Media Matters silent as networks ignore union violence

Media Matters isn’t talking about Steven Crowder.

The liberal media watchdog organization has gone deafeningly silent in the wake of Tuesday’s union violence in Lansing, Michigan. That’s where protesters opposed to the state’s now-passed “right to work” law destroyed a tea party group’s occupied tent and punched Fox News contributor Steven Crowder in the face.

Those two incidents — both captured in crystal-clear video — have received wall-to-wall coverage on the Fox News Channel since they occurred. Meanwhile, an analysis by the conservative Media Research Center released Wednesday showed that Tuesday’s ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts all ignored the attacks, only referring to the protests as “boisterous.”
“None of them mentioned the attack on Crowder or showed the videos of that attack and the thugs tearing down a[n Americans for Prosperity] tent with people in it, both widely available on the Internet hours before the evening news show broadcast,” MRC’s Dan Gainor wrote in an op-ed on Wednesday. “No network quoted Teamsters head Jimmy Hoffa predicting ‘civil war‘ between lawmakers and union members.”

Such discrepancy in editorial judgment is often the basis for Media Matters’ attacks on the Fox News Channel. The group regularly accuses the network of over-covering news that doesn’t advance the Democratic agenda — or under-covering news that does.

But even with such a dramatic difference between Fox’s coverage of the Michigan union protests and that of the major networks, Media Matters hasn’t printed a single sentence in the last 24 hours that includes the word “Crowder.”

Instead, the group has focused its coverage of Michigan’s “right to work” battle solely on condemning the “anti-worker law.”

If Media Matters did come to Crowder’s defense, it wouldn’t be the first time the organization attempted a principled stand on behalf of a political opponent.
“There are a lot of legitimate reasons to criticize Sarah Palin, her new book, and her policies, but you don’t have to stoop to sexism to do it,” Media Matters writer Julie Millican wrote then.
Media Matters appears to be joined by a fairly solid coalition of liberals who have chosen to ignore Tuesday’s attacks.

Reacting to the news that a Michigan Democrat declared ”There will be blood” from the floor of the Michigan House, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday, “The president believes in debate that’s civil. I haven’t seen those comments, and I’m not sure that they mean what some would interpret them to mean.”

The unabashedly liberal Gawker.com wondered in a headline Wednesday morning, “Do We Really Have to Condemn the Union Protestor Who Punched Fox News Comedian Steven Crowder?”
A spokeswoman for Media Matters did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller.

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