LabRat, my friend... yes, there have been some offensive signs. Out of thousands of rallies across the country for over a year, with hundreds of thousands of people attending, there have been a few. (Nobody ever seems to hold that against the Palestinians, btw) The two Tea Parties I attended did not feature any ugly signs, to the best of my recollection, and I made a point of moving around the crowd checking out the signs. But I'm pretty sure that you've never actually been to a Tea Party, what with you being in Scotland and all -- correct me if I'm wrong. So what you're forced to rely on is second-hand reports, and the media (in general) is far from objective on this topic. They have a narrative, and they look for the images that reinforce that narrative. Reuters and the BBC are particularly bad, from what I've heard. Not the way Perry White would have done it, but it's been documented many times.
So, in a crowd of thousands, the cameras are going to look for and publicize the ugliest signs they can find. The whole point of the linked article is that the media portrayal is far from complete or accurate.
Here's a link to some
poll analyses suggesting that Tea Partiers are supported by about 28% of Americans, and 13% of those supporters are Democrats. Also, demographically, the Tea Party crowd is very very representative of the population as a whole.
I'm just saying.
PJ
