After three days of silence as radical leftists in Seattle seized land and declared themselves their own country, the liberal broadcast networks finally discovered the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” or CHAZ. ABC’s Good Morning America was the only newscast to cover it Thursday morning. But for the evening shows, the networks were all gaslighting their viewers by suggesting the group was just protesters President Trump was “lashing out” against, or people looking to turn a police station into a community center while giving out food.
Fox News reported Wednesday night that “a local station got video of several guards armed with assault rifles, they are asking for identification before for letting people in and police have received reports of the armed guards demanding money from some businesses inside their area.” Those facts went completely unmentioned by all of the networks.
And among their list of demands, Fox New noted a few of them as “abolish the Seattle Police Department and the court system, disarm all cops until they are all fired, and abolish youth jails.” Other demands included “the immediate retrial of all nonwhite violent felons currently in prison (…) abolition of all prisons (…) segregated hospitals,” just to detail some of their more radical demands.
But all that was ignored by networks looking to hide the facts. David Muir, the anchor for ABC’s World News Tonight, didn’t bat an eye when he announced that “demonstrators now seizing a six-block area outside a police station, creating what they're calling a police-free zone.”
ABC correspondent Matt Gutman, who was on the ground, did all he could to downplay what was going on. “The so-called autonomous zone, now complete with barricades, a clinic, and free food,” he touted (as he was the only network correspondent to admit the zone existed).
He was the most critical of the Seattle Police Department, and seemed to chide the police chief for being angry at the cops who abandoned the local station:
Seattle PD under fire for its tactics over the past couple weeks. Flashbangs and pepper spray used on crowds. This little girl crying in pain. 14,000 complaints against police. And today, in an address to officers, the police chief angry over the retreat.
Gutman also boasted about the Democratic mayor “firing back” at the President. “Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker,” he enthusiastically read from Mayor Jenny Durkan’s tweet.
In wrapping up his report, Gutman cherry-picked from their list of demands to make them seem reasonable. “As for what these protesters want, they tell us they want to defund the police, they want everybody who's been arrested in protests to be released and they want to turn that police station, David, into a community center,” he claimed.
Put simply, it was a one-minute and 49-second long defense of the “autonomous zone.”
As for the report on the CBS Evening News, anti-Trump White House correspondent Weijia Jiang refused to mention anything about the radicals and whined about Trump “calling for an aggressive response to demonstrators, this time in Seattle, after ridiculing Washington State's governor for being ‘taunted and played’ by protesters.”
Her fleeting mention lasted just 11 seconds.
Meanwhile, on NBC Nightly News, White House correspondent Kristen Welker was aghast the President would criticize the group. She too skimped on the details and facts. “Meanwhile, the President today lashing out at protesters including in Seattle where police are clashing with demonstrators in encampments,” she huffed.
Welker went on like that for 15 seconds and tagged on an unfounded conspiracy theory (or as she called it “a blunt warning”) from former Vice President Joe Biden, suggesting without evidence Trump was going to “steal” the 2020 election.
The transcripts are below, click "expand " to read:
ABC’s World News Tonight
June 11, 2020
6:40:12 p.m. Eastern [1 Minute 49 Seconds]DAVID MUIR: Meantime, the protesters across this country say they will press forward, and in Seattle tonight, demonstrators now seizing a six-block area outside a police station, creating what they're calling a police-free zone. And ABC's Matt Gutman from Seattle.
[Cuts to video]
MATT GUTMAN: Tonight, that continuing standoff in Seattle.
(…)
GUTMAN: Protesters seizing a six-block area outside this police precinct, which is now boarded up and abandoned.
(…)
GUTMAN: The so-called autonomous zone, now complete with barricades, a clinic and free food.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: The people recognize that this building is the people's, you know, we pay for it with our taxes. We just want to make sure it's used for the right things.
GUTMAN: Seattle PD under fire for it’s tactics over the past couple weeks. Flashbangs and pepper spray used on crowds. This little girl crying in pain. 14,000 complaints against police. And today, in an address to officers, the police chief angry over the retreat.
CHIEF CARMEN BEST: You should know, leaving the precinct was not my decision. You fought for days to protect it. I asked you to stand on that line, day in and day out.
GUTMAN: The chief says police now can't respond to all the calls for violent crimes in the neighborhood. President Trump calling on the governor and mayor to "Take bay your city now. If you don't, I will." Seattle's mayor firing back, "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker."
[Cuts back to live]
And just moments ago, Seattle's mayor responding to President Trump, saying there will be no federal invasion of Seattle. As for what these protesters want, they tell us they want to defund the police, they want everybody who's been arrested in a protests to be released and they want to turn that police station, David, into a community center. David?
MUIR: Matt Gutman in Seattle. Thank you.
CBS Evening News
June 11, 2020
6:34:50 p.m. Eastern [11 Seconds](…)
WEIJIA JIANG: President Trump is still calling for an aggressive response to demonstrators, this time in Seattle, after ridiculing Washington State's governor for being “taunted and played” by protesters.
(…)
NBC Nightly News
June 11, 2020
7:04:38 p.m. Eastern [15 seconds on Seattle](…)
KRISTEN WELKER: Meanwhile, the President today lashing out at protesters including in Seattle where police are clashing with demonstrators in encampments. The President warning the Democratic governor there, “take back your city now. If you don't do it, I will. This is not a game.”
All of it comes as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, issued a blunt warning in an interview overnight saying, he is afraid the President will try to steal the November election.
JOE BIDEN: It is my greatest concern, my single greatest concern, this president is going to try to steal this election.
(…)
