ABC: Obama 'Unaware of Tea Parties'

Published: 4/15/2009 9:42 AM ET

Assistant Managing Editor for MRC Business

Maybe he just doesn’t know that there are people who disagree with his massive tax and spend agenda. That would explain a lot. Perhaps the network media’s near silence on the “tea party” phenomenon has kept President Obama from realizing that hundreds of tax day protests will happen today?

“The White House says the president is unaware of the tea parties and will hold his own event today,” ABC’s Dan Harris said on “Good Morning America” on April 15.

Harris’s story was the first ABC News report specifically about the tea parties since Rick Santelli’s of CNBC’s famous rant calling for a Chicago Tea Party back in February. CNBC’s Joe Kernen referred to Santelli’s impact on spurring the tea parties as a “cultural phenomenon.”

Santelli reacted on April 15 to the hundreds of protests scheduled for tax day around the country saying “I’m pretty proud of this.”

NBC also addressed the tea parties in passing on April 15 “Today.” Chuck Todd dismissed the protests as “so-called” tea parties and said “the idea hasn’t really caught on.”

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