answer:The original Tea Party organizers actually knew quite a bit about how to use social media and the like, as it started out as an exercise in astroturfing. That said, the media still didn’t have all the facts before covering it. The media’s real bias, after all, is neither liberal nor conservative but rather “faster, cheaper, more sensational.” So yes, I think both movements have been ill-served by the contemporary state of journalism. Please note: I am not saying that all Tea Partiers are engaged in astroturfing. I believe that there are many sincere Tea Partiers who are more or less independent of the movement’s origins.