On Monday's The O'Reilly Factor on FNC, substitute host Laura Ingraham and FNC analyst Bernard Goldberg discussed the mainstream media's double standard in handwringing over whether peaceful Tea Party protesters will inspire violence while actual violence perpetrated at left-leaning rallies is ignored. After playing a clip of police officers in Phoenix being hit by bottles thrown by protesters who oppose Arizona's planned crackdown on illegal immigration, Ingraham set up Goldberg: "Why are we surprised when we have some thugs out there in Phoenix over the weekend causing trouble? And we don't know who is responsible, but there was thuggish behavior. Meanwhile, still hearing about the Tea Parties that were largely peaceful, of course."
Goldberg summed up the double standard:
If you understand one fairly obvious truth, everything else really fits right into place. And that is that, if the "lamestream" media basically sympathizes with your cause, they're going to treat you one way. And if they don't sympathize with your cause, they're going to treat you another way. So if one idiot at a Tea Party rally throws a stink bomb at a cop, the story is going to be played basically as the guy throwing the stink bomb, there was an unruly crowd and all of that.
But if you have the pictures that you just showed with people throwing bottles at cops and all of that, it's going to be portrayed as a mainly, largely peaceful rally. I don't have a problem with that part. It is mainly a peaceful rally. But so are the Tea Party rallies, and they're not portrayed that way. They're portrayed as bigoted and angry and all of that.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, April 26, The O'Reilly Factor on FNC:
LAURA INGRAHAM: And in the "Weekdays with Bernie" segment tonight, as we told you, thousands of people in Phoenix gathered over the weekend to protest a new state immigration law. The crowds got rowdy at times. Check out this video of protesters throwing plastic bottles at police, or this where a man with a camera was attacked by one of the protest organizers. The mainstream media largely ignored these incidents, a stark contrast to the big headlines made by largely peaceful Tea Party protesters. Joining us now from Miami, Fox News analyst Bernie Goldberg, author of the book A Slobbering Love Affair. And Bernie, why are we surprised when we have-
BERNIE GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS ANALYST: I'm not.
INGRAHAM: -some thugs out there in Phoenix over the weekend causing trouble? And we don't know who is responsible, but there was thuggish behavior. Meanwhile, still hearing about the Tea Parties that were largely peaceful, of course.
GOLDBERG: I'm not surprised. If you understand one fairly obvious truth, everything else really fits right into place. And that is that, if the "lamestream" media basically sympathizes with your cause, they're going to treat you one way. And if they don't sympathize with your cause, they're going to treat you another way. So if one idiot at a Tea Party rally throws a stink bomb at a cop, the story is going to be played basically as the guy throwing the stink bomb, there was an unruly crowd and all of that. But if you have the pictures that you just showed with people throwing bottles at cops and all of that, it's going to be portrayed as a mainly, largely peaceful rally. I don't have a problem with that part. It is mainly a peaceful rally. But so are the Tea Party rallies, and they're not portrayed that way. They're portrayed as bigoted and angry and all of that.
INGRAHAM: Well, we look at the review, Bernie, yes.
GOLDBERG: It fits the narrative. It fits the narrative.
INGRAHAM: Yes, we look at that review, whether from CNN or some of the other networks, and they report on the protests, angry protests, because of basically the mean immigration law. So the focus turns to the discriminatory law and why that is compelling people to act out on their, you know, their firmly and rightly held beliefs.
GOLDBERG: That's absolutely true. I read a lot of the stuff. And that's what they do. Even when they acknowledge that there were some people in the crowd that were unruly, they portray them as victims of the people who passed the law. They were only unruly because they're frustrated at the law. There was an old song years and years ago that said "accentuate the positive, de-emphasize the negative." Well, if the "lamestreams" agree with your cause, then they accentuate the positive and de-emphasize the negative. But if they don't -- and they don't with the Tea Party people -- then they do it just the other way around. They emphasize the negative and de-emphasize the positive.
