Thursday, December 13, 2012

Media Bias: Union Violence Ignored


Gary L. Bauer

Campaign for Working Families

There's an old saying in journalism, "If it bleeds, it leads." In other words, violence makes headlines. Unless, of course, it is left-wing violence against conservatives. In that case, the media collectively shrug and spike the story.

That was the case in Michigan yesterday as union thugs went on a rampage outside the state capitol after the legislature passed a right-to-work law. We reported yesterday that a tent sponsored by a conservative organization was torn down while people were still inside. But unless you were watching Fox News, you probably saw nothing about the attack on Steven Crowder, a conservative comedian and Fox commentator.

Crowder was pummeled by union thugs. The vitriol and the vicious attack were caught on tape. You can watch it here.

Crowder wasn't the only one. Clint Tarver, a hot dog vender, had his cart trashed and was called "Uncle Tom" and a "ni--er" because he was selling hot dogs to conservatives.

Yet even with one liberal legislator warning, "There will be blood" as a result of the vote, there wasn't a single story about this left-wing union violence on CBS News last night.

I raise this to once again demonstrate the incredible bias conservatives are confronting in the "main stream" media. When the Tea Party movement began in early 2009 around the idea of reducing federal spending, polls showed favorable public support for the movement. Then the media smear machine went to work.

Almost immediately Tea Party supporters, largely middle-aged and senior citizens, were portrayed as semi-fascists who were trying to hijack the democratic process. Two years later, after a barrage of distorted lies by the media, the public had soured on the Tea Party. Consider this excerpt from an April ABC News report about the polling data:

"While overall support is roughly balanced with overall opposition, 'strong' opponents outnumber strong supporters by 2-1. But perhaps most damaging is the buzz: Fifty percent of Americans say the more they hear about the Tea Party, the less they like it; just 27 percent say they like it more."

When there was a massive anti-Obamacare rally in Washington, D.C., the media went wild with claims that black members of Congress were subjected to racial slurs and that one was spit on by a Tea Party member. Despite thousands of people present with cell phone video cameras, there was never any proof the allegations were true. In fact, videos taken of the event refuted the allegations, but the left-wing narrative stuck.