While NBC’s Today was praising the resolve of the anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas students encamped at Columbia University on Thursday, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Mornings lamented that other schools were cracking down and forcefully removing the encampments. They were also dismayed by the hundreds of arrests that were made.
“Now, to another tense day of protests over Israel's war in Gaza. Those protests taking place on college campuses now all across the country. From coast to coast, hundreds of people have been arrested in Massachusetts, Texas, and California,” decried CBS Mornings co-anchor Natalie Morales.
Completely ignoring the video evidence of the crowd chanting their “love” of Hamas and the signs saying Jewish counter-protesters should be murdered, CBS correspondent Nancy Chen reported: “Here at Columbia University, students say their encampment is peaceful.”
According to Chen, the police were the problem. “Overnight, chaos erupted as police tried to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment at Emerson College in Boston,” she said. “On Wednesday, demonstrators clashed with school security at USC in Los Angeles after school police ordered students to move their encampment.”
Chen also decried the rallies authorities were able to shut down. “By nighttime, police shut the gates to the school and pushed pro-Palestinian protesters out. Also on Wednesday, hundreds gathered at the University of Texas at Austin where they were met with a show of force, as well,” she lamented.
Over on Good Morning America, correspondent Trevor Ault also bemoaned the successful crackdowns. He huffed that “up to 100 protesters [were] arrested at Emerson College after they “attempt[ed] to form a human wall to stop police.”
“Police at the University of Southern California arresting 93 people while removing tents and clearing protesters from a Gaza solidarity camp, one precinct now full of arrested protesters,” he noted.
He reported that one of ABC’s reporters, Mireya Villareal, was caught up in the crackdown at the University of Texas at Austin where they “used horses to disperse crowds.” “A cameraman filming the demonstration, grabbed by police and thrown to the ground,” he added, editing out the part where the Fox 7 Austin cameraman named Carlos ran up and used his camera as a weapon to ram into an officer.
What NOT to do, as a member of the press:
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) April 24, 2024
Ram a police officer with your camera.
pic.twitter.com/V1iiEl7XKX
Ault didn’t seem to like that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) threatened to pull federal funding from the schools that were allowing anti-Semitism and threats to Jewish students, nor Johnson’s encouragement to bring in the National Guard:
AULT: The Speaker telling our Linsey Davis schools could lose federal funding.
JOHNSON: They've been camped on the campus. They are threatening people with their lives and they are preventing them from exercising their freedom. That's the limit. That's the line.
[Cuts back to live]
AULT: And Speaker Johnson even said it's possible they could call in the National Guard to these schools if needed.
At least when Chen reported that Johnson had said Columbian had been “taken over by a radical and extreme ideology,” she admitted he was, “Citing several recent incidents of anti-Semitic language by protesters on and off campus.”
The transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Good Morning America
April 25, 2024
7:08:16 a.m. Eastern(…)
TREVOR AULT: This morning the nationwide movement of campus demonstrations leading to sometimes violent. Overnight at Emerson College in Boston, protesters attempting to form a human wall to stop police moving in, up to 100 protesters arrested. Police at the University of Southern California arresting 93 people while removing tents and clearing protesters from a Gaza solidarity camp, one precinct now full of arrested protesters.
These tense moments after a scuffle between officers in riot gear and a pro-Palestinian group, the university now closed to anyone but students.
JAKE PUZEL (USC student): It makes me feel threatened and intimidated and I think the anti-Semitic rhetoric must be condemned by the university.
AULT: An unauthorized protest breaking out at the University of Texas in Austin. Dozens arrested as officers used horses to disperse crowds. Some nearly crashing into our Mireya Villareal, who was on the scene. A camera man filming the demonstration, grabbed by police and thrown to the ground.
Similar encampments springing up at Brown University and Harvard. And at Columbia, university officials extending a deadline to remove this large encampment to Thursday night as negotiations with students continue.
SPOH ASKANASE (Pro-Hamas Barnard College student): Myself, my peer, my colleagues, my friend, we're not going to stop. We're not going to rest. We will stand here until the university divests from Israeli apartheid and their genocidal campaign in Gaza.
AULT: House Speaker Mike Johnson visiting campus, criticizing school officials for allowing the continued demonstrations.
SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We just can't allow this kind of hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish on our campuses. [Transition] They have chased down Jewish students. They have mocked them and reviled them. They have shouted racial epithets.
AULT: The Speaker telling our Linsey Davis schools could lose federal funding.
JOHNSON: They've been camped on the campus. They are threatening people with their lives and they are preventing them from exercising their freedom. That's the limit. That's the line.
[Cuts back to live]
AULT: And Speaker Johnson even said it's possible they could call in the National Guard to these schools if needed.
(…)
CBS Mornings
April 25, 2024
7:07:47 a.m. EasternNATALIE MORALES: Now, to another tense day of protests over Israel's war in Gaza. Those protests taking place on college campuses now all across the country. From coast to coast, hundreds of people have been arrested in Massachusetts, Texas, and California. Nancy Chen is at Columbia University once again for us. It has been a flashpoint there for more than a week now. Nancy, good morning.
NANCY CHEN: Natalie, good morning to you. Here at Columbia University, students say their encampment is peaceful. Meantime, at colleges across the country it has been a very different picture over the past 24 hours.
[Cuts to video]
Overnight, chaos erupted as police tried to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment at Emerson College in Boston. As the latest flashpoint in a growing movement at campuses nationwide protesting Israel's war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, demonstrators clashed with school security at USC in Los Angeles after school police ordered students to move their encampment.
RANDA SWEISS (Pro-Hamas protester): Both sides of my family were displaced from Palestine, and I'm here using my voice because my grandparents couldn't.
CHEN: By nighttime, police shut the gates to the school and pushed pro-Palestinian protesters out.
Also on Wednesday, hundreds gathered at the University of Texas at Austin where they were met with a show of force, as well.
In New York, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was interrupted by loud booing during his visit to Columbia University. The epicenter of demonstrations calling for cutting all school financial ties to Israel and amnesty for students punished for participating in protests. He claimed the university is being taken over by a radical and extreme ideology.
PRO-HAMAS ANTI-SEMITIC PROTESTER: Go back to Poland!
CHEN: Citing several recent incidents of anti-Semitic language by protesters on and off campus.
(…)
