Report: TV News Crews Increasingly Threatened

Local TV news crews have faced verbal and physical abuse while on the job. A few reporters have been injured. Some have been robbed or had equipment damaged, reports The Washington Post.

Among recent incidents:

• A man stole a car used by a Raleigh TV reporter and video journalist moments after they ended a live report last week, setting off a high-speed chase that ended with the man crashing into a highway patrol officer’s car. No one was hurt.
• Two armed culprits attempted to rob a San Francisco TV crew’s camera and equipment last month as they were conducting an interview outside Oakland City Hall. The robbery was thwarted by a security guard who pulled a gun on the would-be robbers. The journalists were interviewing a city official in charge of violence-prevention efforts.
• A reporter and video journalist reporting on unruly crowds in Miami Beach were pushed and shoved by bystanders while covering the story in May.
• The Justice Department filed charges last week against demonstrators at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot who allegedly assaulted reporters and smashed TV cameras, tripods, lights and other equipment. Videos showed supporters of President Donald Trump destroying the equipment as rioters sought to disrupt a congressional vote certifying the election of President Biden.

The episodes continued the trend of 2020, which may have been the most dangerous year in history for TV reporters in the United States.

One in five TV news directors surveyed by the Radio Television Digital News Directors Association said their crews had been attacked at some point last year. About half of the episodes stemmed from covering mass gatherings, such as the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd and demonstrations protesting pandemic lockdowns.

Some of the increased threat may be an upshot of the pandemic and the tensions created by lockdowns and economic disruption, said Bob Papper, an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications who conducted the industry survey.

But he blames some of it on the continuing demonization of the news media by Trump and his allies, including those in the conservative media.

“It’s clear a lot of people are still angry, and they’re angry at the media,” he said. “It’s the expected consequence of calling the media ‘the enemy of the people.’ ”