By Kaitlin Miller, Ph.D.
Originally published: January 1, 2022
On Wednesday, January 19, 2022, local TV reporter Tori Yorgey set up her tripod, camera, live pack, and lights, and prepared to go live on camera during her coverage of a water main break. She later reported in a televised interview on her stations newscast, “I was just on the pavement… I wasn’t actually on the road. I was getting ready to talk to you and next thing I know this big SUV hits the side of me.” After the impact, Yorgey fell to the ground, pushing over her camera. Without cutting away, the video continues to roll as she is heard saying off camera, “Oh my gosh, I just got hit by a car but I’m okay.” Yorgey proceeds to fix the camera, assure the driver of the car that she is okay, and then finish her report on the water main break.
The video of the incident went viral online, with coverage of the event popping up overnight. NBC news reported, “TV reporter struck by car during live broadcast gracefully rebounds to finish shot.” The Washington Post headline read, “WSAZ journalist Tori Yorgey hit by car on live TV, finishes broadcast.” And CNN’s headline? “Reporter has surprising reaction after being hit by car during liveshot.” But perhaps the New York Times said it best, “West Virginia Reporter Is Hit by Car on Air, Striking Nerve With TV Journalists.”
Indeed, for many journalists—and former journalists like myself—this viral incent caught on camera did strike a nerve. While the reporter’s resilience to stand up and continue reporting is perhaps commendable, the situation itself was one that journalists felt shed light on a larger issue in the field. You see, Yorgey was reporting alone when she was hit by the SUV. TV journalists who report, write, film, and edit their work themselves have earned the title of Multimedia Journalist, or MMJ for short. This includes—for many—doing live shots alone. This practice saves money by not having to hire a photographer, but also creates what many say are unsafe working conditions.
And this debate is not new. In 2018 I interviewed 19 women journalists who work in broadcast on-air. Many of them were MMJs, as I once was. As one women noted in our report “my biggest concern is that MMJs, true MMJs who are out alone, and this freaking stupid thing of MMJs doing their own live shots, which is so unsafe, is not okay” (p. 93).
Another journalist noted in an interview that when covering a political rally, a U.S. Congresswoman pointed at the press area and said the “they’re fake news media.” That is when the journalist told me, “she made me feel like I was in danger at that point, because that’s when people started pointing at us, booing at us and we had profanities yelled at us. And the cops even came kind of closer to us to block them from getting to us. So it was just, that was another wake up call for me. I can’t be an MMJ anymore, I just can’t. Because it’s not even safe to do.”
Indeed, many people have posted comments on Twitter threads and in Facebook groups saying Yorgey should have been wearing a reflective jacket, or that her station should have cut from her live shot sooner. But the issue for many—the nerve being struck if you will—is that Yorgey was alone. For many broadcast journalists, the battle cry is one in which they argue this reporter should have had a photographer with her. One who can survey the surrounds and provide safety in numbers while she is distracted by a director talking in her ear piece (i.e. an IFB), lights are blinding her, and she is remembering what to say once cued.
The issue is simple: that she never saw it coming.
When I was an MMJ, I worked night side, which is what journalists call the evening news shift. This means my live shots were always by myself, and always in the dark. I have had people come up and touch me while I was live on camera. I have had cars drive around me and rev their engines, while I was setting up, and again, by myself. I was flipped off, called names, and once even had an animal pop out of a bush, as I reported alone in a parking lot. My boyfriend, and now husband, went to work with me once and almost fought a drunk person who was messing with me while I was live on TV. I never even saw the near altercation. Again, herein lies the issue. I never even saw it.
A journalist I interviewed for my dissertation research told me, “I’m always thinking about [safety]. Especially like when I’m MMJing, I don’t have someone watching my back when I’m looking at the camera and I’m pressing record. I always have to watch to make sure. I’m always looking over my back. Like, ‘Hey is anyone going to come jump out behind me and try to do something or say something they shouldn’t’.”
This leads me to ask, while Yorgey herself said she was not hurt physically, what about mentally? Fear is a strong emotion that can have negative effects on journalists personally, and their work broadly. One can simply not look over their shoulder all day without a mental impact. As a print journalist told me once, “I worry that, you know, I, I’ve thought about it someday. Somebody is just going to blow me away on the sidewalk because of what I write.”
Whether the issue is an SUV you never saw coming, or a person trying to assault you while you are alone, being an MMJ comes at a cost—and broadcast journalists appear to be tired of it. That News Life, a popular account aimed at sharing the work and stories of TV journalists, noted in a tweet “SPEND THE GODDAMN MONEY AND HIRE THE PHOTOGS. It’s 2022, reporters don’t need to be out by themselves. Especially at night. Is a 1:30 live shot worth a whole ass life? Skip the studio & equipment upgrades, hire photogs and stop putting your employees at risk. Get it together.”
For many broadcast journalists, Yorgey’s story may have been a freak incident, but one that sheds light on the increasing danger of reporting alone. These journalists—and scholars like myself—argue the MMJ model is simply outdated, unsafe, and driving journalists to leave the industry. The hashtag #EndSoloLiveShots is being echoed among journalists online, who are tired of feeling unsafe. While the MMJ model has been hailed as the stage in one’s career where they must “pay their dues,” many say it is really the result of company greed for news organizations too cheap to hire additional staff. They suggest reporting alone, especially during live shots, requires a restructuring of investments into staffing. As one TV journalist noted on Twitter, “WHY ARE REPORTERS WORKING ALONE, ESPECIALLY ON LIVE SHOTS??? I only had to do this for 8 months, and I said never again… and I won’t. She’s lucky she’s alive. Profits over people have to stop. You can’t report the news if you have no one to report it. #EndSoloLiveShots” (@gretchen_news).
My sincere hope is this incident pushes news organizations to rethink the MMJ model and staffing priorities. However, the headlines that praise this reporter for being resilient make my optimism for true change low, as they are missing the heart of the issue: she never saw it coming.
