Fox News Watchdog

Fox & Friends hosted Amy Kremer of the Tea Party Express to rebut charges that some of the tea party movement is orchestrated by the Republican Party. Kremer insisted that “this is a true, genuine, grassroots movement,” but, in fact, the Tea Party Express was launched by Republican consultants and has been criticized by other conservative activists for its partisan ties to Republicans.

Fox
& Friends hosts Tea Party
Express’ Kremer, who says, “[T]his is a true, genuine, grassroots
movement”

From the March 1 edition of Fox
News’ Fox & Friends:

GRETCHEN
CARLSON (co-host): We’re joined by the director of the Tea Party Express
Grassroots and Coalition, Amy Kremer. Good morning to you, Amy.

KREMER: Good
morning, Gretchen.

CARLSON: As
someone so involved with the tea party movement and having heard Nancy Pelosi
call you Astroturf before, about six months ago, what was your reaction when you
heard her say that she may have some things in common with you?

KREMER: I
was shocked. I think most people within the movement are shocked. She’s a little
delusional. There’s not much that she has in common with us. You know, I just —
I can’t believe that she would think that she would. She brings up the special
interests, and, you know, their ruling with the Supreme Court. Honest to
goodness, that’s not what we’ve been focused on.

STEVE DOOCY
(co-host): Sure.

KREMER:
We’ve been focused on our core principles and values of fiscal responsibility,
limited government, free markets, and most importantly, recently, health care. I
don’t recall anybody mentioning anything about the special interests lately.

DOOCY:
Right. Amy, do you agree with her that some of the tea party stuff is
orchestrated by the GOP headquarters?

KREMER:
Absolutely not. I’m sure she would like to think so, but it’s not. I mean, this
is a true, genuine, grassroots movement.

DOOCY:
Right.

KREMER:
We’re not Astroturf. We’re not being orchestrated by anyone or anything, and
we’re going to continue to grow.

But Tea Party Express was launched
by Republican consultants

Tea
Party Express run by Republican PAC. The Associated Press reported
in October 2008 that
Our Country Deserves Better PAC, which launched the Tea Party Express, “was formed in
August [2008] by California political consultant Sal Russo and
former California Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian.” As their OCDB biographies note, Russo is a veteran Republican
consultant and Kaloogian served as a Republican.

OCDB’s mission is to oppose Obama
and “Democratic Congress.” On its “About Us” page, OCDB states that “we must
stand up to Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.” The PAC also solicits contributions by stating,
“Help us fight the Democratic Congress!” NPR reported on September 26, 2008, that
OCDB’s website then said “it has one objective: to defeat Obama.” During the
2008 campaign, the PAC hosted “patriotic, pro-McCain/Palin
rallies” to “Stop Obama.”

OCDB campaigned for Republican
Tedisco. OCDB “reported for Talking Points memo
that “[t]he political action committee behind the Tea Party Express (TPE) —
which already has been slammed as inauthentic and corporate-controlled by rival
factions in the Tea Party movement — directed almost two thirds of its spending
during a recent reporting period back to the Republican consulting firm that
created the PAC in the first place.” Roth further wrote:

Our Country
Deserves Better (OCDB) spent around $1.33 million from July through November,
according to FEC filings examined by
TPMmuckraker. Of that sum, a total of $857,122 went to Sacramento-based GOP
political consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates, or people associated
with it.

OCDB, which
built the Tea Party Express, is essentially a Russo, Marsh creation, as we’ve detailed. The PAC’s site was registered in July 2008 by Sal
Russo, the firm’s founder. That site also lists Russo as the PAC’s “chief
strategist.” Tea Party Express fundraising emails, sent by OCDB and obtained by
TPMmuckraker, come from another Russo, Marsh employee, Joe Wierzbicki.

Other tea party groups reportedly
accuse Tea Party Express of being “sham organization” for
GOP

Tea Party Express reportedly seen by
other conservative activists as “sham organization” pushing “partisan Republican
agenda.” On October 9,
2009, David Weigel reported for The Washington Independent that other tea
party activists see the Tea Party Express as “a scheme for Republican
strategists and candidates to take advantage of a movement that was chugging
along fine without them”:

An argument has
broken out, perhaps inevitably, between Tea Party activists and one of the
groups that has laid claim to the Tea Party mantle. The self-described
grassroots activists in Tea Party Patriots and the American Liberty Alliance see
the Tea Party Express as a sham organization, using the political heft of the
movement to push a bland, partisan Republican agenda. Privately and publicly,
they accuse the Tea Party Express of being an “astroturf” outfit, a scheme for
Republican strategists and candidates to take advantage of a movement that was
chugging along fine without them.

National Precinct Alliance director called
Tea Party Express a “Republican National Committee-related
group.” On January 25,
The New York Times reported that Philip Glass, the
director of conservative group National Precinct Alliance, announced that his
organization would not participate in the National Tea Party Convention. The
article reported: “Mr. Glass said he was also concerned about the role in the
convention of groups like Tea Party Express, which has held rallies across the
country through two bus tours, and FreedomWorks, a Tea Party umbrella. He called
them ‘Republican National Committee-related groups,’ and added, ‘At best, it
creates the appearance of an R.N.C. hijacking; at worst, it is one.’
“

Meckler of Tea Party Patriots on Tea Party Express: “[T]hey raise money
for Republicans.” Weigel reported on October 2, 2009, that
Mark Meckler, a national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, said, “Tea Party
Patriots are very dissatisfied with the Republican Party — we have nothing
against Our Country Deserves Better PAC, but they raise money for Republicans.”

Fox News aggressively promotes Tea
Party Express tour

Fox News has aggressively promoted the Tea Party
Express tours. Fox News, Fox Business, Fox
Nation, and FoxNews.com have promoted the tours, going so far as to cheerlead for the protests and
advertise the tea party schedule so viewers “can be a part” of the events.
Indeed, a Fox News producer was even caught coaching a crowd to cheer
during a stop of the Tea Party Express.

Fox Nation
promoting Tea Party Express III. Fox Nation has promoted the third national tour,
which begins March 27 in Searchlight, Nevada,
and ends April 15 in Washington, D.C.

In turn, the
organizers of Tea Party Express have used Fox’s coverage for
fundraising. The OCDB PAC used Fox News’
coverage of its Tea Party Express to fundraise in a July 29, 2009, email.

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