Academic

TIGERHAWK ON THE MEDIA?S VARIABLE TREATMENT OF PROTESTS AND VIOLENCE: A few clowns shout at a ?te?

By Glenn Reynolds

TIGERHAWK ON THE MEDIA’S VARIABLE TREATMENT OF PROTESTS AND VIOLENCE:

A few clowns shout at a “tea party” and the media starts worrying about the resurgent Klan, but the left literally attacks the police at the G20 protests and nobody says anything.

There are two possible explanations for this different approach of the media to edgy demonstrators of the left and right.

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.

Sorry, I’m going with number one here.

UPDATE: Related thoughts from Jesse Walker.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Not condemning G20 violence at The Huffington Post.

MORE: Moe Lane chimes in.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on September 25, 2009 (boomark / email).