There's No There, There

The 2000 Census tally put the population of Searchlight NV at 576... A total that had probably doubled long before dawn, even before demonstrators arrived, based on the numbers of technicians who descended on a newly bulldozed empty lot to set up gear for an appearance by Sarah Palin and the national media dispatched to cover the launch of a 44 stop TEA Party Express drive toward DC.



Although Searchlight residents were inconvenienced by the traffic, they were happy to sell stuff to whomever showed up. The AP said:

Reid supporters set up a hospitality tent Saturday in the parking lot of a Searchlight casino, about a mile from the tea party rally. The Senate leader planned to spend part of the day at a new shooting range in Las Vegas with National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

Luis Salvador, 55, an unemployed fire sprinkler fitter, drove down from Las Vegas to support Reid, who he said has done a lot for the state and doesn't deserve the protest brought to his hometown.

"You don't come to a man's house and start creating a ruckus," said Salvador, a registered independent. He and several others taped signs saying "Nevada Needs Harry Reid" to the side of a truck near the highway that runs through town.

Another Reid supporter, Judy Hill, 62, said she doesn't understand the hatred of Reid. The longtime Democrat from Searchlight, said she thinks people just don't know the man she calls a friend.

"They listen to the rhetoric. I think he's very misunderstood and under-appreciated," she said.

Video of the event on various networks showed Confederate state flags from Texas and Alabama being waved behind Palin as she spoke... And there is a certain neoconfederate separatist streak running through their rhetoric.

Tea partiers often complain that media outlets (other than Fox News) either ignore them or portray them as a bunch of crazies. The Washington Independent's (soon to be Washington Post's) David Weigel, who's been covering the tea party movement since it began, offers his take.

Audio: WNYC's On The Media Host: Bob Garfield.

It's not uncommon for media types to minimize some of the extremes of what they cover, in part because not everything done for shock value should be taken seriously as representative of core beliefs... But was Weigel's dismissal of CNN's Susan Roesgen's confrontation with a poster carrying Obama/Hitler demonstrator as "over the top" a fair characterization?

Strictly on substance, I'm with Susan.

The "because he is" rationalization of the protestor isn't proof that the President is a fascist, no matter how many times, or how loudly, it's repeated... It remains merely a defamatory and unsubstantiated allegation. Asking questions repeatedly, and instantly, in order to get to the truth of the matter (and motives) may offend the demonstrators or some viewers' expectations of gentility, but tough questioning is completely consistent with good journalism.

While this clip survives, others were removed & Roesgen dismissed.



Anything to look forward to after the shouting? More shouting!