Tea Party gets tough with foes in media

Members of what US conservatives call the "mainstream media" know they are viewed as opponents by the Tea Party movement. But few expect to be handcuffed when they turn up at campaign events.

However bizarre in its particulars, the arrest on Sunday of Tony Hopfinger, a journalist, by security guards working for Joe Miller, Alaska's Tea Party-backed Republican candidate for the Senate, was an incident waiting to happen. Although fueled by dislike for taxes, hatred of the "liberal media" - including virtually all channels, barring Fox News, and most print publications - is a central tenet of the Tea Party's world view. Hopfinger, who had written stories questioning aspects of Mr Miller's background for his website Alaska Dispatch, was handcuffed after he approached the candidate at what his campaign said was a private event. "I am leaving and this guy is just hounding me - he was right in front of me, blocking the way," Mr Miller told Fox News after the incident.

Like most US elections, this year's midterm race is chiefly a contest between the Democratic and Republican parties. But not far behind is the strange tussle between the Tea Party movement and the media. Tea Partiers see the media as an arm of the bicoastal liberal elites. The media, on the other hand, see the colorful biographies of people such as Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate in Delaware, or Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, as unmissable stories.