ABC News/”
- ABC News ran a package on Sunday about abortion protests in the US.
- One interview was a clip from ABC affiliate KVUE featuring Infowars host Owen Shroyer.
- Shroyer is charged with crimes related to the Capitol riot but was labeled in the piece as a “protester.”
ABC News during the Sunday broadcast of “World News Tonight” aired a brief interview clip about abortion that featured Infowars host and far-right conspiracy theorist Owen Shroyer, identifying him only as a “protestor.”
A spokesperson for ABC News did not return Insider’s request for comment on Monday.
In the clip, Shroyer, holding an image of a fetus, said “I do believe in the right to life, and I believe that this right to life is being denied.”
Shroyer hosts the “The War Room with Owen Shroyer” on the far-right website InfoWars. He was arrested and charged last year with four misdemeanors relating to his participation in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
Protests about the right to abortion have popped up across the US after Politico published a leaked draft last week of a Supreme Court opinion that indicated the court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that protects access to abortion in the US.
During the ABC News report, Shroyer was labeled on-screen as a “protestor,” but there was no mention of his affiliation with InfoWars, his previous espousing of far-right ideology, or his charges relating to the Capitol riot.
According to the nonprofit media watchdog Media Matters for America, which first posted the ABC News clip on Monday, Shroyer has promoted numerous conspiracy theories, including that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax, that Adolf Hitler is alive, and that the police killing of George Floyd was faked.
Shroyer has also shared conspiracies related to abortion, according to the Media Matters report, including that Planned Parenthood locations participated in “human sacrifice.”
Authorities investigating the January 6 riot charged Shroyer with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and obstructing or impeding passage through or within Capitol grounds.
He has pleaded not guilty to all four charges.
As Insider previously reported, Shroyer never entered the Capitol during the riot, but prosecutors argue he was barred from being in a restricted area outside the building after he in 2019 interrupted ongoing impeachment proceedings in the House for former President Donald Trump.
A judge in January rejected Shroyer’s effort to have the charges against him dismissed after his lawyer argued the charges were a result of his political views and claimed that the Justice Department had withheld evidence that showed Shroyer wasn’t aware he was on restricted grounds and that he tried to deescalate the crowd, Insider previously reported.
Infowars on Saturday uploaded a video recorded by Shroyer at the rally outside the Texas Capitol in Austin on Saturday, showing him clashing with pro-abortion demonstrators. The video titled “Owen Shroyer crashes a pro-abortion rally in Austin, TX and presents protesters with fetus images and they, of course, go crazy!” is more than an hour long and at times features Shroyer wearing a crying baby mask over his face.
The ABC News clip, which aired nationally Sunday evening, was taken from ABC affiliate station KVUE in Austin, Texas. According to Media Matters, Shroyer during a local news broadcast was identified only as a person attending the protest who “hopes Roe v. Wade is overturned.”
Shroyer was also featured in an interview with KXAN, the Austin, Texas, NBC affiliate, where he was similarly labeled a “pro-life protestor.”
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