CNN, MSNBC insist anti-ICE demonstrations have been ‘mostly peaceful' despite widespread unrest

Fox News

13-06-2025

CNN and MSNBC have bent over backwards to remind viewers that anti-ICE demonstrations and riots causing turmoil and unrest across the country were "mostly peaceful," according to a new study from the Media Research Center.
Los Angeles, the epicenter of the anti-ICE chaos, has been hit with continued disorder and flash mob-style looting incidents as law enforcement has been forced to make mass arrests. Videos and photos of the disorder have taken the internet by storm and some businesses have even boarded up their shops.
Anti-ICE protesters have also clashed with police in New York City, where several police vehicles were set on fire inside an NYPD parking lot overnight Wednesday. In Chicago, a car drove through a crowd of demonstrators Tuesday night as hundreds of anti-ICE protesters gathered, and multiple police vehicles have been vandalized in that city, too.
While major cities such as L.A., New York and Chicago have received the most attention, there have also been anti-ICE demonstrations in Washington, North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, Indiana, Colorado, Georgia, and a variety of other areas. Through it all, CNN and MSNBC have continued to insist the demonstrations and riots were "mostly peaceful."
The Media Research Center (MRC) analyzed all coverage from June 7-11 and found a staggering 211 examples of CNN and MSNBC personalities insisting the chaos was "largely peaceful," "mostly peaceful" or something similar.
CNN was responsible for 123 claims that the riots were "peaceful," while MSNBC reminded viewers 88 times, according to the MRC.
NewsBusters senior research analyst Bill D'Agostino, who conducted the MRC study, noticed that whenever there was violence, CNN and MSNBC attributed it to a nebulous, separate group that had no connection with the "peaceful protesters."
D'Agostino told Fox News Digital he "counted any assertion that specifically [said] these riots or protests were 'peaceful,' 'largely peaceful,' 'mostly peaceful,' or any other permutation thereof," during segments in which the violence had been acknowledged or shown on screen.
"No reporter acknowledged any link between the peaceful and violent elements of the crowds. The rioters were exclusively framed as 'rogue actors,' or 'lone wolves,' and there was never any assertion that they might share common cause with the more peaceful individuals," D'Agostino told Fox News Digital.
"Conversely, there was also no instance in which a reporter acknowledged that the National Guard and Marines had been mobilized exclusively to address the violent elements of the crowd," D'Agostino continued. "There were numerous complaints about the use of military force against 'peaceful protesters.'"
D'Agostino also only found one instance in which a journalist from CNN or MSNBC referred to the chaos unfolding in Los Angeles as a "riot," which CNN's Jake Tapper did on June 7.