Dangers from protests seen, felt by journalists
NEW YORK — A Fox News reporter was pummeled and chased by protesters who had gathered outside the White House early Saturday as part of nationwide unrest after the death of George Floyd.
For several journalists across the country, the demonstrations were taking a more dangerous turn.
A television reporter in Columbia, S.C., was hurt by a thrown rock Saturday, and a journalist in Minneapolis was shot in the thigh by a rubber bullet. Demonstrators broke windows and vandalized the Atlanta office building where CNN is based. And police in Louisville, Ky., apologized after an officer fired what appeared to be pepper bullets at a television news crew.
Fox’s Leland Vittert was rattled after the Washington attack that he said was clearly targeting his news organization.
“We took a good thumping,” he told The Associated Press. A live shot he was doing was interrupted by a group of protesters who shouted obscenities directed at Fox. Flanked by two security guards, he and photographer Christian Galdabini walked away from Washington’s Lafayette Park, trailed by a group of protesters before riot police dispersed them.
Vittert said there were no markings on him or the crew’s equipment to identify them as being from Fox. But he said that during the demonstration, one man continually asked him what news outlet he worked for. He didn’t answer, but the man found a picture of Vittert on his cellphone and shouted to other protesters that he was from Fox.
“The protesters stopped protesting whatever it was they were protesting and turned on us,” he said, “and that was a very different feeling.”
He compared it to when he was chased away from a demonstration in Egypt during the Arab Spring of 2011 by a group that shouted, “Fox News hates Muslims.”
A correspondent from the website The Daily Caller followed Vittert and the demonstrators as they left the park. At one point, someone took Vittert’s microphone and threw it at his back. One woman chasing him wore a T-shirt that said, “I can’t breathe,” a reference to what Floyd said last week when a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against the man’s neck.
Vittert said he was “extremely grateful” to The Daily Caller for documenting the scene; Galdabini’s camera was smashed. “They were putting themselves at risk,” he said.
On Friday, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his two-person crew were arrested while covering overnight protests in Minneapolis. They were quickly released, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz apologized to CNN.
CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta was targeted later Friday by a group of protesters who also fought with police and set cars afire. While police tried to keep them away from the CNN Center, demonstrators broke windows there and scrawled obscene graffiti on the CNN logo.
In Louisville, WAVE-TV was on the air covering a demonstration when video showed a police officer aiming a rifle at reporter Kaitlin Rust and her crew. She was heard yelling: “I’ve been shot! I’ve been shot!” with what she described as pepper bullets.
Louisville police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay apologized for the incident and said police would review the video for potential discipline.