Just the simple act of calling a thuggish riot a protest in one way. It makes it sound like it's not a criminal act. Then they caption the pictures of the "protest' with "Citizens in Oregon standing up for themselves" or some such similar nonsense.
I understand what you're saying. But as I mentioned a couple of months back to Phil after the election....people like you want protestors to protest peacefully like MLK. Ideally it would be nice if that form of protest worked more often, but as I pointed out back then, even MLK grew frustrated and mentioned that his nonviolent method of protesting was only getting him empty promises. So marching silently while holding picket signs isn't always what it's cracked up to be.
I've been fortunate enough that I've never lived in a bad/rough community. So I can't begin to understand the frustration that some of those people endure on a daily basis. Communities reach a tipping point of despair and as we've seen, communities explode.
As an aside, I've never understood why people riot and tear up their own neighborhood.
All that said, I do know for a fact that there are some who are just out there rioting just to be rioting.* Trying to get free stuff and whatnot.
Honestly they could call it a riot and I'd be fine with it. They called the LA and Watts riots "riots" and those incidents were ignited by circumstances that are similar to what we're seeing these days.