I spent my Sunday afternoon attending the Cincinnati Tea Party with my lovely wife, her mother our friends Rob and Jo and their daughter River and 5,000 of my closest friends. It was a beautiful day, sunny and mild with a light breeze and a comfortable temperature of 65 degrees. We listened to several passionate speakers and enjoyed the company of like minded patriots. So you can imagine my surprise when I came home, turned on the local news and found out the event I just attended was "violent". Channel 9 news (WCPO) reported that they had to leave the event due to fear for their safety and having been spit on by people involved in our protest. Never mind that they showed no footage of such activities even though they had a cameraman with them. As it turns out, Channel 9 may have had decided how they were going to report the story before they left the studio. This information was in an email was sent out by the Cincinnati Tea Party Organization which is revealing to say the least. When you read this, steam will come out of your ears.

"The true story is that they found the lone Obama supporter amidst a sea of 5,000 and went to interview her. The crowd that was nearby noticed and was upset and let their displeasure be voiced, but were clearly peaceful.

I (Mike Wilson, founder of Cincinnati Tea Party) just watched the 11p.m. version of their (Channel 9) newscast and it was much less slanted, but retained the accusation of threats, but without providing proof.

Now the truly interesting thing is that WCPO interviewed me on Friday March 12th. The interview went well but I was cornered by the assistant news director, Jeff Brogan. He was upset that emails flooded the station about the tea party and asked that we do what we can to stop them. I pointed out that I don't control anyone and that I had sent an email to our entire mailing list that I would be on WCPO He pointed out too much email contact was a good way to get on their bad side and we should stop if we wanted to get good coverage. I guess he and WCPO lived up to those words."

Now you know why I've never relied on my local TV stations, any of them, for my news. This is something I have first hand experience with. These people are not journalists, they are driven by ratings and are slaves to their consultants. It's a sad state of affairs that the recommendations for improvement of a news program mainly include using younger talking heads and redecorating the set. I watched an entire morning show revamped in this manner. The naked truth is that sensationalism rules the local news room. The truth be damned, we want a story! But despite the lies and distortions, they cannot dampen our spirits because we know the truth of our intentions and now we know the truth of theirs.