Yesterday's "Occupy Congress" push by the Occupy D.C. protesters resulted in four arrests at the U.S. Capitol and a lockdown at the White House after someone lobbed "an object similar to a smoke bomb" over the White House fence.
If such disturbing incidents accompanied a Tea Party protest, the harsh reaction by the Washington Post would be predictable and, indeed, to an extent justifiable. But Washington Post reporters Annie Gowen and Katie Rogers painted the protests in a generally positive light in Metro front page article, "Occupiers confront seats of power."* Indeed, Gowen and Rogers buried deep in their article the fact that one of the four protesters arrested was charged with assaulting a police officer.
Later, Gowen and Rogers described an instance of trespassing as "guerrilla theater":
Deb Van Poolen, 42, an organic farmer who is living in the Occupy camp at Freedom Plaza, glowed as she described the guerrilla theater she and others pulled off in the office of Sen. Carl Levin (D) from her home state of Michigan. The costumed Occupiers staged a play with mock terrorists and a mock 'Levin' behind bars before real police arrived and warned that they would be arrested.
As icing on the cake, Post editors grouped Gowen and Rogers's gushy piece with a pro-Occupy column by left-wing Post writer Courtland Milloy, who hailed Occupy's plan to "stay in the public's face.
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*The online headline reads, "Handful of protesters arrested during ‘Occupy Congress’; march moves from Capitol Hill to Supreme Court to White House"
