The tea party and the media

Most local tea party organizers interviewed in an extensive canvass this month by The Washington Post said media coverage of their groups has been fair, suggesting that perceptions of antagonism between the tea party and traditional news media are overstated.

Seventy-six percent of local organizers said that coverage of their groups is either very fair or somewhat fair. Only 8 percent said coverage has been very unfair; 15 percent said somewhat unfair. The canvass showed that more than three-fourths of group leaders said their activities have received local media coverage, revealing the depth of the news media's -- and the public's -- fascination with the tea party.

Media coverage of the tea party has evolved markedly since the groups first began forming in February 2009. Major news outlets paid little attention to the first wave of tax-day protests in April 2009 and even a large march the following September in Washington. But attention quickly focused on the impassioned and sometimes-raucous protests that tea party activists continued to stage, notably those leading up to passage of the health-care overhaul law. Accusations by members of Congress that protesters had hurled epithets prompted a wave of media coverage over whether the tea party was based on anti-Obama racism. A string of stories focused on the racially charged statements and signs of certain protesters. Such coverage drew criticism from Sarah Palin and other conservative leaders. But as media outlets have spent more time following tea party protesters around the country -- and as more studied analyses of the movement and its members have emerged -- the coverage has grown more nuanced.