A Fox News crew including reporter Leland Vittert was harassed and chased while reporting on the riots in Washington, D.C., that began in protest of the police-involved death of George Floyd, an African-American man in Minneapolis.
The Daily Caller News Foundation was also following the protests and caught the incident on film as demonstrators shout “F*** Fox News! F*** Fox News!” and “F*** that fake-a** news!”
One protester ran up to Vittert and grabbed his microphone before throwing it at the reporter. Water was also thrown on Vittert as he and his crew left the area. The DCNF said Vittert was reporting live when the protesters started to attack.
Fox News reported that Vittert and his crew were “pushed and hit with water bottles, and a Fox News camera was broken when a member of the mob tried to grab it.”
“Imagine what it’s like to be a black man, feeling like this every f***ing day,” a woman shouted at the news crew.
Fox reported that the crew reported the incident to a nearby policeman and that those involved were not seriously injured.
Vittert was reporting live during “Fox News At Night” with Shannon Bream. In footage posted by Newsbusters Editor Curtis Houck, Bream attempts to turn the broadcast over to Vittert for his take, but he is surrounded by screaming protesters and shakes his head to tell her not to switch to him. After Fox cuts away, Bream passes the segment to reporter Jonathan Serrie, who was reporting live from Atlanta, Georgia, and had no issues with the crowd.
Video: In which Fox News Channel’s @LelandVittert is surrounded, overtaken, and chased off of his liveshot by an angry mob shouting “f*** Fox News.”@ShannonBream tosses to him, and he shakes his head as if to tell her not to. pic.twitter.com/dzZXD00X3b
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 30, 2020
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Hours earlier, the White House had been on lockdown as protests and riots escalated around the country. Fox News journalists and other members of the press were moved inside for a brief period with approximately a dozen reporters sheltered inside the West Wing.
The ongoing protests are in reaction to the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis May 25 after a white officer pinned him down by pressing his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck while Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired and on Friday was charged with murder. Three other police officers were also fired but have not been charged.
Large-scale rioting broke out Friday night across the U.S., from New York City and Washington, D.C., to Chicago; Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Ky., and Dallas, to San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles and Portland, Ore.
CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta was also attacked, with multiple windows broken. The logo out front was also spray-painted as protesters waved a Black Lives Matter flag. A CNN crew was also arrested in Minneapolis but was quickly released. Fox News expressed support for what happened to the CNN reporters, but CNN has yet to issue any support for what happened to Vittert and the Fox News crew.
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