Fox News reporter covering DC George Floyd protests assaulted by crowd

“This was the scariest situation I’ve been in since I got chased out of Tahrir Square by a mob, and this was equally scary,” said Leland Vittert, alluding to his coverage of the 2011 Arab Spring.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Protesters rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in New York (photo credit: REUTERS)
Protesters rally against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in New York
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Fox News reporter Leland Vittert and his film crew were chased down outside the White House on Saturday by a group of activists protesting the killing of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
What began initially with verbal taunts soon turned awry as the protesters began surrounding the film crew. Individual protesters threw water and objects at the reporter and his entourage; others from the hostile crowd charged at Vittert, causing him and his crew to put a bounce in their step as they navigated their way through Lafayette Square.
"F*** Fox News," one of the protesters shouted.
Although unclear in the video, Fox News reported that the crew was also physically assaulted and that a company camera was broken when a protester in the crowd tried to grab it from its operator.
“This was the scariest situation I’ve been in since I got chased out of Tahrir Square by a mob, and this was equally scary,” said Vittert, alluding to his coverage of the 2011 Arab Spring. He has also covered areas of conflict in the past, in places such as Libya, Ukraine and the West Bank. Additionally, he covered the 2015 Baltimore riots sparked by the death of Freddie Gray, who died while in police custody.
Vittert added, however, that this episode left him and his crew deeply "shaken."
Fox News, US President Donald Trump’s preferred broadcaster, is a conservative-leaning broadcast group owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The media outlet has lived under a cloud of scrutiny for its reported ties to the president, conservative editorializing within news stories and employing broadcasters who hold or substantiate far-right viewpoints or deny their existence completely, like former broadcaster Tucker Carlson.
"They're a Republican brand. They're an extension of the Republican Party with some exceptions, [like] Greta Van Susteren. But I don't begrudge them that," Larry King said in a 2007 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. "[Fox News CEO] Roger Ailes is an old friend. They've been nice to me. They've said some very nice things about me. Not [Bill] O'Reilly, but I don't watch him."
Early last year, the Democratic National Convention made a decision to bar Fox News from hosting any of its presidential candidates' political debates through 2020, citing a report in The New Yorker which alleged ties between the broadcaster and the president.
Trump responded to the announcement by saying he may refuse to participate in certain debates.
“I think I’ll do the same thing with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats in the General Election debates!” he said in a Twitter post.
Trump has criticized CNN and MSNBC, among other media, as “Fake News” for their coverage of his administration.
Peaceful protests have unraveled into nightly riots in Minneapolis following a bystander video on Monday showing a white Minneapolis police officer pinning his knee into the neck of an unarmed black man who later died.
The video, showed a handcuffed Floyd, 46, lying face down, groaning for help and repeatedly saying, "Please, I can't breathe," before becoming motionless. He died in hospital shortly thereafter.
The demonstrations, accompanied by looting and vandalism, began on Wednesday, hours after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged prosecutors to file criminal charges against the white policeman shown pinning Floyd to the ground.
Protesters flee tear gas during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Atlanta, Georgia, US May 29, 2020. (Reuters)
Protesters flee tear gas during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, in Atlanta, Georgia, US May 29, 2020. (Reuters)
In addition to a US Post Office and a Wells Fargo Bank branch, several other nearby businesses were destroyed by fire over the last few nights of riots, including a convenience store and a Walgreen's drug store.
"What I saw was really worse than what I saw in Somalia," said Somali and Minneapolis resident Mohammad Abdi, who fled his native war-torn country in 2004. "It was really, really sad. Wow! Just wow!"
Floyd's death has sparked outrage and even violent protests in other US cities, including New York, Atlanta and Washington, even after Chauvin was fired from the police force and, on Friday, arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter.
The incident also led to the dismissal of three other officers who stood idly by as Floyd cried out for help.
The victim's brother Philonise Floyd told CNN on Thursday that he was "tired of seeing black men die" and understood people's anger but urged protesters to be peaceful.
"To the police: I want them to get everything right – start doing your job the right way because I haven't been seeing it," Philonise said.
The city identified the other three former officers involved in the encounter as, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng. It did not say who knelt on Floyd's neck, and gave no further information.
Local media has identified Chauvin as the officer who knelt on Floyd. His attorney, Tom Kelly, said in an email to Reuters that he did not have a statement about the incident.
A petition on Change.org calling for authorities to arrest and charge the four had more than 1.1 million signatures on Thursday morning.
Reuters contributed to this report.