Amazon.com bungled handling a public relations crisis after it briefly sold a controversial, self-published electronic book in its Kindle store titled, The Pedophiles Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-lover's Code of Conduct. The book, essentially a guide for pedophiles, drew massive media attention and a barrage of public scorn. At first, Amazon defended the author's free speech rights and issued a statement saying it doesn't condone censorship:

Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable. Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.

Soon after, though, Amazon yielded to complaints and threats of a boycott and pulled the book entirely. Amazon's content guidelines for authors, including prohibitions on pornography or offensive material, could have prevented the e-book from being listed on its site to begin with, but the company's confused handling of the situation left it facing even more controversy, including questions about its commitment to quality control and whether the company did, in fact, infringe on the author's free speech rights.

Despite the media's enthusiasm for covering it, the Tea Party is nothing new. Rather, it is a simple re-branding of the hard right. The "Tea Party" concept provides a unifying force for a variety of groups with hard-right ideology and a mixture of pet causes, like anti-immigrant vigilantes, "birthers" (who deny that Barack Obama is an American citizen), The Oath Keepers (law enforcement officers who take an oath not to obey orders that they believe defy the U.S. Constitution), people who watch Fox News and listen to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Candidates referred to as "Tea Party" candidates in the 2010 election did not seek the label, but drew the label due to their extreme right-wing views. The term "Tea Party" is shorthand for a general sentiment promoting low taxes and smaller government that is shared by a loose coalition of somewhat like-minded people. The "Tea Party" itself has no headquarters, no established leaders and no policies. The Washington Post attempted to contact every Tea Party group in the U.S., and found that many did not exist. The "Tea Party" thus represents general views held by a segment of the population that are promoted by Fox News Channel and huge amounts of money from private corporations and wealthy individuals who fund Tea Party Express, Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity and other front groups run by people who have proven track records of Republican right-wing activism.