Tea Party candidate wants to control the news

Posted by Evelyn Kanter on August 5, 2010 at 1:18am

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle, the Tea Party conservative who is challenging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, wants  the media to "ask the questions we want to answer, so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported." 

Yea, right (pun intended).  

That novel spin on the responsibilities of the free press even got the attention of the conservative National Review, which posted her comments from a Fox News interview on its website. The headline: "Did She Just Say That Out Loud?"
Nevada Senate Republican candidate Sharron Anglewww.politicsdaily.com/media/2010/08/sharron-angle-427mh0803101.jpg" vspace="4" border="1"/>

"We needed the press to be our friend," Angle tells Fox's Carl Cameron. "Hold on a second, to be your friend?" a surprised Cameron asks. Angle says, "Well truly." Cameron: "That sounds naive."

Angle goes on: "Well, no. We want them to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported." She adds that she wants to mention her website, Sharron.Angle.com, in such situations so potential supporters can contribute to her cause. 

Cameron, the bemused interviewer, can only smile.  Professional journalists can only shake their heads.  But, hey, we're reporting it, and that gives her publicity, and that means people -- the ones the TV station where I used ot be a reporter called "the great unwashed" are checking out her website and maybe even agreeing with her enough to contribute to her campaign and/or vote for her.

Outrageous, attractive and dumb works for Sarah Palin, maybe it will work for Sharron Angle.  


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Replies

  • Bruce Murray August 14, 2010 at 7:26pm
    Dumb is telling the American public that Las Vegas should be avoided, that it represents a waste of money. Result, the tourists and conventions canceled, unemployment skyrockets along with mortgage defaults!!!

    Dumb is redirecting funding for high speed rail so Nevada can have it all to themselves!!! Result, the LA to Vegas rail line will most likely fail.

    Dumb is saying that the largest environmental disaster in history has occurred on the Gulf Coast when scientists not directly profiting from the cleanup were saying it wasn't really that bad. Result, now they can't find the oil and they can't find the tourists!!!
  • Diana Lambdin Meyer August 5, 2010 at 9:19pm
    I think more and more it becomes our responsibility as professional journalists to somehow inform the public why we do what we do, why we challenge the status quo, why don't blindly accept the party line if it's from a hotel chain, a cruise line or a political candidate. I no longer believe consumers of information have any idea how that information is gathered and the principles by which it is gathered and how it benefits them - the consumers - in the long run.
  • Sam Scribe August 5, 2010 at 2:12am
    Let's bring in the travel angle (oops). I'm not a travel writer but I am a travel reader and consumer. Do I want you travel writers to be just repeating the party line from Marriott Hotels and Norwegian Cruise Lines? Hell no. But the big question (and I don't mean this rhetorically) is: Will the public stand for such obedient reporting of political news and, while we're at it, travel destinations?
  • Allan Lynch August 5, 2010 at 1:28am
    It's times such as this that one realizes how much irony is under threat.
  • Judy Wells August 5, 2010 at 1:24am
    Evelyn, let's hope sounder minds prevail, but I see all too much of that kind of thinking here. Sadly and frighteningly from otherwise intelligent voters with the financial where with all to support these dangerously disillusioned candidates.
  • Victor Williams August 5, 2010 at 1:22am
    Being from Nevada, I've already had enough of Sharron Angle. She would be disastrous to our state should she somehow beat Harry Reid. No viable economic plan, no media sense (obviously), no hope.
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