Why hasn't CBS4 reported on the arrest of its own cameraman?

August 3, 2010 @ 2:29AM

Why hasn't CBS4 reported on the arrest of its own cameraman?

By Carlos Miller -...

A CBS4 cameraman was apparently arrested during a scuffle with a Miami police officer at City Hall last Thursday yet not a word of the arrest appears on the CBS4 website.

The Miami New Times broke the story last week on its blog with limited information.

A brawl between a CBS4 cameraman and police officers broke out today during a Miami City Commission meeting. Sources at the scene say that the cameraman — a large man in a red shirt — was hauled away in a cop car after getting into an argument with a police officer, possibly for filming in a restricted area.

Witnesses say the Commission had just voted to reject changes to the Civil Service Board when the cameraman and cop began arguing. Suddenly the cop tackled the man through a doorway, sending him sprawling outside of the chamber. When someone yelled for the police, 10-15 other officers ran over to help subdue the cameraman.

Sources identified the man as a CBS4 cameraman.

Immediately after the fight, a camera and tripod were left standing in a hallway near where the fight took place.

“Restricted area”? And the camera and tripod were left standing in a hallway?

Tell me another one.

The only other site to report on this arrest is the blog SFLTV, which reported Monday that “a tipster” informed them that a CBS4 cameraman was arrested at city hall on Friday.

Obviously neither the tipstser or SFLTV read the New Times because they were off by a day.

SFLTV’s source does seem to have the inside scoop – except for the cameraman’s name – because they report the following:

He was charged on two counts, one for obstruction and one for a battery on an officer. The first charge is a misdemeanor and the second is a felony. He was released on a $5,000 bond and a prehearing date is set for 8/27.

From the single comment on SFLTV at this time, we learn that the cameraman’s first name may be Tony.

On CBS4, the only news that came out of city hall on Thursday were boring items such as how commissioners plan to save Miami from bankruptcy by either giving up a month’s salary or doing the usual and handing over the reigns of the city to developers.

If CBS4 did in fact run a story, I was unable to find it on their site through multiple searches.

Comments

Anonymous

1 year ago

He was charged on two counts, one for obstruction and one for a battery on an officer.

Translation: he viciously, without warning, struck the officer’s knuckles with his face, causing swelling, bruising, and pain.

Anonymous

1 year ago

I suspect this will be a case of corporate media selling out their reporter rather than causing waves within the local political scene. They will justify it to themselves as a case of wanting future access/cooperation rather then standing for constitutional rights. I hope I am wrong, but recent experience says otherwise.

Anonymous

1 year ago

Tom,
Share the recent experiences with us. If you have stories please lets hear them. I am afraid this is what will happen as well – the selling out of the reporter part.

Anonymous

1 year ago

When is this craziness going to stop?
George Donnelly recently posted..Was the Wild West an Anarcho-Capitalistic Society

Anonymous

1 year ago

There are so many stories of police just freaking out on people with cameras, that i am starting to wonder if all those people that say “the police did so and so to me” or “i was set up” or “the cop is lying” are maybe, just maybe, telling the truth. I mean i know that humans tend to show themselves in the best light, but i have an anecdote here.

There’s this anti-cheating software that Valve Software makes, and for 5 years it’s been running version 2 with NO FALSE POSITIVES.

Now, enter several dozen people saying that they weren’t cheating, but got banned from games anyhow. Queue the righteous crowds saying “Sure, whatever, someone was cheating on your account” – to forum moderators saying “There is no way the anti-cheat software is wrong, it’s just impossible!” and “There is no way that the ban is going to get removed”

Now, skip forward 10 pages in the thread… and valve has come out (Gabe, actually) and said “we made a mistake. 12,000 accounts have been unbanned, and to apologize, we’re giving everyone a free copy of [a $30 game] and a copy for a friend, as well.”

Everyone is so quick to assume the worse of “A Person” that they’ll ignore all the evidence to the contrary.

Seeing that thread in it’s completeness kind of opened my eyes a bit, you never get to hear/see a full story like that about news (such as Graber, or this, or any other thing Carlos talks about), because news is done in “updates” and not in a thread format. Would that it were, but there you go.

Anonymous

1 year ago

Let’s see what this camera man’s footage is. CBS should demand the film back.