Media double standard coverage on protests

Via Don Surber:

"In Pittsburgh — as at every economic summit in the last 20 years — rocks are thrown and the riot police have to come out. The LOS ANGELES TIMES reported:

"Today, the demonstrators seemed happy. At least, as happy as an antiabortion, antiwar, anti-government, anti-consumerism, anti-seemingly-everything crowd can be.

"But when it became very clear that the cops were not going to let the crowd anywhere near the convention center, things went bad.

"The protesters started throwing rocks at police and police cars, and dragging trash containers into the middle of the street to block traffic. No surprise, the police fired canisters of pepper spray, white smoke and some rubber bullets into the crowds."

(DS): "And some in the press laughed it off. The same Fourth Estate that was wringing its hands over the harsh words of those tea-bagging pooopy pantsers takes violence by the left in stride."

Headlined McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS: “What’s a global economic summit without protests?”
PITTSBURGH — As leaders of the world’s most developed nations inched closer to consensus here Thursday on how best to restrict compensation packages for financial executives, masked protesters and police in armored vehicles clashed in what’s become a familiar ritual at such meetings.

"In a chaotic scene near downtown Pittsburgh, police in riot gear quashed an unauthorized march by an estimated 2,000 protesters, some clad in black and carrying posters with anarchist symbols. Police responded with tear gas and arrests. However, the streets around the meeting site were well secured and generally peaceful.

"Generally peaceful is defined as hoodlums in black masks hurling rocks at the police. To McClatchy Newspapers reporters, it is now perfectly acceptable to throw rocks at police and the like as a political protest. But if a right-winger dares to say something untoward about Obama, well that is a racist cry for assassination, isn’t it?

Reported McCLATCHY: “There’s no denying Obama’s race plays a role in protests.”
It is not a double standard on the part of some in the media; it is outright distortion.

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2009/09/25/10155/