Should this reporter have been arrested?

Maybe I should try to board an airplane without a ticket while making strange statements about a blaze of glory.

Then I can whip out my business card and tell them I was just researching a story.

 

What, you say? TTIUWP?

That piece of business done, trespassing should be the worst she faces. Even then, it's unlikely anything will happen. They asked to leave, and she did.

 

I don't understand the reaction. If annoying hospital personnel were a crime, lots of people would be in the hoosegow. As would I.

 

So she was a crazy person impersonating a TV anchor impersonating a nurse? Come on.

 

How else would you go about doing this? Fine her for trespassing, if you must (one would hope the station would pay the fine), but she proved her point. Anyone apparently can just walk in unnoticed. It wasn't until she started asking questions that she GOT noticed. You can't get that kind of information by calling the hospital's PIO and asking, "so, how's your security these days?" It's gotcha journalism, but there is an abiding public interest in the effectiveness of hospital security.

We don't see the humor in this test? Sure. I'm sure the public doesn't think it's funny. But what do I know? I only live in a town where a man walked into the ER several years ago and shot up the place. I'd like to know my locall hospital is safe.

 

She proved a point, but there's a price for that if you break laws to do so.

You could stroll elementary school hallways, posing as a substitute teacher, to show how easy it might be for potential sexual predators to get into schools and lure children. Or you could come up with a better way to prove a point, like NBC's Dateline did, working with police in a sting to get them off the streets.

That TV station proved a point. Good for them. But they can't complain about the arrest that followed her actions.

 

If she can be arrested, then Chris Hansen and Dateline could be sued for fraud.

 

Why? Dateline had an underage girl chatting with someone online, so she wasn't a fraud during the chat. It's not like Chris Hansen said he was a 14-year-old girl there.

 

Well, she'll pay the price. I didn't see where the station was complaining. I guess my answer to the question in the thread title would be yes, (I did say fine her for trespassing), but exposing the securing at the hospital -- which has a recent history of getting burned on security issues -- might be important enough for her to subject herself to arrest. I would guess that she knew that was a possibility beforehand.

On a tangent ... interesting that this would be published in the Times. Does your average bloke in Liverpool actually care about a hospital in Lubbock, Texas?

 

IF she was asked to leave and didn't leave, that is trespassing. Apparently, she didn't do that in either case. Nor did she go into any restricted area. The smartest thing she did was identify herself. The dumbest thing was to accept the assignment.
At any rate, she shouldn't have been arrested. Hopefully, she won't have a record.

 

No, but for the in-person stings they do not use an underage girl. They use people 18-and-older who can pass for teenagers. It's for the greater good, but so was what this woman did.

 

One of the reporters I know used to work with the woman. She laughed about it tonight because she said the reporter always had to find something wrong no matter how good life was. It was pretty funny when she was talking about it.