Tea Party articles short on substance and accuracy

I was alarmed at the inaccuracy and one-sidedness of “Tea Party hosts speakers on Gov”, written by Sean Trebus.

I attended both the town hall meeting and “Tea Party” rally that followed. The town hall meeting was held in the gymnasium of Tech High School - not City Hall, as was reported (a bit of a red flag that suggests the reporter did not attend either event).

The article reads, “The Tea Party gathering was meant to represent people of non-partisan ideologies that are concerned with intrusive policies of the government and feel the current direction does not reflect their constitutional liberties as citizens.”

This statement is at best, a gross mischaracterization of Saturday’s event.

Read the above quote carefully and one could just as easily guess it was a description of a rally against the Patriot Act (warantless wire-tapping, etc...).

This event was indeed partisan - and there is no shame or journalistic inaccuracy in saying so. The crowd, the organizers, the speakers - all Republican.

I have to wonder, did the writer of this article actually attend either event? Obviously not the town hall meeting, unless he sat lonely over at a locked City Hall building, waiting for some action.

One surprisingly absent piece of this story is the narrative of those in attendance. Why no comments from those in the crowd?

Plenty of supporters and detractors were on hand and granted interviews throughout the event. Why no mention of the actual content of, or reason for the rally?

The article as it stands, feels like a piece of propaganda released by someone connected to the event and with specific political motivations.

There is more to this story – I assure you. I spoke to a contributing writer from the Chronicle who interviewed me and several others (supporters AND protestors) in attendance.

I simply cannot understand why this article was not included and “Tea Party hosts speakers on Gov” was.

The campus community should demand accuracy and fairness in reporting - even if it is just a school newspaper.