A CNN correspondent, Omar Jimenez, and members of his crew were arrested while broadcasting about violent protests in Minneapolis on Friday.
There were demonstrations in the city for a third night following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody on Monday.
The Minneapolis State Patrol confirmed the arrests and said those detained were released “once they were confirmed to be members of the media”.
But CNN disputed the police’s account of the incident, saying its staff had “identified themselves, on live television, immediately as journalists”.
The team was released an hour later, after the governor apologised for the arrest.
Meanwhile, a police station in Minneapolis has been set alight during the protest.
A police officer was filmed kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, 46, despite him saying he could not breathe.
President Donald Trump said “thugs” were dishonouring his memory and called on the National Guard to restore order.
The incident has added to anger over police killings of black Americans, including Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.
Mr. Floyd’s family have demanded that the four police officers implicated in his death face murder charges. Prosecutors have said they are still gathering evidence.
In the last few days, buildings have been burned to the ground or looted.
On Thursday, protesters gathered outside the police department’s 3rd Precinct, the epicentre of the unrest.
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Officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets in an attempt to disperse the crowd. But the cordon around the police station, which is near where Mr. Floyd died, was breached by protesters, who set fire to it and two other nearby buildings as the officers withdrew.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said there had been no choice but to evacuate the police station, adding: “The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life, of our officers or the public.”
He called the unrest “unacceptable”, but added that he and everyone else recognised there was “a lot of pain and anger”.
He spoke after a tweet from President Donald Trump blamed Thursday’s violence on a “lack of leadership” in Minneapolis and warned that he would send in the National Guard and “get the job done right” if Mr. Frey failed to restore order.
National Guard personnel are normally under state control, although they can be put under federal control in emergencies.
Mr. Trump also tweeted: “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Twitter placed a “public interest notice” on the message, saying it “violates our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line, its connection to violence, and the risk it could inspire similar actions”.
The historical context arises from riots in Miami in 1968. A federal task force found that the use of the phrase about looting by the Miami police chief at the time was a prime factor in the discontent that triggered the unrest.
On Friday, the White House Twitter account also quoted the president’s tweet on looting and shooting.
Twitter flagged two of the president’s posts as potentially misleading earlier this week, prompting him to issue an executive order seeking to limit the legal immunity of social media firms.
