Ryann Saavedra called out ABC News for reporting a “dishonest” headline in a tweet showing a video of a man in a pickup truck driving into a human barricade at an ICE facility in Rhode Island.
The ABC News headline reads:
Several injured after driver plows truck into immigration protesters outside I.C.E. facility in Rhode Island.
The problem is, that’s not exactly what happened. As anyone can see by watching the video, the driver did not PLOW into the immigration protesters. The driver of the pickup truck drove slowly toward the protesters as they moved out of his way. And according to the ABC News article, the injuries were NOT related to the pickup truck.
“About a dozen people were treated for irritation due to the pepper spray.” Most injuries were caused by a bunch of dummies who police had to use pepper spray against after they refused to stop using their bodies to block moving traffic from entering the ICE parking lot.
Here are the tweets:
This tweet is dishonest
Report says protesters were *pepper-sprayed* by officers after they wouldn't move: "About a dozen people were treated for irritation due to the pepper spray … 1 person was taken to the hospital for a minor injury"
No mention of injuries from the truck https://t.co/OpOlgdV762
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 15, 2019
In another video, that can be found by clicking on the ABC News link in the tweet, ABC News anchor David Muir, can be seen starting the segment on the immigration protester story by saying, “A driver ramming into a crowd of protesters—multiple injuries…”
In the video, one of the protesters can be heard explaining that they were “a bunch of peaceful protesters” who were “sitting on the ground and blocking the entrance to the parking lot,” when a corrections officer drove towards the group. The protesters refused to move, and the driver proceeded to move toward the parking lot. The protesters quickly got up from the ground and surrounded his vehicle.
Will ABC News get called out by Snopes or Politifact for their misleading title? Will Facebook keep their content out of the newsfeed for misleading their readers? Does the mainstream media get to play by a special set of rules? Tell us what you think of ABC News writing a headline that conflicts with the article they published about the I.C.E. protest.