Tillman story may leave wrong impression of Wichita tea party

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The Wichita Eagle news story Democrat Tillman enters race for 4th District seat may give its readers an incorrect impression of the Wichita tea party protest held on tax day.

In the story, the reporter quotes Robert Tillman as saying “Confederate flags (were) flown at the Republican tea party.”

The first half of this statement is true, but hardly indicative of the sentiment of tea party protesters.

I have about 360 photographs that I took at the tea party. Looking at them, I saw one confederate flag.

I called Robert Tillman, the subject of the story and whose quote appears above, and asked him how many of these flags he saw. He said “at least two.”

At least 2,000 people attended the Wichita tea party. So a rate of one confederate flag per 1,000 people, I’d venture to say, hardly supports the impression that readers may get from this story.

By the way, an informal survey by a television reporter of 100 people at the tea party found 46 who identified themselves as Republicans. So the claim that it was a “Republican tea party” is not substantiated either.