But behind the weird and nasty novelty factor of the case lurks a terrible truth that a lot of the biggest media companies are ignoring - they are often sending reporters into real danger, with inadequate preparation to deal with the situation if anything goes horribly wrong.
In the past, reporters have almost always had - at the very least - a photographer with them, to back them up, especially if things go south. But with staffing levels being cut back further and further, reporters are now expected to head off on their own to cover things, loaded down with all sorts of gear - camera, audio recorder, notepad and everything else a reporter needs, except for actual human back-up.
That's not a real problem - not when you're off to cover a ribbon-cutting ceremony, some political announcement, or anything else that features a large media contingent.
But reporters are also constantly being sent out into openly dangerous and hostile areas, at weird times of the night, and that can be a big worry. Caught up in the rush of breaking news, reporters are sent out without a second thought for their own personal safety.
There are chief reporters at some of NZ's biggest and best newsrooms that have actively refused to send young reporters out in the field on their own, deciding that they can't send the night-shift reporter to cover a gang-related homicide in Mangere late on a Saturday night, because it's just not safe for them to be out there, especially if there is a pissed-up crowd gathering. But other chiefs don't even give it a second thought, and send their reporters into situations that are, simply, dodgy as fuck.
The actual assault rate is mercifully low, but journalists can be chased away from properties, or even off the public street, by people who lash out in grief or anger. Reporters at the scene can be dealing with people who have recently dealt with great loss or trauma, and need to tread carefully.
It doesn't help when a lot of the reporters sent out on these jobs are young, and keen to get out there, and might not have the experience to know when to push an issue, and when to back the fuck off.
It's also not helped when fuck-headed politicians whip up frenzies against the media - it's genuinely astonishing that the poor souls who cover President Trump's nasty and narcissistic rallies haven't been seriously assaulted, and it's surely just a matter of time.
Any journo who has been in the business for a few years has been threatened with violence, and while the vast majority of this is from fucking nerds too scared to get out from behind their keyboards, it only takes one crazy shithead to do something terrible.
It's not just the danger of a late-night call-out, it's the ongoing risk of going to stories that might be nothing more than puff pieces, before things go sinister and wrong. The biggest personal risk to the well-being of reporters might even be just outside the workday, with shiftwork requirements that see journos forced to get to and from work at extremely risky times of the day - late nights and early mornings, with most big newsrooms found in the central city. A Radio NZ journo in Wellington was tragically killed while walking home after an overnight shift, just a few short years ago, and it's sadly guaranteed to happen again.
And the case of the submarine death also shows that even covering something as innocuous like some bloke with his private sub can have a horrific ending. The true story of what happened on the sub is still unrevealed, but it still shows that the simple act of going out there and getting the story can have an incredibly tragic result. Everything possible should be done to avoid this.
-Katherine Grant
Posts
