CNN to Give Tea Party Equal Time in State of the Union Response

The
Tea Party movement will get equal time on CNN Tuesday night in opposition
responses to the President's State of the Union speech.

While Republicans
traditionally get airtime for their view on the State of the Union under the
opposition president, CNN VP and Political Director Sam Feist said in a
statement: "Hearing the Tea Party's perspective on the State of the Union is
something we believe CNN's viewers will be interested in hearing and we are
happy to include this perspective as one of many in tonight's coverage."

CNN
will air both Republican and Tea Party responses in their entirety, the network
said.

Rep.
Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will deliver the Republican response, while the Tea Party
response comes from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

CBS News will carry the Republican response on air, according to a spokesperson, then stream the Tea Party response live on cbsnews.com and also cover it in a live online post-speech newscast hosted
by Katie Couric.

NBC News
will not cover the Tea Party response on air, according to a
spokesperson, nor will will MSNBC, said a spokesperson there. But MSNBC
will cover it as a news story and will likely air clips
from it as well.

"ABC News does not plan on carrying Michelle
Bachmann's response live on the network," said a spokesperson for the network. "ABC News will report on
her response during its special edition of Nightline, anchored by
Terry Moran live from Washington at 11:35 p.m., ET." ABC will, however, live-stream the Tea Party response on ABCNews.com, Hulu,
and Yahoo!

A Fox News Channel spokespeople was not available for a response.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.