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From Celebration to Anger: TV Newsers Pivot to Covering D.C. Protests

By A.J. Katz 

The TV news networks have moved from covering the pageantry of peaceful transfer of power to protesting in the streets of Washington, D.C. The “pocket” of protests, as CNN’s Alisyn Camerota called them, are primarily taking place in the Franklin Park neighborhood about 6 blocks north of the parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue. Nearly 100 people have been arrested as protesters clash with police.

Jacob Rascon is reporting from the scene for MSNBC: “So, now we have a police line. Obviously, they have their riot shields. They’re protecting against the rocks being thrown by protesters. This has been going on for about a half hour,” Rascon reported just after 2 p.m. ET. “Police are spraying pepper spray. They’re also throwing the flash bangs, which are very loud. You might have heard some of those earlier. To be clear, there were many hundreds of protesters earlier, but now those that are actually actively fighting against the police, there are only several dozen of them.”

Griff Jenkins is reporting from the scene for Fox News: “We have a situation where the police are clashing with protesters. It’s important to note that the streets have not been like this all day. A few hours ago, about 12 or so protesters were charged with rioting. They were vandalizing some stores. And it has erupted in this small area of three or four streets.”

CBS News’ Errol Barnett is reporting from the scene as well: “At this stage at least 95 people have been arrested and two police officers we’re told at least two police officers have been sent to hospital with minor injuries,” said Barnett. “In the past 60 minutes we watched as police, DC metro police in full riot gear, try to contain the more unruly parts of today’s demonstrations. In doing that, they used these flash bang devices that were thrown back toward police. I watched one explode in front of an officer’s face. I also watched as protesters while the riot police were in full line formation, threw loose bricks towards them, the riot police needing to use their shields to deflect them. After that, the police then moved in and pushed protest protesters toward Franklin Square, an area that is roughly four blocks from the White House so not too far where Donald Trump inauguration parade is taking place.”

He saw this at approximately 2:35 p.m. ET:

 Capture fire cbs news protest


 

Washington Post senior politics editor Steven Ginsberg snapped a photo of the action below him.

 

Our sister blog TVSpy is reporting that a photographer from Sinclair’s Washington, D.C. ABC affiliate WJLA was knocked down. Politico’s M. Scott Mahaskey sent out this tweet:

 

CNN political analyst David Gregory, and New Day co-hosts Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota comment on the protests:

 

 

ABC News is covering the action as well. George Stephanopoulos spoke with Peter Newsham, D.C.’s interim police chief by phone, who said the following:

 

 

A limo was set on fire by protesters: 

Protests are also taking place in other countries:

 

NBC News’ Miguel Almaguer reported that he and his camera man were hit with pepper spray from cops at the corner of 14th and K Street just before 5 p.m. ET. Apparently bricks and bottles have been thrown by protesters towards the cops. Periods of calm and periods of violence, Almaguer said.

Capture miguel almaguer nbc news

 

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