Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- June 9, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Targets
- Erin Burnett (CNN)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
CNN anchor Erin Burnett, at left, was pushed by a police officer during a live TV shot while covering an immigration enforcement protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.
LAPD exonerates officer who shoved CNN anchor during live protest coverage
A police officer who shoved CNN anchor Erin Burnett while she was covering a 2025 protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, was exonerated by the LA Police Department on June 1, 2026.
On June 9, 2025, Burnett was shoved in the arm by an LAPD officer during a live shot of an anti-immigration enforcement protest. “You can just see the tension there,” she is heard saying to the camera. “They knew we’re media. They were just as happy to push me as to push anybody else.”
The incident was submitted for review to the LAPD by Adam Rose, the LA Press Club’s press rights committee chair and deputy director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project.
Almost a year later, the department informed Rose that the investigation was complete and that it had exonerated the officers involved.
In a letter, Chief of Police Jim McDonnell and Captain James Hwang said that the use of unauthorized force had indeed occurred, but that it was “justified, lawful, and proper.”
Rose told the Tracker, “All too often, these reply letters say nothing about misconduct by officers but reveal a lot about bureaucratic incompetence at LAPD. Someone is sitting at a desk copy-pasting the same denial language even if it’s irrelevant.”
Burnett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett was pushed on live TV by an officer while covering an immigration enforcement protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025, the outlet reported.
The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.
During the live shot, Burnett is holding a microphone and speaking to the camera as police order protesters to leave the area behind her.
“They’re just saying move the area,” she said, as an armed officer wearing a helmet pushes her forward by the arm.
“You can just see the tension there,” she said. “They knew we’re media. They were just as happy to push me as to push anybody else.”
Burnett and CNN did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
