Schmuck Alert: Redneck Women

In what may be the most egregious attack on a news crew I've ever seen, three females from the lesser of the Carolinas have pushed Nick Curro out of the running for Schmuck(s) of the Year. It happened in Union, South Carolina when WSPA reporter Charmayne Brown and photojournalist Ti Barnes were among other news crews camped outside a fresh murder scene. Seems a Union man had (alledgedly) killed his grandfather over a dispute and when the media began showing up, Trina Vinson, Tousha Smith and Billie Taylor stopped watching Hee-Haw on DVD long enough to see what t'were the matter.

What they found were a couple of news crews set up on a public street, doling out the details of how 33-year-old Michael Shane Howell apparently killed the only sensible relative he had. This didn't sit well with them and when the news crews ignored their orders to level, the three white women went inbred on the nearest African-American reporter. Racial slurs followed as the trio pummelled reporter Charmayne Brown - despite the best effort of her photog to pull the rednecks off. When the melee was finally quieted, police arrived to arrest the three women, leaving the WSPA reporter bruised, battered and ready to press charges.

All joking aside, this is disturbing (as is the video). In the United States, news crews have the right to record and report the news from public property. It's that simple. Still, that doesn't stop peopel from threatening, cajoling and intimidating members of the media from doing their job; just ask anyone who's worked in the field for more than six months. Usually the words are hollow and offended family members do little more than curse under the breath at the interlopers out front. To see three grown women go medevial on a innocent reporter thoughboils my blood. Not only does it offend my journalistic sensibilities, but it really pisses me off when some rednecks show their ass and set race relations back 100 years.

Here's hoping Charmayne Brown heals quickly, scores some kind of settlement (from the NASCAR knick-knacks you know these hillbilly women got stashed somewhere) and realizes that all White Southerners are not the kind of bottom-feeding lowlifes these three women proved themselves to be. I say we the media cover EVERY INCH of their pending criminal proceedings until one of their beehive hair-do's explode. Schmucks!