies, such as the FDA and the EPA. This is also the reasoning behind libraries, public education, boards of elections, transportation agencies, and numerous other institutions that we have in this country that have made it even better.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Anyhow, the best thing to come out of this whole affair will be that he won’t be able to call you all “Timothy McVeigh Wannabees” too.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Does anybody here know who this Coleman guy is? He seems to think we can “…build institutions designed to protect these freedoms above all else, including market forces” and seems to think my working and earning is “at the expense of everyone else’s freedom”. Guess he hasn’t read Milton Friedman. Anyway, his beef seems to be with Sean Hannity and Fox News so I’m done.
Thanks, Coleman, for the insights into your worldview.
April 19th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I don’t think that your working and earning is “at the expense of everyone else’s freedom”. Are you telling me that you presently are under a 100% tax burden?
April 20th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
To William and calgal43:
First, let me just state that I already fund my freedom William, I pay taxes and I am a large contributor to the movement.
calgal43: First let me just clear up that I was in no way “grumpy” about any of this, I was simply stating that I was shocked that we were charged for admission as I had never been charged to protest before. I simply stated that if the situation were reversed and a liberal rally had done the same thing we would have spoke up. Now, regardless if you agree with that is just a difference of opinion. No matter what, I still paid for the ticket because I am a firm believer of this movement. As for being an organizer, I have done fundraising and was trying to give the group some of the fundraising ideas I have seen done in the past. So perhaps you shouldn’t assume that I haven’t done this before instead of basically saying I should just put up or shut up. I wish to say thank you to you calgal43 as it must be hard being a member of the spelling police. I will be sure to work on it for you.
April 20th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Please, Ladies & Gentlemen, let’s don’t do this in public. It is well to remember we are all on the same side. To Coco I would say: Maybe negative comments are better directed directly to TP hierarchy, emails available under “Contacts”.
To William and calgal43 I would say: The blog is a very public place. While there may be latitude to disagree (but not much!)there is no room for being disagreeable about it.
There is an old saying about “airing dirty laundry in public”. That’s just the sort of thing the Left looks for to capitalize on. Goodness knows, we’ve got our hands full without dissension among the ranks. Best to all of you!
April 26th, 2010 at 8:02 am
Partisan or Patriot? Hannity is a partisan, tea partiers are patriots. No loss.