CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Why ‘tea party’ defenders won’t let N-word claims rest. “‘A bright line was crossed on the 20th,’ says Christina Botteri, a spokeswoman for the Tea Party Federation. ‘The left constantly attacks conservatives as racist, as dumb, as evil, but what happened on the 20th is a sitting congressman, with the full voice and credibility of the House of Representatives, accused a group of citizens with whom he philosophically disagrees of assault and then refused to help find the persons responsible. They need to help us find the people responsible or apologize for making it up’.”

Plus this:

Some in the mainstream press have conceded tea partyers may have a point. Washington Post reporter David Weigel has said the March 20 incident is a “paradigm shift” that shows conservatives how the media accept attacks on the right without doing due diligence. Politico’s Ben Smith, who keeps a close eye on the tea party movement, Tweeted a response to Breitbart about the lack of takers on the bounty: “I think you’ve pretty much won this one, no?”

Yes.

UPDATE: Reader Bob Tarone writes: “Although relatively balanced, the CSM article repeats the lie Representative Carson told the press about the CBC members being surrounded by a horde of tea party supporters (such that Carson thought they might throw rocks!). The numerous videos posted by Breitbart and others clearly show that the tea party crowd never even closed in on the Congressmen (who looked like they walked as close as possible to protesters, perhaps to provoke an incident) as they passed through a clear open aisle through the crowd. If Carson lied about being surrounded (which is undeniable), why should he be believed about the N-word?”