Recently Megan Bachelor a news caster
for CBC was reporting live from the Squamish Music Festival when a young teen
jumped in, attempted to kiss her while taking a selfie of his effort.
Ms. Bachelor was upset enough over the intrusion to file a police
complaint. After seeing the furor, the young man reached out to her
over social media. The two spoke on the phone. He apologized and
that was good enough for Ms. Bachelor. The RCMP closed the file.
The interesting thing for me was tidal
wave of hate and vitriol aimed at the reporter.
Here are some of the comments aimed at
her on social media:
omg....what is wrong with that reporter
acting like a stuck up c?.......she should feel complimented someone
actually wanted to kiss her....the petty
Waste of time. I hereby decree that
this discussion is an absolute waste of anyone's time, unless you are
an intense feminist with no grasp on reality. In which case nobody
cares what you think anyways. Pick an important topic, not an almost
kiss on the cheek.
Get a grip Megan and go buy yourself a
sense of humour.
come on really? If she was a good
reporter she would have just rolled with it! It's harmless. Ugh I
hate how society deems everything unexaptable. No one is allowed to
have fun anymore.
She should be charged with abuse of the
justice system and fined. Period. What a disgrace to all women and
men who have truly suffered at the hands of others.
take her off the air! don't need that
kind of cry baby stuff going on. that what she gets for going to a
big gathering, asking for trouble.
That's a small sampling of comments
from one feed but thousands more can be found that essentially repeat
the same:
She shouldn't have been there if she
didn't want that to happen.
And
She shouldn't have done anything about
it once it did.
Typical victim blaming. It's all her
fault.
Most of the those making comments are
either ignorant of the current atmosphere for live reporters or they
don't care.
A few months ago news was made when
some young men at a soccer match took some pleasure in interrupting a
live broadcast by shouting the now popular catch phrase FHRITP. My
mom may read this blog so you'll have to Google it. One of the
fellows famously lost his six figure job when he was identified.
It's a heavy price to pay but I have no sympathy for him.
Many of the comments directed at Ms
Bachelor sexualized the incident – though she never did.
I don't believe the young man's
intentions, in this recent event, were sexual – even though they
involved a kiss. I think he was just a kid who wanted to be funny in
front of his friends and this was his genius plan. So why is she so
upset? And why do I agree with her that she should be?
She's upset because once again, some
selfish asshole has stood up and said “What I want is more
important than what you want.” It didn't matter that she was
trying to do her job and it didn't matter that he wasn't invited. He
did what he did because clearly he believed he had a right to and the
huge majority of those commenting on the matter agreed that he did,
in fact, have that right.
If you say in one breath – “Well,
it was wrong but she is overreacting. She shouldn't have alerted the
authorities.” Then what you're saying is that there should be no
repercussions for his actions and the next time he's at a party (as
opposed to being in front of a national audience) and he wants to
impress his friends, I wonder what he'll come up with and will the
braying masses continue to support his actions? If you believe there
should be no repercussions for an action then you are condoning that
action.
Interrupting (mostly) women reporters
with physical contact and the shouting of rude slogans is increasing
because the morons engaging in the behavior seldom, if ever, have to
pay a price.
But the tide is shifting. I'm glad it
is.
Should the kid do hard time and go on
the sexual offenders list? Of course not, but I sure wouldn't have
opposed some community hours and a fine.
So good for you Megan Bachelor for
taking a stand and saying enough is enough.
And those who support the crappy
behavior - those who don't have the capacity to understand how
violating the behavior is, are going to have to update their files
because if they have young men and women in their lives who've been
taught that their needs and desires outweigh the needs and desires of
those around them, they may come to find it an expensive attitude to
carry around.
Clint
