This really gets into a bigger issue: do you trust what is said in the media? According to the media ( see the link somebody provided regarding this incident on the first page ) the initial conflict seem to have resolved but it is stated the FA returned to this PAX and started up with him. Obviously that's an entirely different situation.

It may be the adage : a dog biting a man is not news, but a man biting the dog is. Sure, unruly passengers get kicked off all the time, but an FA going berserk would sell a lot more newspapers.

So again, who knows what really happened? But they do cite witnesses who sided with the PAX