FOXNews.com
Cable anchors and guests covered the anti-tax tea party protests by cracking a litany of barely concealed sexual references.
For thousands of Americans Tax Day was a moment to protest what they see as bloated budgets and a pile of debt being passed on to their children.
For CNN MSNBC and other media outlets it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use the word teabagging in a sentence.
Teabagging for those who dont live in a frat house refers to a sexual act involving part of the male genitalia and a second persons face or mouth.
So when the anti-tax tea party protests were held Wednesday across the country cable anchors and guests -- who for weeks had all but ignored the story -- covered the protests by cracking a litany of barely concealed sexual references.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper interspersed teabagging references with analyst David Gergens more staid commentary on how Republicans are still searching for their voice.
Its hard to talk when youre teabagging Cooper explained. Gergen laughed but Cooper kept a straight face.
MSNBCs David Shuster weaved a tapestry of Animal House humor Monday as he filled in for Countdown host Keith Olbermann.
The protests he explained amount to Teabagging day for the right wing and they are going nuts for it.
He described the parties as simultaneously full-throated and toothless and continued: They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending. Shuster also noted how the protesters whipped out the demonstrations this past weekend.
Tea Party participants were not amused. The events were held in dozens of cities across the country and while some demonstrators were criticized for wielding off-topic and sometimes insensitive protest signs most took to the streets to speak out against government spending.
Brent Bozell president of the conservative Media Research Center said the media coverage was insulting reacting specifically to CNN reporter Susan Roesgens combative interviews with Illinois demonstrators in which she declared that the protests were anti-CNN and supported by FOX News. She left the teabagging jokes to her colleagues though.
Ive never seen anything like it Bozell said. The oral sex jokes on (CNN) and particularly MSNBC on teabagging ... they had them by the dozens. Thats how insulting they were toward people who believe theyre being taxed too highly.
Max Pappas public policy vice president at FreedomWorks -- a small-government group which promoted the tea parties -- said its a shame media outlets cracked jokes at a genuine grassroots uprising.
I think what that reveals is how worried they are that this might actually be something serious. You make fun of things youre afraid of Id say Pappas said.
If anyone thinks the orally charged remarks on mainstream cable were just a coincidence MSNBCs Rachel Maddows segments over the past week with guest Air Americas Ana Marie Cox would dissolve all doubt. Their on-air gymnastics dancing around the double entendre of the week looked like live-action Beavis and Butthead.
By one count the two of them used the word teabag more than 50 times on one show. And on Monday Cox even let the viewers in on their joke -- referencing Urbandictionary.com a site which offers a number of colorful definitions for the term teabagging.
Well there is a lot of love in teabagging Cox said. It is curious though as you point out they do not use the verb teabag. It might be because theyre less enthusiastic about teabagging than some of the more corporate conservatives who seem to have taken to it quite easily.
Jenny Beth Martin a Republican activist who helped organize one protest in Atlanta said shes not too worried about the protests being dismissed by some media outlets. She estimated 750000 people attended more than 800 protests in all 50 states and that at the very least the local media and community newspapers documented it.
Our message definitely got out where it needed to get she said.
