The perils of investigative reporting.
An award-winning investigative American journalist suffered cracked ribs, bite wounds, and cuts in a confrontation caught on camera.
Fox reporter bleeds in on-camera attack
Investigative TV journalist gouged, flayed by man who admits to problem with anger
By Joe Kovacs
By WorldNetDaily.com
An investigative reporter for a Fox television affiliate in southern California is recuperating after suffering cracked ribs, bite wounds and a gouged face in a confrontation caught on camera.
"I was just going to do some interviews and got attacked," said John Mattes, an attorney and journalist for Fox 6 News in San Diego. "We were doing a series of interviews on a gentleman who's been threatening people in La Jolla, businessmen, people in the community, his neighbors."
The person who was the subject of the TV station's probe is alleged real estate fraudster Sam Suleiman, who is shown on video walking up to Mattes yesterday and immediately unleashing an onslaught of physical fury.
"We all thought he'd come screaming, but he literally just came flying straight at me and just BOOM!" Mattes told his station in a post-attack interview. "He didn't even stop, didn't even slow down. And I'm feeling someone ripping at my face, pulling my hair. We're not talking about someone going a few rounds, we're talking about someone ripping, gouging, scratching, and biting me! I just don't understand ... this cannot be going on."
Also at the scene was Suleiman's wife, Rosa Baraza, who Mattes says talked about grabbing a firearm.
"I'm fighting not to get hurt," Mattes said, "but then to hear the screams of his wife, 'I'm getting the gun,' knowing the context of this person, I mean it was terrifying."
Read more here.
Watch the clip below.
Mattes is an award winning journalist who holds an advanced degree in Communication Research from the University of Wisconsin and a law degree from University of Miami. Read more about his background here.
Cases of attacks against journalists in the Philippines are never caught on camera. The only local case caught on-cam was the attack against Laguna-based journalist Iring Maranan by a city council in San Pablo City. The attacks received by Maranan may be lesser than Mattes, but this does not mean that what happened to Maranan was not an attack.
Friday, September 08, 2006
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3 comments:
hehe. naalala ko tuloy yung experience ko nong sinabunutan, binatukan, at sinampal ako nung interviewee ko sana sa thesis. sabi nya papabaril nya daw ako, etc. it was nothing like matte's experience but it really is terrifying when you're there. i think it's an animal instinct on the perpetrator's part. when they have everything to hide and everything to lose, they turn into beasts to try to stop anyone who might be a "threat" to them.
@ little light
grabe naman thesis mo? ano ba topic mo? matindi ata eh. hehe.
sila naman kasi. gagawa ng masama tapos pag nahuli, ibang klase.
haha. agrarian reform lang naman. kilala mo adviser ko. :p
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