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How To Handle Local TV Airheads

FredLeonard said:
Even real journalism has ceased to be a high calling.
Click to expand...

Yes, for the same reason that preaching is no longer a high calling. You can't make a living doing it without taking a vow of poverty.
 
The bottom line: when the reporter approached and mentioned the arrest, the woman had a brief reaction. She didn't seem upset with the reporter. If she didn't want to talk, all she had to say was "no comment," or even "Go away and leave me alone."

Then, for whatever reason, she got upset.

The reporter and photographer leaving. THEY WERE NOT ON HER PROPERTY AND THEY WERE LEAVING THE AREA when she went said she was looking for her bat and when told the dogs to attack.

She brought that fight on herself. Sure, there are much better questions than "how do you feel?" But this reporter was doing her job well. There's nothing there that justified chasing her with a bat or ordering the dogs to attack.

*If* the reporter or photographer were on the woman's property *AND* the woman had told them to leave, then they would be trespassing and the rules change. But that was not the case here.
 
Legally, there's no argument. Videos don't lie; she's guilty of assault, though I doubt she will serve serious time. Probable cause and "discovery" of facts may be in the pocket of the prosecution, but sentencing will be a different ball of wax. A judge will weigh a slew of mitigating circumstances, and will likely excersize a goodly dose of latitude and discretion.

No arguing that sensationalism is painfully eroding the integrity of TV news. I've witnessed plenty of stupid beat reporting in my time, though, I can say with confidence, never at stations where I was employed, but this one takes the cake. Sadly, a presumably talented and promising female reporter of high career potential will be forever stigmatized by this video as a stereotypically blonde-haired TV bimbo. She may never shake the humiliating episode of a panic-striken reporter, two viscious pit bulls in pursuit, desperately and clumsily pattering off in high heels.

Thankfully nobody was seriously injured, so don't be surprised to see this incident mercilessly lampooned on Saturday Night Live.
 
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