The Media Blind Spot To Left-Wing Violence
By K. Daniel Glover | September 25, 2009
For months, the liberal media have been warning America that "right-wing extremists" and "tea partiers" are whipping the country into an anti-government frenzy that inevitably will result in violence, but their at best irrational and at worst manufactured fears have not been warranted.
Hundreds of thousands of government critics marched on Washington on Sept. 12 and caused not one bit of trouble. Rest assured that any incidents would have been plastered all over the media if they had occurred.
Contrast that with what happened Thursday at the G20 meeting of economic leaders in Pittsburgh. Police had to fire pepper spray and smoke at left-wing anarchists who haven't a clue how to conduct a peaceful protest, but the trouble has barely made the news. The Huffington Post celebrated the protests with a vote-on-your-favorite photo contest that included shots of the street thugs.
The blog TigerHawk offered two possible explanations for the media's obsession with painting conservative protesters as kooks while ignoring liberal protesters who actually are kooks:
First, the mainstream media are completely in the tank for the Democrats, and want to help them push the talking point that the tea partiers are both extremists and typical Republicans (neither of which is generally true).
Second, the left benefits from the soft bigotry of low expectations: People expect leftists to act like thugs at these gatherings as they have for 40 years, so when they do again it is the same-old same-old. The striving burghers of the right, however, have never done this before, so it is news.
Instapundit Glenn Reynolds chose the first explanation. "Until we see scenes like this, I don't want to hear yammering about the violence inherent in the Tea Party movement," he said. Amen to that.
K. Daniel Glover is a project manager for Accuracy In Media. He has worked as an editor, writer and new media specialist in the Washington area since 1991, spending most of that time at National Journal and Congressional Quarterly.
3 Comments | Post a Comment
Dear Wesley, Most of the time I do NOT want someone else to speak for me. Today, YOU are the exception to my own rule. You speak to me & for me,,& I agree 100%. The “Silent Majority” is no longer SILENT. Nor are we VIOLENT like the Pro-fessional protesters that show up at radical rallies nation wide for decades.(check the FBI photos) The more famous they are, the more hypocritical they are. They all say they HATE Capitalism out loud, but under their breath they say,“Buy my CD, pay to see my latest Movie,or buy
stuff with my name on it” It’s ALL about the MONEY
Good Day Major, I just don’t get it, we live in the greatest Country on Earth, to keep it that way our Military has fought for the freedoms so our people can enjoy life and liberty.
Here’s another one for you, Obama is writing a book, soon to be published…AS a SETTING President, he has already been paid $1.5 million dollars in an advance. Never been done before by any setting President…It is an unspoken rule which has always been there. Does he not realize the danger he and his Marxist Administration has put all of us in…
But you are correct, it is all about the Money. People who are putting down Capitalism are the ones benefiting the most. Sean Penn and his ilk who cozy up to foreign Dictators will never see a penny of my money, in fact I believe he and others should have been shot for treason against the United States of America!
September 26 at 10:27 am | #1 | Link
“Blind Spot”, that is an understatement for the Fringe Media to make (I no longer consider them “Main Stream”).
Let them keep this up, many 100’s of thousands ( if not millions) have awoken, and are no longer buying this. One reason is 26% of Blacks are now against Obama’s agenda(s).
Never I my life have I seen a Party (Democrat) so dishonest, so arrogant, they believe everyone else is buying this rotten fruit, the only ones being fooled are those who want to be fooled. So who does that make the more stupid, the fools?...Of course.
Fool me once…shame on me, fool me twice…shame on you.