Toronto Reporter Confronts Sexist Soccer Fans on Camera
TORONTO, May 12 (UPI) — A reporter broadcasting outside a Toronto soccer match struck a blow against sexual harassment when she confronted a group of vulgarity-spewing men live on the air.
Shauna Hunt, a CityNews TV journalist, was interviewing fans outside Toronto’s BMO Field after the team’s loss Sunday and was repeatedly interrupted by male fans shouting “[expletive] her right in the [expletive]” into her microphone — a popular news-interrupting practice known online as FHRITP.
Hunt, apparently fed up with the vulgar interruptions, confronted some of the men responsible on camera.
“Were you guys waiting around to see if you could ‘eff her in the p’ me live on TV?” Hunt asked the men.
The laughing men admitted to shouting the phrase.
“Can I ask why you would want to do something like that?” Hunt asked.
“I feel like it’s quite substantial,” one of the men responded, before asking if he and his friends are being filmed.
“Well, because you know, I’m sick of this,” Hunt said. “I get this every single day, 10 times a day, from rude guys like you.”
The men attempted to justify their actions as humor, with one saying his mother would be amused by the stunt and “would die laughing eventually.”
Hunt’s confrontation was applauded by colleagues.
“What is it that makes them think that this is OK?” veteran television journalist Cynthia Mulligan said. “Because it’s a verbal assault. It just is.”