Idiotic Couple Mocks Eric Garner During News Report

Today's New York Daily News
Front Page was graphic, but much
more tasteful than an idiotic
couple mugging for the cameras
behind a journalist reporting on this.  

Gawker calls them America's Worst Couple and it's hard to disagree.

The couple in question were two of those types of idiots who make goofy gestures in the background as a television reporter gives a live update.

In this case, WPIX-TV reporter Allison Kaden was giving an update on demonstrators near the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, which had its lighting ceremony Wednesday evening.

That lighting ceremony happened as demonstrations continued across New York City and elsewhere against a grand jury decision in which a New York cop was not indicted despite fatally choking Eric Garner.

That move was caught on videotape as police tried to arrest Garner on suspicion of illegally selling cigarettes.

Anyway, Kaden was giving her update on the demonstrations and the tree lighting, when a couple moved into position behind Kaden and on camera, the guy cartoonishly pretended to choke the woman, who cartoonishly reacted by waving her arms and faking a scream

What a classy couple. I'm sure they thought they were hilarious.

The Internet is pretty unforgiving, and I'm sure this couple will be identified soon, and all hell will break out. They'll get death threats, lots of flame, lots of harassment on line and elsewhere.

No, this couple doesn't deserve death threats or harassment. But shame on them!

The video of this moronic couple is below, but to soften this up, I also posted an image of the excellent New York Daily News front page today which uses Garner's last words "I can't breathe!" as he was being choked by the cop.

Here's the stupid couple video:

Florida Woman Carjacks Reporter's Van. News Film Makes Cops' Job Easy

Here's a Journalism 101 lesson for you:

Florida woman steals reporter's TV van
because she objected to story the reporter was working on.  

If you're going to steal a reporter's car because you don't like the story he's working, don't do it while the reporter is filming the whole thing. It makes it too easy for the cops.

Josh Taylor, a reporter for WTXL-TV the ABC affilliate in Sarasota, Florida, was investigating a report of fraud in Siesta Key, Fla.

Yes, yes, all the strange crimes come from Florida and here's another one.

Apparently, a house was being advertised as having 11 bedrooms and room for 25 to 30 people, when that was not the case. The house was much smaller, and couldn't handle that many people, according to reports. That false advertising would make this a fraud case.

Taylor wanted to get the homeowner's side of the story, as pretty much any reporter would. He encountered a woman named Jean Price, who allegedly works for the homeowner.

She strenuously objected to Taylor's attempts at reporting the story. She said "You're not doing a story" even though Taylor had the right to be there, as he was on a public street. And of course, Price is not his editor, so he could do the story even if Price objected.

So Price, took Taylor's camera tripod, stuffed it in his reporter's van, got in and drove off in the van, all as Taylor filmed these proceedings.

She drove it a ways down the road, walked back and again informed Taylor he was not doing the story. Problem was, Taylor had called the police, who were then on their way to arrest Price and charge her with grand theft auto.

I'm sure Taylor's footage was very helpful to the police as they investigated this. Nothing like making things easy for the cops, huh, Jean Price?

In the end, Taylor didn't get his fraud story. At least not yet. That's coming, supposedly. He did get a nice story though, on a bizarre, kooky woman getting arrested for grand theft auto.

Film at 11!

Here's the video:

Reporter's Job Made Easy: Small Town Vermont Newspaper Witnesses Dumb Criminal Story Unfold In Their Parking Lot

The Barton Chronicle is an excellent, scrappy newspaper in Vermont's rural, remote Northeast Kingdom.

The Barton Chronicle in Vermont had a story come
to them, making reporters' day both easy and weird.  

The reporters there are quite capable of taking the initiative of going out and finding local stories to cover, but the other day, they had an easy time of it.

According to the Chronicle, staffers witnessed a man very ineptly steal reporter Paul Lefebvre's already battered Honda CRV from the paper's parking lot in the town of Barton.

Well, that story was easy for the paper to verify. The saw the damn thing unfold themselves.

An editor arriving for an evening shift thought it odd there was a man sitting inside Lefebvre's car. She mentioned it to Lefebvre, who was working in the newspaper office. He looked out the window to see the man drive his car away. Sort of.

The CRV has a stick shift, and the guy had trouble managing that. Lefebvre, in fact was almost able to catch up to the car and the thief on foot, but not quite.  So staffers called the police and posted a note about the theft on the Chronicle's Facebook page.

Lefebvre's car was certainly unique and would stick out in anybody's mind if they saw it, seeing how the back window was busted out and covered with a green tarp and duct tape from an accident a few days ago.

(Speaking for experience, I know reporters, especially those in rural Vermont, don't necessarily make lots of money, so they often find inexpensive ways to repair or replace stuff they need)

A few hours later, people who had seen the Facebook post saw the CRX in the nearby village of Orleans.  Lefebvre called the cops, who went to Orleans pronto and found the suspected car thief emerging from the restroom of a Texaco station.  The alleged thief was promptly arrested.

Judging from the Chronicle article, I'm not sure Lefebvre really wants his car back. Besides the accident it was in, it has needed other costly repairs recently, such as a new water pump, motor and clutch.

But on the bright side, nothing was stolen from the car,  and the paper had an easy time putting an excellent article out for its loyal readers to gander at.

Charlie LeDuff, a reporter I've written about before, has quite a flair for reporting the news. It's not "just the facts, ma'am," no sir.

Reporter Charlie LeDuff  

He'll advocate for people that have been screwed, but does it in a sort of comical outrage that is often highly entertaining.

It's OK to be entertaining in journalism. It makes you remember what they're talking about, and maybe get people interested in fixing the injustice that's in the news.

One of his reports, made almost a year ago, actually for Fox 2 television news in Detroit,  is about how it takes police four hours to respond to a burglary report.

Yeah, he could have said "A Detroit woman waited four hours for police, blah, blah, blah," and called it a day.

Oh, but not Charlie LeDuff. He gets SO into the story. Luckily, the burglary victim was willing to play along and had a good sense of humor about everything.

Anyway, the video below shows how a television news report ought to be done, as presented by the weird and wonderful Charlie LeDuff.

And if you don't get enough of this one, here's a playlist of some of LeDuff's best reports. 

Even if you don't care a whit about police response times in Detroit, you do have to watch this video: