Memo to media: I told you Tea Partiers were coming for you
Written by Eric Boehlert
Published
With news that the campaign of Delaware Republican, and Tea Party favorite, Christine O'Donnell threatened to not only sue a local radio station but crush it, it's probably time for a friendly round for I-told-you-so's. I warned reporters that the Tea Party movement is not playing around in terms of targeting the working press.
This is not you're father's that-darn-liberal-media-won't-treat-conservatives-fairly type of right-wing attacks on the press. This is more of a we're-coming-to-take-you-out approach. Not content to contemptuously snub the press during a campaign and reject the notion that independent journalists play a vital role in terms of informing the electorate. More Tea Party candidates and their campaigns are actively lashing out at reporters.
On Tuesday, O'Donnell told a WEDL host that she'd sue the radio station if a videotape of an on-air interview she had given were not turned over to the campaign so it could be destroyed, rather than posted on the station's website.
According to the station's report [emphasis added]:
O'Donnell's campaign manager, Matt Moran, called WDEL and demanded that the video be immediately turned over to the campaign and destroyed. Moran threatened to “crush WDEL” with a lawsuit if the station didn't comply.
The campaign soon relented.
Don't forget that when confronting a newspaper columnist jaw-to-jaw, New York Republican gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino threatened to “take out” the journalist.
And most recently, annoyed by a local journalist who was aggressively asking too many questions, the private security detail (don't ask) for Alaska Republican Joe Miller performed a citizen's “arrest” and handcuffed the reporter following a town hall forum, lodging a phantom charge of “assault.” The reporter was quickly released when actual police arrived on the scene.