Is The Tea Party Movement Racist?

Maybe I am blind, but I have seen no evidence that the Tea Party Movement is racist. What gets me are the journalists playing the race card to smear the movement rather than doing real journalism. As one example, E.J. Dionne Jr. in the Washington Post wrote in an Op-Ed column: "The Tea Party: Populism of the privileged" that: "The New York Times and CBS News thus performed a public service last week with a careful study of just who is in the Tea Party movement. ... And the poll suggested something that white Americans are reluctant to discuss: Part of the anger at President Obama among Tea Partiers does appear to be driven by racial concerns." (emphasis added). Pathic journalism.

Why this need to play the race card and smear the Tea Party Movement? As I indicated in my post "The Tea Party Movement - Is it for Real?", I have concerns over whether the movement is real. To address the validity of the Tea Party Movement, journalists (such as Dionne) should be asking the Tea Party Movement leaders how they propose to cut the Federal budget. If Stephen Fincher is a typical representative Tea Party Movement leader, I'm willing to bet that the Tea Party Movement would fall on its face if it had to answer that question. Lets have some real journalism based on the issues at hand.

Update 4/20/2010: Colbert picked up on this issue: P.K. Winsome - Tea Party Consulting. Very funny video.