It's on the house: Fox Network ran 107 ads for its own coverage of tea party protests over 10 days prior to the April 15th events. From April 6 to April 15, Fox News regularly blasted promos for their coverage of the famous tea parties. Most of these ads, 58 in all ran on April 14th and 15th according to Media Matters for America a non-profit news media watchdog group. Fox News aggressively promoted these events in the weeks running up to the event date encouraging viewers to get involved with the tea party protests all across the country. The network repeatedly described them as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties." while incessantly referring to these gatherings as a "grass roots" movement. On April 15th , 4 of the network's hosts broad casted live from several tea parties locations.

Of all of the 107 promos, 58 of them were 10-second spots promoting a specific Fox News program that would in effect be covering the events. This was a way for Fox to promote these events while making it look like they were promoting their own shows. From one of the Fox ads:

Announcer: " April 15th: As tea parties sweep the nation on tax day, we're there with total fair and balanced network coverage  --  live. What is the fate of our nation?  We report.  You decide".

Also:

Announcer: " Taking a stand at the Alamo: Citizens revolt against more taxes and demand change now. Plus, Ted Nugent fires back at the government. Glenn is live at the tea party in Texas. "

Participants at the events themselves had hoped to rally hundreds of thousands of people to begin a grassroots movement that would force President Obama to change his policy on taxes and government debt. The turnout was far from what was hoped for, especially as compared to the 2006 immigrants' rights rallies or the 2004 pro-choice march on Washington, both of which attracted millions. About 4,000 people are reported to have shown up in Cincinnati, Ohio, while Chicago drew an estimated 5,000 protesters and Des Moines, Iowa, drew 3,000. Farmingville, N.Y., drew 50 hardy souls.

The 2006 immigrants rights rally did not have any free network promotional broadcasts, nor did the pro-choice rally. Fox News anchor Cody Willard, reporting from one of the protests sites, went so far in his "reporting" to say on the air, "Guys, when are we going to wake up and start fighting the fascism that seems to be permeating this country?"

In yet another Fox News controversy, Fox anchor Neil Cavuto was captured on an open microphone discussing the crowd numbers with a network producer, estimating the turnout at about 5,000 people. But minutes later Cavuto told viewers that "They were expecting 5,000 here, it's got to be easily double, if not triple that."

Fox News, fair and balanced? You decide.

About The Author:
This article was written by J. Mark Soveign who owns and writes for Wertheim Communications LLC as well as for Mooker.Com