Quote of the day - Bias

"It's obvious what happened: big-government bias. To much of the establishment media, a preference for limited government is a dangerous idea. Ergo, its supporters must be dangerous, too. But liberals don't find a preference for big government threatening, so they view its supporters as non-threatening as well."

-A. Barton Hinkle - Writing for Reason magazine

The liberal bias of the leftist media means they will excuse and whitewash the actions of leftists while doing all they can to denigrate anyone who doesn't share leftist ideals.  It has been this way as long as I can remember.  Media coverage of the Tea Party protests was the perfect example of this.  Tea partiers were attacked by the media and portrayed in a violent light regardless of their actual actions.  When leftists then exhibited the exact kind of behavior the media had been desperately trying to pin on the "right-wing" Tea Partiers, it was either excused away, downplayed or simply not covered at all.

That's the thing with hardcore leftists.  If you threaten their ideological bubble they view it not just as an attack on their ideals, but as an attack on them.  Being emotionally driven and generally irrational, they respond with an emotional reponse to this "perceived" personal attack and out comes the vitriol and the violence.

I can't really blame the left.  Liberals want to control every aspect of your life.  As such, those who espouse a preference for limited government, individual rights and personal autonomy ARE viewed as threatening at a more personal level.