Caught on Tape - TV Reporter Beaten

[Robert 21]

http://cbs4boston.com/video/[email protected]

(sorry, it may play a commercial in the beginning)

Investigative reporter/attorney John Mattes of XETV in southern California was attacked in La Jolla on Tuesday by two of the subjects of one of his ongoing investigations. The incident was caught on tape.

The journalist - known for his tenacity in tracking down cases of consumer fraud and deception - was working a story about stolen identities being used to purchase real estate when the attack occurred.

The attackers - Sam Suleiman and his wife Rosa - had been making threats for weeks. The assault left the reporter bloody and beaten.

Mattes was taken to the emergency room but was later released. Police were called to the scene and led the couple away in handcuffs.

 

[Esco!]

Usually when con artists are confronted with news cameras they respond violently

 

[EagerBeaver]

The worst part of all is, that had the cameraman rushed to the reporter's defense, instead of filming, nobody would have been charged.

Very good point. It reminded me of a photo that might be of special interest to you. In the summer of 1985, there was an infamous front page NY Post photo of a Bronx Zoo zookeeper getting attacked by a tiger. She inadvertantly let the tiger out of its enclosure. I believe it was one of those big Bengal Tigers, which are not mellow tigers. Anyway, the photo was taken by someone on the other side of the fence and showed the tiger on its hind legs, with both of its paws on the front shoulders of the zoo keeper. Seconds after the photo was shot, the zoo keeper, a young woman just out of college as I recall, was mauled to death by that tiger.

I always wondered, if instead of taking the photo he climbed the fence and threw the camera at the tiger, might it have created enough of a distraction to let the zoo keeper get to the fence and climb over? What had happened was that the zookeeper and her friend had seen the tiger and made a run for the fence. The friend made it and got over the fence, but the young zookeeper didn't make it and ended up being tiger meat.

Getting back to this particular reporter who was attacked, he did a very poor job defending himself IMHO based on what I see on the tape.

 

[bond_james_bond]

Wow...

I must admit that I have a guilty pleasure watching 60 Minutes and other reporters going after scam artists, because when they get caught, they usually do something crazy like walk away, slam doors, etc.

But I never expected them to physically attack the reporter. I guess we've reached a new low here.

 

[EagerBeaver]

The worst part of all is, that had the cameraman rushed to the reporter's defense, instead of filming, nobody would have been charged.

Last night I heard a report on this incident which focused on the question of whether the cameraman should have dropped the camera and rushed to the defense of the reporter. The independent reporter I heard being interviewed, a female, said that if it had been her, she would want her cameraman to "keep filming until he sees the first drop of blood, and then drop the camera and come to my defense."

I thought that this comment was interesting, although I don't know if it is the industry standard for when cameramen should stop filming an otherwise newsworthy event.

Please note that in the State of Vermont there is a "good samaritan law" and had this incident occurred in Vermont, the cameraman arguably could have been charged with violating that law.