Protests have taken place in multiple American cities every night since the election. But the media refuse to call the violent perpetrators for what they are: rioters.
Since Donald Trump’s win, thousands have taken to the streets in cities including Los Angeles, New York and Portland to protest the election. Some of the protests turned violent, such as in Portland, where police declared Thursday night’s protest a riot. But of the three major networks, only CBS referred to the violence as “riots,” and no network used the term “rioters.”
Although CBS Evening News referred to the demonstrations as “riots” three times, the show did not call the unruly mass responsible for the violence “rioters,” but instead called them “protesters.”
Neither ABC nor NBC even used the word “riots.” ABC World News Tonight mentioned “protests” 11 times and “protesters” nine times. NBC Nightly News mentioned “protests” three times and “protesters” one time.
The violence around the country consisted of hundreds of arrests as well as acts of vandalism, arson and violence.
One example of the election violence came from an AP video of the Portland, Oregon riots showing rioters lighting a tree and newspaper dispenser on fire, smashing cars and bus stops and knocking over newspaper dispensers.
Methodology: MRC Culture analyzed three nights of ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows from Nov. 11 through Nov. 13, tracking the amount of times the words “protests,” “protesters,” “riots” and “rioters” were used by the networks. ABC and NBC did not publish evening news shows Nov. 12.
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