Did Jessel indicate whether she attended the rally personally or did she possibly regurgitate that sole AP story containing the aberrant "headcount?"

If she wasn't there in the flesh, her report is indicative of this problem I predicted Sunday--namely that the more favorable "headcounts" collected by ALL Nashville-area media outlets might get buried, while the single AP story might get wider circulation.

So...was she there???

There were two interviews one tea partier and one teacher. to be fair there should have been TEN teachers interviewed.

newsroom@wuot.org

So...were you there???

Or are you just banking on a news story or internet blog that contains the aberrant “headcount” that suits your agenda.

Watch this and note that the shots of the big crowds are of the Teachers not the tea puppets. Another case of dishonest coverage? A pan of the actual tea party rally at the end shows how few they actually were.

(link...)

I went to YouTube last night and watched several videos of the demonstrations.
There was even one teabagger video exclaiming how large the TEA crowds were.

No excuses for her shoddy reporting of the event.
Her teabagger interviewee was allowed to give the very well rehearsed talking point with no chance for rebuttal from anyone for the crap he spewed.

Sickening.

I think dishonest is too strong of a characterization...at worst the writing needed to be a bit more clear. There were thousands of rally-ers, and they were from both sides. Who outnumbered whom was not germain to the report, which included both sides of the issue, if we're talking about the same wuot and the same report. Granted, the wording did not make clear which group was larger, but I certainly didn't get the impression that Jessel was implying there were thousands of TEA members and thousands of tea-baggers. I think this is a hyper-sensitive issue, and no report, no matter how balanced, will make either side happy.

I got the impression she was there, b/c there were soundbites used. Fwiw.

Who outnumbered whom was not germain to the report,

Say what?!

The whole purpose of the rally, for either group, was to indicate to legislators the volume of support for that group's position.

Of course it's "germaine" to ask which group's size effectively demonstrated greater support.

What do you think a rally IS?!

First, let me deflect some of the criticism targeted toward Christine Jessel and focus it on the responsible party. The reference to "thousands representing both sides of the issue" (the exact wording) was not part of her report-- rather, it was part of my introduction to her report. I will admit, in retrospect, that the verbiage was ambiguous, but I would discourage you from reading any heinous intent into it. It was, as an earlier poster said, poor writing. I apologize for any confusion.

And yes, she was there. Getting very wet.

The thing that's disappointing about this and the AP report that the News Sentinel ran is that the tea baggers' puppet masters own the governor's office, the house, the senate, the means of production and the media. But that's not enough. They want to own the message, too. And public schools.

But they don't own the streets of Nashville. This was a day about teachers and their rights, and about protecting public education from corporate takeover. This was their day. Responsible media outlets reported it that way.

No report should have given more than a passing reference that a few tea baggers showed up but weren't really a factor, and certainly shouldn't have given them a platform to promote mass ignorance as the AP report did.

And the notion of presenting "both sides" and calling it "objective" is, as noted above, anything but. I don't think it's going to fly any more. There are too many other sources of information from too many people willing and able to call them out.

People are starting to wake up from the Faux News induced coma and they are taking to the streets.

"Thousands of teachers and hundreds of tea party members gathered for separate rallies at the state capitol Saturday, despite the heavy rain."

(link...)

It is great to hear that people are demanding better journalism. That is a good thing. Good journalism serves everyone's best interest.

It is interesting to note that for some people this need only happened when their ox got gored. They were very happy when the slanted advocacy went their way. Quite ironic to see some of the most noted defenders of the Sentinel change their minds on the issue and demand fair reporting.

This is the second paragraph of the AP story KNS posted about the protest:

"A few hundred tea party supporters gathered on the statehouse steps to call on Republican leadership to pass the measure, while more than 1,000 supporters of the Tennessee Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, marched to the Legislative Plaza across the street to speak out against the bill."

Note that is says the tea party had "a few hundred" and the TEA supporters had "more than 1,000" present. That shows the relative turnout based on the reporter's observations.