Over the last year or so, people crashing live broadcasts and saying “Fuck her right in the pussy” has become a constant, soul crushing threat to field reporters everywhere. After Toronto FC’s 2-1 loss to Houston at BMO Field on Sunday, one Canadian reporter had enough of it and decided not to just ignore it.
CityNews’ Shauna Hunt was interviewing TFC fans when another man came up behind one of her interview subjects and said the unoriginal phrase to him just loud enough for the microphone to pick it up. Hunt then stopped the interview and confronted the interrupters’ cohorts. One of them admitted to standing nearby just so one of them could say it on camera.
While his friends giggled and he tried to answer her serious questions with dismissive jokes, Hunt persisted. “I’m sick of this, I get this every single day — 10 times a day — by rude guys like you,” she said.
“It has nothing to do with you, it has everything to do with everyone else,” the man said, as if that was something that made sense.
“No,” Hunt replied. “When you talk into my microphone and say that into my camera to viewers at the station where I work at, it’s disrespectful and degrading to me.”
Then a man in an Arsenal shirt decided to get involved with a poor defense/threat of his own.
“We’re not the only people,” he said “It happened in England. […] You’re lucky there’s not a fucking vibrator in your ear like in England, because it happens all the time.”
This was a reference to the time a Sky Sports News reporter got a sex toy jammed in his ear on transfer deadline day last summer. An incident that contributed to the network’s decision to end their practice of doing live deadline day reports outside stadiums amongst rowdy groups of fans.
“If your mom saw you talk like this-” Hunt began, as one last attempt to make the guy in the Arsenal shirt see another perspective on the incident on Mother’s Day. But it was a futile attempt.
“Oh, my mom would die laughing, eventually!” he concluded.
The incident could carry a punishment, though. From CityNews:
Calgary police are prepared to press charges, sending a letter to broadcasters in the city that reads: “…We had a legal opinion obtained and have concluded this activity constitutes grounds for a charge and arrest.”
“Please report it to us as soon as possible so that we can follow up on it. I think if we collectively address this early, it may mitigate similar occurrences in the future.”
Calgary police say it violates section 175(1)(A) of the Criminal Code: Everyone commits an offence who “not being in a dwelling-house, causes a disturbance in or near a public place, (1) by fighting, screaming, shouting, swearing, singing or using insulting or obscene language.”
By that definition, just about everyone attending that match would be guilty of a crime, though.
UPDATE: The fans have been banned from Toronto FC matches for at least a year and the guy in the Arsenal shirt has been fired from his job, according to The Toronto Star.
Video via The Toronto Sun