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Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s coverage of TCA.
Erik Jendresen, the writer and executive producer of the forthcoming National Geographic Channel film Killing Lincoln, told critics during a TCA panel this morning that while Abraham Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth is often dismissed as a laundry-list psychopath, in fact “he could be the poster child for the Tea Party (movement).” 
Jendresen explained that he was astonished by the parallel feelings coursing through the country in Lincoln’s time that there are today. “If you look at the politics of the time, and the epithets hurled at Lincoln, the feeling is not dissimilar” to the feelings that grip many in the U.S. with regard to President Obama. “The idea today of this imperial Presidency and (Obama) declaring himself King and taking over…It’s just stunning to read the newspaper articles, letters, papers from back (in Lincoln’s time) and they could be transposed to the dialect of today.” The film is based on a book co-written by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, and Jendresen was asked what O’Reilly might say about his calling Booth “a Tea Party poster boy.” “I can’t speak for Mr. O’Reilly,” he concluded.
Related: Nat Geo Reteams With Bill O’Reilly And Ridley Scott For ‘Killing Kennedy’
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Another slur against tea-party activists. Perhaps it will help inoculate Mr.Jendresen from criticism from his more liberal colleagues for working on a project with the most popular Fox News host. But he owes tea party folks an apology. Unlike, say, the Occupy movement or even the big labor rallies, the Tea Party has not attracted violent people. I’ve yet to meet a tea party activist who didn’t love the Union. It’s a shame another filmmaker feels obliged to slander 1/3 of their potential audience (probably more in this case due to source material).
Erik is not the type that apologizes, especially while he chain smokes and lives on his boat….
But what a DAYUM good writer…
Some of the rhetoric coming out of the Tea Party is pure poison. No apology necessary.
David Boze, sorry that he threw a slur against your party. I’m sure they will be just fine if you don’t tune in. You’ll be watching Fox News or Glenn Beck anyway. But while I wouldn’t call your party violent (yet), I’d call it an uneducated, misinformed, group of armchair politicians that actually don’t know much about our union. The party is compromised of old people screaming about socialism while they collect their social security checks. Stop with the finger pointing and claims of liberal bias, because what that author was stating was the truth. Maybe you should study up on history before you start preaching to people about liberal bias and hypocritical authors.
..Oswald, a Communist, killed JFK..Sirhan Sirhan, a Muslim, killed RFK…but this boy applies violence to a group that I don’t think has ever had a violent act…I don’t agree with them but I can see he doesn’t let facts sway his opinions…cool…
I would suggest you do a little more research yourself rather than taking your leads from MSNBC, CNN, or Media Matters. The TEA Party movement consisted of hundreds of rallies across the country over the course of several years. There were no arrests, no vandalism, no violence. Most of those that participated were employed, educated and concerned citizens of all races and religions exercising their right to peaceful demonstrations. Who while may not all have the political acumen of someone like you nonetheless they were interested in having their collective voice heard. uneducated? This is a lie only 43% had never been to college, 33% were college graduates (26% post grad) .. Misinformed? This is your opinion…Old people screaming about socialism? Some did but so what? They were expressing their opinion about an ever intrusive leviathan of a government run by a rather unremarkable, unaccomplished amateur. Regardless, they didn’t assault anyone, they didn’t destroy property unlike the Socialists and anarchists in the Occupy demonstrations.. Did I mention they didn’t rape or murder anyone either.. from your post it is clear you are a misinformed, intolerant jerk who most likely relates well with the occupy crowd which explains your posting
“Unlike, say, the Occupy movement or even the big labor rallies, the Tea Party has not attracted violent people.”
Yes, you’re 100% right — it’s those Occupy hippies who are always talking about “Second Amendment Solutions” and showing up to their rallies with guns in order to “take their country back.”
A slur? That’s a joke when it’s being made in defense of people who have made a sport out of slandering and hate-mongering against our president. As for their love of “the Union”, it’s THEIR fantasy version of America they love, not the country as it exists in reality. You don’t make up fanciful conspiracy theories to try and debunk a legally elected president in the country you love. You don’t threaten to secede just because you don’t get your own way, and you don’t hate 51% of Americans just because they didn’t want this country taken back to a make believe version of the colonial period.
The fact that Tea Party activists are, so far, non-violent is, unfortunately, one of their few positive attributes. Considering the people who have been elected by them, and they chaos and gridlock they’ve caused in government, being non-violent is probably one of the few things they can brag about.
What the hell is Mr. Jendresen really trying to say; that the Tea Party is a bunch of racist, gun toting assassins? I certainly do not understand his equivocation of Wilkes Booth’s ideology with a peoples movement against government over spending and higher taxes?
The demonisation of the Tea Party movement is all part of the successful Left wing agenda against the 2nd Amendment, religion, smaller government and anyone who is to the right of the Democratic party and our current president.
Couldn’t he have thrown in a parallel to Adolph Hitler too?
Sensational muckraking used to be bad, now it’s what gets you on talk shows. Of course, there’s more money to be made by polarization and fear than bringing people together.
What a moron. Lincoln was against a central bank he wanted money to be governed by congress and the treasury and that’s one of the reasons Booth assassinated him Booth was hired to kill Lincoln by the bankers in Europe who were financing the Confederacy. Lincoln would have agreed with the Tea Party activists. Booth was a radical left wing anarchist who was used to pull the trigger. Jendresen knows nothing of real history and he is closer to Booth than he realizes.
Most T party people go to work and pay their taxes.
I am not afraid of them, they are not out there making movies
glorifying mass murder, chain saw murder, etc.
It must be the in thing to trash the TeaPary by the gated community ocean beach living wealthy Hollywood SNOBS.
Just think if instead of wasting their money on their greedy lifestlye they would go downtown LA and start a business, hire people, help the poor with their “own” money not making snide remarks to reporters but do something. When I think of Greed I think of the Hollywood community. Other than Ed Begely Jr or Vanessa Redgrave how many of these people really live what they preach. Not many.
Lots and lots of fantastic middle class jobs in Hollywood, but you’re obviously too stupid to understand that the vast majority of people working in the entertainment business aren’t living in beach communities, they are living in regular houses. Who hires those regular people? Oh, yeah, Hollywood. You don’t know what you’re talking about, another classic characteristic of Tea Party adherents.
Lovely. Another great book tarnished by another dope film maker.
The only real difference between Lincoln’s time in office and today is the instant media jumping on ‘noise’ to distract all from the serious issues combined with the staging of the presidency now and then. And, both then and especially now…the office is elected ‘royalty’ by anyone’s definition. The politics of the presidency are media driven today…at the speed of light.
This is just noise. Let’s get serious.
Erskine Bowles (part of Simpson/Bowles and Chief of Staff for Clinton), said something quite interesting, yesterday, responding to Wolf Blitzer discussing the dysfunctional/partisan do nothing congress and how Obama was thus restricted getting anything meaningful done with reference to the economy…which is standard media noise all the time. Mr. Bowles reminded the audience that congress can’t get much more partisan than when a President is being impeached, yet Bill Clinton worked with Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott to help to get a balanced budget and reduce the deficit. Granted, times were better and the government was generating more revenue and Republicans had even more power without a Tea Party influence…but, the point is Clinton got stuff done under the landscape of impeachment. And, the budget was finally balanced and deficits were reduced.
Let’s keep our eye on the important stuff.
So, we can wonder Booth is the poster boy for the Tea Party, or we can keep our eye on the ball and get our financial path in order as a nation.
Actually, he’s right. If you read what Booth wrote about states rights and against federal interference and about how Lincoln was destroying the union and the constitution, he sounds like a spokesman for the tea party.
So what? You should see what Thomas Jefferson said about tyrants and state’s rights.
Comparing a political entity to an assassin is a childish political jab.
I’ve yet to meet a tea party activist who didn’t love the Union.
Of course, you just hate everyone in it who doesn’t agree with your nonsensical economic views.
It’s a shame another filmmaker feels obliged to slander 1/3 of their potential audience
Yawn. Another idiotical, “you’re offending __% of your audience!” crack. All you guys watch is Fox News. And maybe a little 700 Club now and then. (Of course many of you have given up on the notion of a God in heaven, so even that’s been cut out.)
What an ass. The tea party was formed out of a desire for smaller federal government and a return to respect for our constitution. That’s it. Period. No secret agendas. It absolutely drove the left crazy that it was so pure and simple, so they had to invent controversies, demonize them and create class warfare, their favorite trump card. The left HATES facts. Their party motto should be “don’t ruin a good argument with the truth”.
You DO understand that “facts”, “logic” and “reason” fall on deaf ears when it comes to the Left, correct?
You will either be totally ignored or somehow labeled a “Racist” for daring to state the truth.
Booth was a “Democrat” and an a “actor” who murdered the nations 1st Rebuplican President….fact.
It’s a perfect analogy, just as Kathy Griffin could easily be a member of Code Pink.
By the way, I read the book. It sucks. Manhunt puts it to shame.
LOL @ the moaning, defensive Righties. Truth hurts. John Wilkes Booth, a southern white man who shot a progressive President (second amendment solution) while screaming about tyranny. Sounds about right to me.
I had always presumed that National Geographic was above such partisan hatchetry. I would love to know how Mr. Jendresen has arrived at his baseless conclusion. We all know that Abraham Lincoln was a conservative Republican and yet I am to believe the claim that John Wilkes Booth was a conservative that despised Lincoln for his conservative belief system. That makes as much sense as claiming that Lee Harvey Oswald was a poster boy for the Occupy Wall street movement and hated Kennedy for his liberal belief system. How sad that National Geographic has lost any credibility as a legitimate media outlet.