According to Good Morning America's Josh Elliott on Monday, the Occupy "protests within sight of the White House turned violent over the weekend."
Actually, the protests occurred at McPherson Square [1], two blocks from [2] the White House and not in "sight" of it. (See a map [3] here.)
Perhaps Mr. Elliott, who grew up in California [4] and went to high school in Los Angeles, can be forgiven for such an error. It's bizarre that the Washington Post, in a front page story [5], made the same mistake. Monday's paper claimed the latest protest occurred "in view of the White House."
ABC's Elliott even showed video of the arrests- arrests that were not in view of the White House.
On CBS's Early Show, Betty Nguyen got the geographical facts right, but used sympathetic language for the liberal group: "Another crackdown on Occupy Wall Street protesters. More than 30 people were arrested for refusing to leave McPherson Square park in Washington, DC."
NBC's Savannah Guthrie also avoided Elliott's hyperbole: "A standoff between Occupy Washington protesters and U.S. park police ended last night when officers used a cherry picker to remove a half dozen protesters from the roof of a wooden shack."
A transcript of the three news reports can be found below:
