The weasels and propagandists of the now trickling rivulet media are discovering that newly elected Republicans, infused with the principles and energy of the Tea Party movement, are not your father's Republicans. Where Republicans used to get sucked in by liberal ambush media tactics, the travails endured by those newly elected on their way to victory provided them with a healthy dose of skepticism and wholesale disrespect for the practitioners of leftist mainstream propaganda.

Chris Christie was insulted and belittled every step of the way to his victory in the race for the governorship of New Jersey. He has become something of an internet hero with his educational town hall meetings and interactive public conferences confronting teachers and union members. Bypassing the press and having his speeches go directly to Youtube has greatly enhanced the nation's respect and admiration for Christie's persuasive and capable approach.

When ABC's hackish bleached-blonde version of Christiane Amanpour, Diane Sawyer, attempted to set up an ambush for incoming freshman Republicans at a network "town hall meeting," she was unable to find any takers. Thus far, anyway, our incoming reformers have been unwilling to "slit their own throats."

And now, newly elected Republican governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, has shown considerable backbone in standing up to relentless pressure from Oprah Winfrey to allow an interview with the evil murderer, Susan Smith, who killed her own children in 1995. Haley endured a slanderous campaign of innuendo from the mainstream media including a totally ginned-up sexual allegation and suggestions that she was using the same drug Sammy Sosa used to lighten his skin color in order to be more appealing to voters.

Obviously Governor Haley has ample reason to carefully scrutinize the media and it's requests. Oprah Winfrey and her staff have been angling for years to interview Smith, supposedly because her bald al ibi misled police long enough to "change the way we look at parents in this country."

Despite the absurdity of this assertion, Oprah has been relentless. Generally speaking, what Oprah wants, Oprah gets. In this case, it's more likely that the interview would be an attempt to gin up sympathy for this disgusting psychopath who actually filmed a video plea for help finding the children she had already drowned. The governor's spokesman, Rob Godfrey, couldn't have been more succinct or direct in his re-iteration of the denial to Oprah:

While Gov.-elect Haley has great respect for Oprah, let's be clear: Ms. Smith got enough press when she killed her children and lied about it to the country. South Carolina suffered enough from this tragedy, and we are now focused on the positives in our great state.

A vigorous and skeptical approach to media relations like those begun by governors Christie and Haley should greatly enhance the ability of our elected conservative representatives to accomplish the mandate provided them by the Tea Party and its allies while simultaneously continuing to shuffle the mainstream media down the road to obsolescence.

Ralph Alter is a regular contributor to American Thinker.