The story behind the "vulture" moniker is a fairly simple one.
I was sitting in the second of three rows in one of the courtrooms in Calgary, covering a manslaughter trial, when a family member of the suspect turned around, looked at what I was doing (writing in my notepad) and called me a "f****** vulture." It caught me off-guard for sure, being called out for doing my job and reporting on the facts laid out in the courtroom. But I didn't dignify it with a response. I lightly joked about it with a few friends, who still call me "Vulture" once in a while. But at the time, I never would have thought that name would have been the tip of the iceberg.
Over my last twelve years in journalism, it has been startling to see the shift in attitude towards the so-called "mainstream media." Part of it, to be honest, was naivete, as part of it was spent as a news anchor/co-host, where I wasn't immersed in the real grind of reporting. The other part has to do with what's seemingly become more acceptable in our society: people are acting out and even applauding violence (both physical and emotional) on journalists.
This idea has evolved over time. It used to be a few spoken words or people jumping in front of a live TV shot to do something silly. Then we had smaller altercations, like people trying to rip microphones out of hands (as has happened to me) or shouting the infamous FHRITP into live microphones. We now have the internet, where everyone has access to a sounding board to yell whatever they would like at anyone they want to target, with no circumstances for their actions.
What worries me now is even through all of that, we're evolving even more. Much has been said about the gif featuring US President Donald Trump and a CNN logo-faced man and how some believe this is inciting violence against reporters. But we've already had more serious altercations.
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It shouldn't matter what political stripe you wear, who you are, what organization you're with or the cause you stand for, the one thing that we should all be clear about is that violence shouldn't be tolerated at all. It also shouldn't matter if you agree or not with the media outlet, the fact is these are human beings and no one deserves to be belittled or assaulted for doing their job.
All of this worries me and should worry anyone else who believes in freedom of the press. We're now running the risk of journalists feeling bullied or pressured into not pursuing stories that could be of importance. These journalists also shouldn't have to live their lives not knowing the amount of danger they could be entering.
To share another story: over the last year, I've been personally attacked for how my team covered a story. It devolved into a few different insults, but also a couple of quite nasty emails. After a couple of days, it got to the point where I called my parents and others to tell them not to post or like anything on political social media sites. Why? Because I was afraid that some of these people would notice the last name and inundate my loved ones with hateful messages. I know some of these trolls will go to great lengths to get their message across and know no bounds in terms of how vile they get. I didn't want my loved ones to get dragged into the middle of it. And luckily, they didn't.
But I can't say the same for others who have been threatened and harassed. And my worry is that this phenomenon will only get worse as basic human decency takes a backseat to political affiliation and propaganda.
As I have said on Facebook, I've never held back on stories knowing what the commentary will be after the fact. Because facts are facts and stories are stories. But I will admit it gets harder and harder to look at comment sections and there are times when I don't want to post stories on social media. Why? Because it has seemingly become a game now of "who can be more vile." It's not that I'm intimidated. I'm just sick of seeing the worst in humanity, hiding behind the cloak of "freedom of speech."
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My message to my journalist friends out there: please take care of yourselves. I know I've said this before, when it comes to covering emotionally-charged stories. But this time, I mean it in a couple of other ways.
First, on the social media front, stories with backlash can take a huge emotional toll on you. You'll be told not to take it personally or take it seriously, but that'll be impossible. The easiest thing I found was to simply mute or block the perpetrators and not give them the time of day. They say "don't feed the trolls." That you CAN do.
Second, when you're out doing your job, you need to double-down on a couple of things. You have to be cautious of your surroundings, know who you're dealing with and act accordingly. But secondly, you can't do anything that could be looked at as "provoking." I'm not saying you can't be aggressive in the pursuit of the story, but there are ways to get that done without a potential bump or run-in. The last thing you want to do is make yourself part of the story.
Call me an optimistic idiot. But I believe we all have the power to help change the trajectory of this trend. We're all going to have to work together on this and it starts with having an open and honest discussion about it.
