Being a reporter is often a thankless job. You spend time covering stories you don't want to cover or talking to people you don't want to talk to. But then you get those stories that get your adrenaline pumping or ones that just touch your heart. There is alot of enjoyment in being a reporter, but at the same time it can be very stressing. I worked as a newspaper reporter for three and a half years, spent another year and a half in a television newsroom, and can tell you that putting themselves in harm's way is something reporters don't really realize or take into consideration that they're doing sometimes when they go out to cover a story.
Poential dangers to the reporter can come in a variety of forms that they're not really thinking about as they are doing their job. You're standing alongside a busy highway talking to state troopers about an accident, or taking photos as cars whiz by. You're climbing up the side of a relatively steep slope to get the angle you want for a photo. You're taking pictures of people who really don't want their photos in the paper; or you're trying to get comments from people who don't want to talk to you. You're standing beind a SWAT van while a team of sheriff's officers gear up to respond to a potentially volatile situation where someone has locked themselves in a store with a gun to their own head.
Every now and then the reporter and that danger suddenly interact and they become part of the news themselves. This is a case of a reporter becoming part of the news on accident, and in a very violent way.
A reporter from our local CBS affiliate was attacked by a group of people today while covering a murder investigation. The reporter was standing on public property when this group came over and started flinging racial slurs and throwing punches at her.
I couldn't believe it when I heard the teaser for the story during a commerical break in tonight's episode of Jericho. I was at a loss for words when I saw the video on air a few minutes later.
WSPA story (with video) WYFF story (with video)
I'm just glad there were multiple cameras there to document this. Hopefully this will serve as evidence in the assault and battery cases against the people who started this fight.
Of course, this whole situation makes me reflect on a few siutations I found myself in as a reporter back in the day.
There was more than one occasion when I had someone tell me in much cruder language to 'get that @/!*# camera out of my face' or 'I don't want to talk about this' and I almost said something back that I could have put myself in physical danger for saying.
I remember a few instances clearly where someone asked me to stop taking pictures of them or something going on that they were involved in when I was standing on the grounds of this public facility or that public facility, or even when I was standing in the road.
Public property. As long as you're standing on it, you're supposed to be in the clear. Obviously for anyone to think they're untouchable is naive.
But for someone to be attacked, physically and/or verbally, and treated the way this television reporter was treated was totally shocking, disturbing, and uncalled for. I don't mean to be spiteful or hateful, but I hope the people involved in this have to face some serious consequences for their actions.
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