Background: Local tv news, Washington DC.
So joy of all joys, I actually get called in to cover for a sick coworker at the station on Sunday. Knowing said coworker; an honest, hardworking guy with a young family, I'm sure it was legit. Thus even though I wasn't feeling well myself I drove on in for the late shift.
Initially it was pretty quiet; I edited a story for the late show and was chilling out when the call came in about a barricade situation a half hour north of town. Usually we're not all that worked up about them (little known fact - many major cities get several standoffs a week - most end without serious problems), but with all the bad things happening with police around the US (and some bad intel on the initial incident alert) there was heightened desires by the assignment desk for us to go out there. So off we went, myself and my reporter.
A half hour later we were on scene, or as close as we could get. I recorded a few clips and settled into the idea that it would be a cold evening (about 28' f, light breeze) and went into 'standby mode'.
About 20 minutes into the wait my reporter asks me to join him to interview the PIO (press information officer) who doesn't have much to say but we have to ask anyway. I walk over, hand my reporter the mic and after another news crew finishes their interview we step up and begin.
We get about a minute in when out of the corner of my left eye (the one not glued to the viewfinder) I see a young women approach the interview. Moments later I see her fumbling with an audio recorder, then an iPhone, which indicates she's a radio reporter. Not a problem, until she shoves the iPhone right into the guy's face to get her sound, right up in my shot.
In situations like this I initially try to zoom in but it's pointless, she's holding it too high, so I try the universal media scrum silent request: I tap her arm gently with my free left hand to let her know she's messing up my shot. Her reaction: she raised the iPhone higher...
I try to re-crop but it's not working. Tap-tap. Higher still. A few more seconds, tap-tap, higher still. At this point the PIO is stuttering because this has become a distraction, and my shot is totally unusable, so I stop the interview and verbally ask her to hold her phone just a bit lower. She refuses, and tells me 'this isn't a private interview.' We try to shoot a few more seconds but it's pointless so I stop.
Then it gets interesting; she began berating me saying I had been 'forcing her arm down' (I had not; had I actually forced her arm down it sure wouldn't have been in the shot) and that I was rude. Furthermore she belonged to an affiliated newsroom (similar network affiliation) and that we should have considered her needs.
On this note I freely admit I began to engage her - she claimed she had been in town for years (first I had seen her), that she feared she would 'miss the press conference' (a one camera press conference?), that her recorder had failed and she needed to hold the iPhone up high (her failure to be prepared wasn't my problem), then finally this gem: "I don't like being touched."
Oh that's the problem, you're nuts! Got it.
At that point I walked away to get back to work while my reporter continued to try to talk to her. I won't discuss his efforts other than frankly I wish he had not bothered; you can't argue with nuts, and at times he seemed to offer apology on my behalf which I resented - I had nothing to apologize for.
One final note for us photogs - all incidents with anyone which may have repercussions are recorded. The file video is on our servers at work and tonight, before I vented here, I wrote an email to my managers describing the incident, where they can watch the recording, and suggesting they warn her news director about her behavior. I fervently hope they do.
It's 2:20am and I'm still wide awake, pissed off. I'm due back in at 11am. I've been doing this 25 years, and that my friends was a new one.
So joy of all joys, I actually get called in to cover for a sick coworker at the station on Sunday. Knowing said coworker; an honest, hardworking guy with a young family, I'm sure it was legit. Thus even though I wasn't feeling well myself I drove on in for the late shift.
Initially it was pretty quiet; I edited a story for the late show and was chilling out when the call came in about a barricade situation a half hour north of town. Usually we're not all that worked up about them (little known fact - many major cities get several standoffs a week - most end without serious problems), but with all the bad things happening with police around the US (and some bad intel on the initial incident alert) there was heightened desires by the assignment desk for us to go out there. So off we went, myself and my reporter.
A half hour later we were on scene, or as close as we could get. I recorded a few clips and settled into the idea that it would be a cold evening (about 28' f, light breeze) and went into 'standby mode'.
About 20 minutes into the wait my reporter asks me to join him to interview the PIO (press information officer) who doesn't have much to say but we have to ask anyway. I walk over, hand my reporter the mic and after another news crew finishes their interview we step up and begin.
We get about a minute in when out of the corner of my left eye (the one not glued to the viewfinder) I see a young women approach the interview. Moments later I see her fumbling with an audio recorder, then an iPhone, which indicates she's a radio reporter. Not a problem, until she shoves the iPhone right into the guy's face to get her sound, right up in my shot.
In situations like this I initially try to zoom in but it's pointless, she's holding it too high, so I try the universal media scrum silent request: I tap her arm gently with my free left hand to let her know she's messing up my shot. Her reaction: she raised the iPhone higher...
I try to re-crop but it's not working. Tap-tap. Higher still. A few more seconds, tap-tap, higher still. At this point the PIO is stuttering because this has become a distraction, and my shot is totally unusable, so I stop the interview and verbally ask her to hold her phone just a bit lower. She refuses, and tells me 'this isn't a private interview.' We try to shoot a few more seconds but it's pointless so I stop.
Then it gets interesting; she began berating me saying I had been 'forcing her arm down' (I had not; had I actually forced her arm down it sure wouldn't have been in the shot) and that I was rude. Furthermore she belonged to an affiliated newsroom (similar network affiliation) and that we should have considered her needs.
On this note I freely admit I began to engage her - she claimed she had been in town for years (first I had seen her), that she feared she would 'miss the press conference' (a one camera press conference?), that her recorder had failed and she needed to hold the iPhone up high (her failure to be prepared wasn't my problem), then finally this gem: "I don't like being touched."
Oh that's the problem, you're nuts! Got it.
At that point I walked away to get back to work while my reporter continued to try to talk to her. I won't discuss his efforts other than frankly I wish he had not bothered; you can't argue with nuts, and at times he seemed to offer apology on my behalf which I resented - I had nothing to apologize for.
One final note for us photogs - all incidents with anyone which may have repercussions are recorded. The file video is on our servers at work and tonight, before I vented here, I wrote an email to my managers describing the incident, where they can watch the recording, and suggesting they warn her news director about her behavior. I fervently hope they do.
It's 2:20am and I'm still wide awake, pissed off. I'm due back in at 11am. I've been doing this 25 years, and that my friends was a new one.
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