Cable Anchors, Guests Use Tea Parties as Platform for Frat House Humor

[jinxmchue]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/16/cable-anchors-guests-use-tea-parties-platform-frat-house-humor/

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 don't live in a frat house, refers to a sexual act involving part of the male genitalia and a second person's 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.

...

If anyone thinks the orally charged remarks on mainstream cable were just a coincidence, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's segments over the past week with guest, Air America's 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."

Olbermann Watch video:

[youtube=425,350]b1qtvqMyUCs[/youtube]

[Sam Adams]

I guess it won't make any difference to these people that those of us who are teacher encourage our young students to watch the news, in order to be informed. And I guess it won't make any difference that those of us who are parents encourage our children to watch the news for the same reason. And I guess the fact these people are degrading and coarsening the culture won't make any difference, either.

[MrsSmith]

I guess it won't make any difference to these people that those of us who are teacher encourage our young students to watch the news, in order to be informed. And I guess it won't make any difference that those of us who are parents encourage our children to watch the news for the same reason. And I guess the fact these people are degrading and coarsening the culture won't make any difference, either.

Well, they make a difference in one way...Fox's ratings just keep climbing, and theirs keep falling.  Maybe because people let their kids watch the news, and Fox is safer...