Female Reporter Keeps Her Cool Despite Receiving Disgusting Comments From A Man Right Before Going On Air, Takes The Footage To Twitter

Brianna Hamblin, a television news reporter from Rochester, New York's Spectrum News 1, brought attention to harassment women in the media industry frequently face.

On July 23, Hamblin posted a video of an encounter she had with a man who wouldn't stop catcalling and verbally abusing the reporter while she was just trying to do her job.

When Hamblin tweeted about the incident, she said similar confrontations happen "so often you learn how to roll with it or ignore it."

The video immediately sparked an online discussion on what uncomfortable situations women have to go through, both professionally and publicly.

Hamblin's take on harassment received support from others who have also fallen victim to it. Kathy Griffin, Rex Chapman, ESPN’s Jenna Laine, Dallas reporter Lynnanne Nguyen, Lubbock reporter Blair Sabol, and Andrew Baglini, meteorologist for CBS WIVB in Buffalo, NY, were among those voicing sympathy.

Sadly, this is what the bigger picture looks like. A 2018 online survey conduced by a nonprofit called Stop Street Harassment found that 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime.

"Sexual harassment until more recently has been viewed as part and parcel of what people experienced," Michele Decker, director of the women's health and rights program at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, told NPR. "It's often been dismissed because it's considered not as egregious as sexual assault or rape."

Others said Hamblin's colleague, Scott Barstow, should have done more by stepping in. In a now-deleted tweet, he reacted to Hamblin's thread, apologizing: "I can say is it hurts to see this. I’m sorry I stood there while you have to hear that. This isn’t the first time you have heard this. I would say more like the 50th. I know it’s easy for me to say but it’s only words."

"Those 'only words' were hurtful, as we saw when you zoomed in on her pained reaction," Nichole Perkins, writer and host of the podcast This Is Good for You, replied to Barstow. "You could’ve asked the men to step away but then they would’ve focused on you, right? Best to let her shoulder the burden on her own, right? Do better. Don’t wait for it [to] escalate beyond words."