[Towle_]

Whether or not they're plants, they are certainly not representative of the movement as a whole, neither its former nor current self. The bigots are the people "we" associate with the Tea Party because CNN focuses on them. And CNN focuses on them because they, like everyone else in the media, are in the business of re-confirming the worldview of their audience.

Who is a loyal CNN viewer? According to CNN, he is educated and informed and secular and (implicitly) liberal. Also according to CNN, Sarah Palin is none of those things. So, it becomes part of the loyal CNN viewer's worldview to dislike her.

How can CNN re-confirm this worldview in their coverage of Tea Party rallies? Easy. Since the loyal CNN viewer knows he is educated and secular (after all, CNN told him so) then he knows he's against racists, who are neither. So CNN turns the Tea Party into a bunch of racists and makes Sarah Palin their leader. Worldview re-confirmed. "See! What did I tell you about that Sarah Palin lady..."

(Note that I am not making any judgments one way or the other about the Tea Partiers or Palin herself. I am just explaining how this works.)