I don’t know what’s worse about this local news story, the behavior of the reporter. Rick Boone, when confronting some alleged prostitutes:
You will see Boone confront the woman while she is being stuffed in the back of the police car. When she spits on Boone’s microphone, he asks, (at 1:59 on the video) “You want $20 for that?”
With the microphone still sticking in her face, he said, “Does that taste good?”
At 2:10 he asks, “What does it feel like to be a hooker?”
At 2:15 she knocks the microphone out of his hands, he picks it up shoves it back in her face and says, and “you want this you want to use this?”
or the attitude of his news director:
Obviously, we didn’t tell Rick to go out and try to get an alleged prostitute to spit on him. He asked provocative questions, and she reacted by attacking him — kicking and spitting at him. (FYI, we have chosen not to file charges.) […]
This may be hard for some ivory tower academics to grasp, but we don’t sit around judging what we esteem to be worthy of public consumption. We cover what our viewers tell us they want to see, and we do it in a way that we think viewers will appreciate and embrace. We actually show a lot of raw material. Sometimes, we even show viewers inside things about our staff, knowing that they appreciate our honesty.
This is part of a story about a Poynter Institute focus group that, unsurprisingly, “said they wanted more coverage of serious political issues and they wanted a lot less crime news, unless the crime had real importance to a lot of people.” (via)
inkadu
The reporter explained his motivation: “But I really just wanted an in-depth interview with her, not a show….” So, you know, just to be overly-sympathetic to him, maybe he’s just frustrated by the TV news format. Imagine a local segment about prostitution that gave you an in-depth look at prostitution from the prostitute’s side of things. It would never, ever happen. First of all, it wouldn’t be popular, and secondly, it’s not news. It’s only news because police lights are on. As soon as they go off, the story is over.
This sort of thing logically lead one focus group to cosider “people who watch local news to be lower educated and lower class.” I have to agree with that. Now that you can get the weather online without 10-minutes of weather caster pud-pulling, there’s absolutely no reason to watch that trash.
beltane
Funny, no one in the media ever asked me what I want to see. The sexual harassment of a prostitute in police custody is something that would only appeal to the most hardened members of the He-Mans Women Hater Club. I hope his wife/girlfriend is very clear about the Green Balloons thing; this guy has “Woman beating douchebag” written all over him.
neill
poor repulsive rick boone, what an arrogant dickwad. thinks he’s got hot journalism by accosting a woman arrested and handcuffed who he can assault with a microphone and his own arrogant ass.
i can only hope karma gits him…
Omnes Omnibus
@beltane: Alleged prostitute, not prostitute.
Zipperupus
Slut shaming is ratings gold!
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, he sexually assaulted an alleged prostitute. Nice guy. Shame on his momma for raising such a pig.
bago
What DOES it feel like to be a lobbyist? You want a 20,000 dollar donation to your personal charity?
mclaren
Ah, yes, the media, providing us with their raison d’etre:
Surprisingly similar to the attitude of your typical prostitute, isn’t it?
The behavior of the whore in that story was truly despicable. And the girl getting shoved into the police car wasn’t too classy, either.
JAHILL10
That’s disgusting. That misogynist needs to be horsewhipped, preferably by a Poytner Institute focus group. In no way, shape, or form is that journalism.
And his “editor” needs firing or needs to fully realize his career potential by becoming a pimp since that seems to be what he is advocating here with his: “Give the lowest common denominator what they want!” philosophy.
Villago Delenda Est
You know, put this guy in the Village, and he’ll never ask anyone in DC “What does it feel like to be a Hooker?”, because that would be a violation of professional ethics there, and his fellow “journalists” would be incensed.
Kristine
Serious Political Issues Are Hard. Nuanced discussion in level tones of voice.
Goading someone who is being arrested into attacking you? Easy. Plus, it’s gritty life on the streets and all that. And no homework or prep time or need to actually understand anything.
Serious discussions of issues would show just how incompetent and uninformed some of these newsfolk are. And they’re not going to let us peek behind that curtain.
not impress
Nice headline.
The reporter was a jerk, running this as a story makes you twice it.
Scott
So he picks on people with no power who have no way of doing anything to him. You think he cops that kind of attitude to the mayor or to crooked cops? Hell, no. They could make serious trouble for him. Cowards prefer to assault the weak and powerless, not the strong.
I give him six months before he’s outed with something really kinky, dangerous, and illegal. He gives off that kind of vibe.
geg6
Hope this guy doesn’t have a wife or daughter at home. He has “abuser” written all over him. And no doubt, a teeny tiny pen1s.
BruceFromOhio
Yes, being honest about the abusive dickhead on your payroll is probably one of the highlights of your viewers’ day.
@mclaren: This.
Professor
Hey. why hasn’t none of you picked this one up? The station concerned a FOX 40 TV in Sacramento! What do expect from a FOX affiliate?
arguingwithsignposts
Is it sweeps month already?
Ash Can
@Professor: I was just going to ask if maybe it made a difference that Boone and his news director worked for a Fox affiliate, but you beat me to it. And good for the RTDNA to be reporting on this.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@Professor: I was thinking that before I got to the comments, and you beat me to it. I doubt the affiliate is owned by Rupert, but the affiliates often follow the patron’s lead.
rachel
Oh, yeah. We all enjoy watching some jerk mock a woman in police custody, but what I’d enjoy seeing even more would be for him go to a biker bar and mock some big dudes who are not in police custody. He should take his director along for the fun!
beltane
@rachel: Now that is something we could all embrace and appreciate.
DougJ
This is afflicting the afflicted. Awful. I’m all for being an asshole to people in power, but not to someone’s who getting arrested.
Linda Featheringill
@mclaren:
Very good!
That particular whore behaved like a bully, too. Damn, what a bitch!
Amir_Khalid
What kind of story did this jerk think he was going to get with the answers to those questions? That’s the tone you adopt when you’re looking to start a fight, not when you’re looking for thought-out answers from an interviewee.
And was he really trying to conduct an “in-depth” interview with a suspect in custody, while the cops were putting her in a squad car to drive her to the station? As a former journo, I call bullshit on his claim.
I call bullshit on his news director’s claims too. They weren’t looking for a story, they were looking for dramatic video. So Boone provoked the woman while she was having a very bad moment — with his bosses’ blessing, I suspect — and she responded the way any human being would.
Amir_Khalid
@not impress: Alas. some real journalists actually do roll this way. Journalists like Rick Boone.
@mclaren: “Whore”? Remember, innocent until proven guilty. and even then, a convicted whore does not deserve gratuitous verbal abuse.
Mark S.
@DougJ:
Word. This is one reason I can’t stand local tv news, because half of their “reporters” are sociopathic bullies.
Mark S.
@Amir_Khalid:
He wasn’t calling the woman a whore.
Amir_Khalid
@Mark S.: Indeed he did not.
@mclaren: I read in haste. My apologies.
BGinCHI
From the ivory tower I say: fuck such stupid journo twats.
How’s that for “understanding”?
steve
I used to have a job where I was obliged to talk to newspaper reporters occasionally. When I left that job, I swore I would never again speak to another journalist. In every case, they had already decided what their story was before they talked to me, and were simply trying to get me to say things that would make good quotes. They’d ask brazenly leading questions, badger me, or resort to outright trickery (such as lying about what kind of story they were writing).
There’s a reason why reporters like Bob Woodward are famous and celebrated: journalists like him are very, very rare.
Lunarmovements
It’s been so long since I’ve watched the local news – years, really. There are plenty of online sources for information about what’s going on in the world. And one is less likely to be force fed ‘Hungry Man’ sized portions of the reporter’s personality when news is presented in written form.
It seems to me that, somehow, when a reporter is under the hot white light of a video camera, he/she tends to try to be the story – not just tell the story. And something about delivering news in the written form tends to make people a bit more careful about what they say and how they say it.
Rick Massimo
I have worked at a newspaper for 15 years, and that is an absolute 100% bull fucking shit lie. More things happen in a day than can fit into a newscast or a newspaper. So the honchos meet to decide which things they’re going to tell the people about. Just because this dipshit has memorized the management-seminar newspeak that says that that doesn’t constitute “judging what we esteem to be worthy of public consumption” doesn’t mean that that’s not exactly what it is.
One of the many things that traditional media types get wrong about the blogosphere is just that: We don’t mind that they judge what they esteem to be worthy of public consumption; it’s just that they do a piss-poor job of it.