David Freddoso writes at the Washington Examiner:

Whenever I'm asked about media treatment of the Tea Parties, I ask myself a simple question: What do you suppose the media would say if tea partiers were biting off people's fingers?

A new question for today: What would they be saying if even a small group of Tea Partiers physically attacked the police at a rally?

Witnesses say a group protesting against SB1070 (Arizona's harsh new immigration law) began to fight with a man who was for the controversial immigration bill.

Police tried escorting that man away from the scene, fearing for his safety, when they too came under attack by people throwing items, including water bottles.

The part about throwing water bottles reminds me that Mark Steyn pointed out on Rush Limbaugh that after a Tea Party protest in Washington, the Mall is cleaner than it was before, because the protesters clean up after themselves.

Whereas the protesters who were protesting in favor of illegal immigration would probably be making a   mess even if they weren't protesting.

But it's all part of the media double standard, first noted by Edith Efron in The News Twisters, in 1971—the media report conservative protests as if they were attacks, and physical attacks on conservatives as if they were protests.