Howard Kurtz says media coverage is reducing violent riots to a 'footnote' in the Portland story
Says reporters should cover federal involvement and violence equally
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz said on Wednesday that “too many in the media are greatly downplaying the severity of the violence during the protests in Portland."
“What’s really striking is that the overwhelming focus of the Trump-obsessed media is over the president’s tactics and combating the violence to a point that it is almost reducing the violence itself to a footnote,” the "MediaBuzz" host told “America’s Newsroom.”
Kurtz said that protesters are “throwing bottles, aiming lasers, hurling fireworks and fires."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“That should be equally part of the story,” Kurtz said.
Meanwhile, for weeks, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and the mainstream media have been downplaying the violence and chaos emanating from the Black Lives Matter protests taking place in front of the city's federal courthouse, documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz told Fox News, calling it "media malpractice."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Horowitz, who previously covered the Minneapolis protests in the wake of George Floyd's death and Seattle's Capitol Hill Organized Protest area, spoke to demonstrators who have been protesting for weeks outside Portland's Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, at one point vandalizing and attempting to set the building on fire. They were also seen throwing knives and using fireworks against federal law enforcement sent to defend the building.
According to Horowitz, they aim "to encourage societal breakdown" so they can rebuild it.
"I saw many members of the press who had their cameras down when the protesters/rioters were ravaging the federal building, but when the federal agents came out of the courthouse, all of the sudden, their cameras are rolling," the filmmaker told Fox News.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a pair of tweets Monday night, President Trump slammed "deranged Anarchists & Agitators" rioting in Portland and other cities, while claiming that if presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins the November election, the country would descend into chaos.
Portland's City Council has banned its police from working with federal law enforcement.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kurtz said that there is also “very little attention from the media” on how the Democratic mayors are handling the protests that appear to be out of control.
“The Washington Post referred to this as the leaf blower wars, talking about the guys who use the devices to dispel the tear gas,” Kurtz said.