First, the obligatory media chorus of “ugliness” at Saturday’s anti-Health Care Bill rally at the Capitol, then the unsubstantiated claims of racist speech. So far, so Saul Alinksy.

Now the escalation continues. From Politico:

Steny Hoyer: Members are at risk

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is warning that some of his Democratic colleagues are being threatened with violence when they go back to their districts — and he wants Republicans to stand up and condemn the threats.

The Maryland Democrat said more than 10 House Democrats have reported incidents of threats or other forms of harassment about their support of the highly divisive health insurance overhaul vote. Hoyer emphasized that he didn’t have a specific number of threats and that was just an estimate.

“Just an estimate.”

Naturally, the media accepts this allegation at face value, and never once stops to question whether the Alinsky Party is, you know, exaggerating or even lying — as the spiritual mentor of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton taught it to do.

The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work.

The horse-race-obsessed Mainstream Media might want to look up the term, agents provocateurs…

And watch this video:

And maybe rent this Hitchcock movie…

Then, look up this event:

And find out who this guy was:

And then think about the allegations again, this time in historical context.

“I would hope that we would join together jointly and make it very clear that none of us condone this kind of activity,” Hoyer told reporters. “And when we see it, we speak out strongly in opposition to it. And I would hope that we would do that going forward.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the majority whip, said Democrats and Republicans should continue to speak out on these threats. “Silence gives consent,” Clyburn said.

So listen up, MSM, and consider this speaking out: God forbid that anything should happen. But if it does happen, try not to leap to pre-planted conclusions that fit the narrative: “Democrats good/Republicans bad.”

Put aside your tout sheets — are you listening, Chuck “Horserace” Todd? — and try to rediscover your long-lost skepticism. Then try to recall the oldest rule in journalism:

There are two sides to every story — and it’s your job to find the truth between them. Tempers are already too frayed, the tinder too dry. The country does not need you, my former colleagues at Time and elsewhere, to supply the match. You’re the firemen, not the arsonists.

Unless, of course, you’ve already chosen up sides.