Tax Day 2009: The day the mainstream media died?

Thousands of Americans participated in "tea parties" on April 15 and yet only a whisper in the mainstream press, they complain. To tea partyers, the disconnect points up the wide divide between elite media and the population at large. To others, any downplaying of the protests is just a symptom of the broader reordering of the media world. In contrast, HuffingtonPost sent 1,800 "citizen journalists," toting iPhones and laptops, to cover the tea parties. "Today is one of those days that may lead to more awareness that [alternative journalism] is a great tool and a great way to connect with people," says Jen Reeves, a new media specialist at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia. "It's fabulous that more media outlets are looking in and peering in." "Who's actually reporting on this?" says Michael Patrick Leahy, a Nashville-based blogger and tea-party organizer who will appear today on PJTV, a Web-based, right-leaning news channel. If there is slight media coverage of the tea parties, he says, "we may well look back historically and determine that April 15th, 2009, is the day the mainstream media died."