Smashed cameras. Threats. The words "Murder the Media” scratched into a door of the Capitol.

As Trump supporters rampaged on Wednesday, incited by the president’s false claims of a stolen election, they hit on a secondary target: journalists.

Members of the news media who were reporting from the streets and squares of Washington were threatened and surrounded, and their colleagues inside the Capitol were forced to shelter in secure locations for hours.

A video taken by William Turton, a Bloomberg News reporter, showed a crowd outside the building advancing on a camera crew, yelling, "Get out of here,” and smashing equipment. Paul McLeod, a Buzzfeed News reporter, shared a photo of a noose the group had fashioned out of a camera cord and hung from a tree.

Some in the mob chanted "CNN sucks” as they stomped on cameras, though the equipment was labeled with stickers from The Associated Press. (A spokesman for The A.P. confirmed that its equipment had been stolen and destroyed, adding that none of its
staff members had been injured.)

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