I am convinced more people were talking about Susan Boyle than Teabags this week.

[pepperbear]

I know this is anecdotal, but except for Fox, I saw more headline stories about the CIA memos, the pirates, and Susan Boyle this week than I did about the tea parties. When I did see them, they were quick blips, and the anchors doing the few features I saw didn't hesitate to say that the events were sponsored and spurred by right wing interests (why would they want their competitors name all over their network?).

Of course, keith, rachel, hardball, and the ed show, all laughed at them. My own hometown paper (hampton roads, VA area) didn't even get a pic of our local event; they ran a picture of a tea party in Nashville instead.

You can say what you want about the media, but one thing is for sure; when one network practically sponsors an event and then pretends that it's some kind of "populist grass roots showdown" (complete with celebrity guests), the other networks really don't want to give them the satisfaction...or the ratings.

[opihimoimoi]

1. 25 plus million youtube hits and climbing....blows everything to pieces

People are so hungry for the rags to riches/fame...this one came with humility, courage, and pluck.....with an incredibley RARE VOICE

Where was this woman hiding??? All that wasted music...what a LOSS for us....but what a finish for her....Fame and Fortune is at hand.....wonderful

[MrPerson]

2. Tea Bags = British Women's Boobs.

[Bobbieo]

3. And Sarah deserves every second of it, too. She is magnificent!

[RebelOne]

9. My thoughts, exactly.

I would rather read and hear about this lovely lady than the ugly tea bagging events.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

4. Susan Boyle sings 'Cry Me a River' on Youtube.

She's wonderful.

[gblady]

5. sure seems like DU....

is quite obsessed with both.

[bigwillq]

6. As was the media on both accounts

It's funny that some at DU become obsessed with the same thing as the media (most times), and people here will slam the media. Doesn't make much sense to me.

[Modern_Mom]

7. Wow

I'd rather listen to her than that garbage about tea-nuts!

[malaise]

8. Then you'd love Jane Hamsher's comments

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/susan-boyle-teabaggers-ge_b_187813.html
<snip>
Susan Boyle: Teabaggers Get a Load of What a True Populist Phenomenon Looks Like

One of the problems with demonstrations in the modern era is that no matter how many people show up, if the media decides it's not going to cover something, the impact is minimal.

The teabagger demonstrations were rather small relative to the hype and free media time lavished on them by Fox News -- across the country there were an estimated 260,000 people in attendance, with the largest event around 7,000. By way of comparison, many demonstrations for immigration reform in the spring of 2006 had more than 300,000 people at a single event.

That probably wouldn't have been a problem for the teabaggers -- right-wing robber barons with professional PR outfits had a long reach into the media, and on an otherwise quiet day, there would have been significant coverage. But as Chris Cillizza notes, nobody factored in the Susan Boyle effect -- a genuine populist phenomenon.

So bottom line -- nobody cares, Karl. For all your money and machinations, Susan Boyle left you sputtering in the dust, too. What she's got, right wing astrofurf operatives like Eric Odom, Brendan Steinhauser and Phil Kerpen abjectly failed to compete with.

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She's been covered several times a day since Monday. The stale teabags are already in the garbage bins.

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