'Smacked my butt': Reporter's disgust after being 'groped' on live television
Footage of a reporter who was allegedly groped in the middle of a live broadcast has gone viral online.
Alexandrea Bozarjian, a journalist with US news station WSAV in the state of Savannah, was giving a live-cross from a running event when one of the participants appeared to grope her from behind.
The video, which was filmed by a TV viewer and then uploaded to social media, showed Bozarjian wearing a high-vis jacket and standing on the shoulder of a bridge as dozens of people run past her.
Many of them wave to the camera and, as they dash past, some get so close to the stationary journalist they appear to brush against her, temporarily startling her so she moves further away from the stream of runners.
"Whoa! Not expecting that," Ms Bozarjian says with a laugh before continuing her report, telling the camera how some people dressed up.
As she is reporting, a man wearing sunglasses and a hat, and dressed in dark blue approaches from behind.
While his arm cannot be seen connecting with the reporter, his appearance at her shoulder brings her to a startling halt and makes her jaw drop.
Visibly shocked she momentarily stands in silence staring after the man who quickly disappears out of the frame.
A disgusted viewer uploaded video of the moment on Twitter, saying: “Check out this jerk smacking a @WSAV reporter's ass live on air.”
To the man who smacked my butt on live TV this morning: You violated, objectified, and embarrassed me. No woman should EVER have to put up with this at work or anywhere!! Do better. https://t.co/PRLXkBY5hn
— Alex Bozarjian (@wsavalexb) December 7, 2019
The reporter confirmed this was what had happened.
“To the man who smacked my butt on live TV this morning: You violated, objectified, and embarrassed me,” Bozarjian tweeted.
“No woman should EVER have to put up with this at work or anywhere! Do better.”
The tweet has since amassed more than 60,000 likes from users.
Savannah Police Department told NBC News they had contacted the reporter over the alleged incident and awaiting further instruction on how to proceed.
The director of the sports council responsible for organising the race publicly condemned the alleged perpetrator and implied that action would be taken against the man.
“This will not be tolerated at our events. Glad we have race bibs and photos for easy identification,” he tweeted.
Shortly afterwards the sports council told NBC he had been banned from all future events.
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