At least six U.S. Capitol Police officers were injured on Wednesday night when the situation erupted outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters. But even though the rioters were "illegally and violently protesting," they have gotten a pass from the mainstream media.
"We were met with intense police brutality," one protestor claimed. "I was shocked by the police," said another.
Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center (MRC) says that provided the media with the narrative they needed to avoid using terms like "riot" or "terrorists" or "war."
"They won't call it a riot," he predicts. "It'll just be a protest for peace, calls for a ceasefire, protesters, demonstrators. I think it's overall just a complete debasement of the liberal media engaging in mealy-mouthed behavior."
Sandy Rios, director of governmental affairs for the American Family Association (AFA), says the fact is people who support Hamas, which is supporting terrorism, are wreaking havoc everywhere they go.
"There's some kind of violent act," she observes. "They're not a peaceful bunch at all, and we know they're not. If they support terrorism, they are not peaceful."
Her theory is the riot was staged at the DNC to take the heat off Democrats for voting against aid for Israel.
"It might've been that they wanted to paint the DNC and Democrats as victims," Rios submits. "Rationally speaking, there's no reason in the world why Palestinian, pro-Hamas demonstrators would not attack the RNC, not the DNC. Everyone knows that Republicans are supporting Israel, and so the protesters that are pro-Hamas go attack the DNC? I don't think so."
Wednesday's crowd of about 150 sharply contrasted the estimated 300,000 who were involved in the peaceful March for Israel at the National Mall the day before in support of the Jewish state and against the antisemitism that has broken out across the country, much of it on university campuses.
On that coverage, Houck says the mainstream media "surprisingly" did a much better job.
"Really the only thing you could quibble with is the crowd size," he notes.
According to initial supports, "thousands" attended the march, but several networks have corrected the record to reflect that hundreds of thousands of people actually attended.
Editor's Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
