We live in a crazy world
right now.
The world seems to be off its axis, and we are existing in some type of bizarro world, where everything that is right is now wrong, and everything that is wrong is now right.
I know, I know, I spoke about this yesterday with the Sirhan Sirhan situation, but it applies again for a story that I am going to tell you about in today’s Rant.
I hope that this does not become a weekly theme here, but something is not right with this world right now, and it goes far beyond the pandemic.
Shaquille Brewster, an NBC News and MSNBC correspondent, was doing a live shot on the after-effects of Hurricane Ida in a report from Gulfport, Mississippi.
As the reporter was doing the report, a man came out of a white pickup truck and ran toward the reporter. He shouted something at him, and no, he did not blow him love and kisses as the diatribe continued.
Brewster tried to move himself and the crew away from the irate man, but to no avail.
He told CNBC studio host Craig Melvin, “I am going to turn this way, because we deal with some people every once in while.”
The man continued the confrontation, continuing to get in the frame no matter where Brewster and his crew moved.
Brewster was finally confronted by the man face to face, and then the segment was cut, going back to the studio, where the show went on to other reports.
Evidently the irate man had had his say, and he went back to his truck and drove away. Melvin later told viewers that Brewster was fine after the incident finally ended.
He told viewers, “I do want to note here for a moment, you probably saw or heard a few moments ago a correspondent was disrupted by some whacky guy in his live shot there in Mississippi. Pleased to report that Shaquille Brewster is doing just fine. Shaq is okay.”
Happily, that was the end of that, but on top of everything else they have to do in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, police will be looking into this incident, too.
Look, street reporters are out there from every station and news service, reporting from “Ground Zero” for every report they do.
They are out there, with their crews, bringing viewers reports from every imaginable location, and while us regular folks do often get in the shots in the background, it is usually just to wave and then to move on.
However, it seems that some people, for whatever reason, are beginning to think that these reports are their own stage for lunacy.
Just recently, I saw a report where a woman reporter was harassed by a passerby in what started out as pretty much an innocent meeting.
The reporter was preparing for her live shoot, and a passerby yelled to her off camera something to the effect, “You are a beautiful woman.”
The reporter actually said, “Thanks,” and then further prepared for her shoot, but the guy persisted screaming to her about her beauty, even though she tried to quiet him down.
It never got X-rated, but it certainly got a bit hairy for the reporter, that’s for sure.
And sometimes things to get way beyond hairy for street reporters, as happened a few years ago.
News reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward of CBS affiliate WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, were fatally shot on August 26, 2015, while conducting a live television interview near Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta.
They were interviewing Vicki Gardner, executive director of the local chamber of commerce, when all three were attacked by a gunman. Parker, age 24, and Ward, age 27, died at the scene, while Gardner survived.
Incredibly, the gunman was 41-year-old Vester Lee Flanagan II, who was also known by the professional pseudonym of Bryce Williams, a former reporter at WDBJ who had been fired in 2013 for “disruptive conduct.”
After a five-hour manhunt, Flanagan was found dead, having committed suicide.
So yes, these things do happen, and reporters and their crews have to be extra vigilant when they see things brewing.
And it is happening right here on our streets in the good old U.S.A., not in far-away places, although reporters and their crews who work in volatile overseas spots have to be careful, too.
On February 11, 2011, Lara Logan, an overseas reporter for CBS News, was covering a protest march in Cairo, Egypt, against outgoing Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
The scene became tense, and the protest became more of a mob, and Logan and her crew were attacked. Logan was sexually attacked during the melee, and when her crew tired to rescue her, they were also attacked.
It took several members of a security force to free her and her crew and get them to safety.
We think of television journalists as having a glorious job, as they are right there when things are happening.
But we rarely think about the fact that because they are “right there,” they are also “right there” for every loony that happens to be “right there” too.
Happily, in the latest incident, Brewster might have been shaken at worst, but what happened to journalists like Parker, Ward and Logan is incomprehensible.
Let’s let these reporters do their jobs without any interference.
I know it is kind of trite to say that, but what more can one say about people simply out there doing their jobs?
The world seems to be off its axis, and we are existing in some type of bizarro world, where everything that is right is now wrong, and everything that is wrong is now right.
I know, I know, I spoke about this yesterday with the Sirhan Sirhan situation, but it applies again for a story that I am going to tell you about in today’s Rant.
I hope that this does not become a weekly theme here, but something is not right with this world right now, and it goes far beyond the pandemic.
Shaquille Brewster, an NBC News and MSNBC correspondent, was doing a live shot on the after-effects of Hurricane Ida in a report from Gulfport, Mississippi.
As the reporter was doing the report, a man came out of a white pickup truck and ran toward the reporter. He shouted something at him, and no, he did not blow him love and kisses as the diatribe continued.
Brewster tried to move himself and the crew away from the irate man, but to no avail.
He told CNBC studio host Craig Melvin, “I am going to turn this way, because we deal with some people every once in while.”
The man continued the confrontation, continuing to get in the frame no matter where Brewster and his crew moved.
Brewster was finally confronted by the man face to face, and then the segment was cut, going back to the studio, where the show went on to other reports.
Evidently the irate man had had his say, and he went back to his truck and drove away. Melvin later told viewers that Brewster was fine after the incident finally ended.
He told viewers, “I do want to note here for a moment, you probably saw or heard a few moments ago a correspondent was disrupted by some whacky guy in his live shot there in Mississippi. Pleased to report that Shaquille Brewster is doing just fine. Shaq is okay.”
Happily, that was the end of that, but on top of everything else they have to do in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, police will be looking into this incident, too.
Look, street reporters are out there from every station and news service, reporting from “Ground Zero” for every report they do.
They are out there, with their crews, bringing viewers reports from every imaginable location, and while us regular folks do often get in the shots in the background, it is usually just to wave and then to move on.
However, it seems that some people, for whatever reason, are beginning to think that these reports are their own stage for lunacy.
Just recently, I saw a report where a woman reporter was harassed by a passerby in what started out as pretty much an innocent meeting.
The reporter was preparing for her live shoot, and a passerby yelled to her off camera something to the effect, “You are a beautiful woman.”
The reporter actually said, “Thanks,” and then further prepared for her shoot, but the guy persisted screaming to her about her beauty, even though she tried to quiet him down.
It never got X-rated, but it certainly got a bit hairy for the reporter, that’s for sure.
And sometimes things to get way beyond hairy for street reporters, as happened a few years ago.
News reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward of CBS affiliate WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, were fatally shot on August 26, 2015, while conducting a live television interview near Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta.
They were interviewing Vicki Gardner, executive director of the local chamber of commerce, when all three were attacked by a gunman. Parker, age 24, and Ward, age 27, died at the scene, while Gardner survived.
Incredibly, the gunman was 41-year-old Vester Lee Flanagan II, who was also known by the professional pseudonym of Bryce Williams, a former reporter at WDBJ who had been fired in 2013 for “disruptive conduct.”
After a five-hour manhunt, Flanagan was found dead, having committed suicide.
So yes, these things do happen, and reporters and their crews have to be extra vigilant when they see things brewing.
And it is happening right here on our streets in the good old U.S.A., not in far-away places, although reporters and their crews who work in volatile overseas spots have to be careful, too.
On February 11, 2011, Lara Logan, an overseas reporter for CBS News, was covering a protest march in Cairo, Egypt, against outgoing Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
The scene became tense, and the protest became more of a mob, and Logan and her crew were attacked. Logan was sexually attacked during the melee, and when her crew tired to rescue her, they were also attacked.
It took several members of a security force to free her and her crew and get them to safety.
We think of television journalists as having a glorious job, as they are right there when things are happening.
But we rarely think about the fact that because they are “right there,” they are also “right there” for every loony that happens to be “right there” too.
Happily, in the latest incident, Brewster might have been shaken at worst, but what happened to journalists like Parker, Ward and Logan is incomprehensible.
Let’s let these reporters do their jobs without any interference.
I know it is kind of trite to say that, but what more can one say about people simply out there doing their jobs?
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