After protests in Washington, D.C. started to get out of hand just before Donald Trump was sworn in as America’s 45th president, two D.C. stations went with local over network coverage to show viewers what was happening.
At around 2 pmET, Sinclair’s WJLA broke into ABC News coverage with Alison Starling and Jonathan Elias in studio. The two tossed to Horace Holmes who was standing at 12th and L street NW where police had corralled a group of protesters.
Holmes says he had heard at least 11 explosions which he attributed police deploying tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
Fox-owned WTTG broke into Fox News coverage with Shepard Smith about the same time. Jim Lokay and Sarah Simmons, who were in studio, tossed to a live phoner with station photographer Ronnie McRay who was on scene and reported “a lot of flash bangs going off.”
During our check of TVEyes, we noticed NBC and CBS were sticking with network coverage on-air. But a WRC spokesperson tells us the NBC-owned station has been covering the protests since 10:30 on its COZI and digital outlets