Harassment of women journalists: A viral video that isn't new

I was 23 years old the first time I was harassed live on television. I was covering a big event at Montana State University for the even newscast. As an MMJ (multimedia journalist) I did everything alone. I set up my tripod, camera, lights, and stood in front of the camera waiting for my producer’s voice to cue me through my earpiece to start speaking. Because of the lights in front of me, I could not see anything behind my camera, nor anything behind me—I was essential blind.

It was as I started to speak live on television that several young men came up and started talking and making what I was told were gestures behind me. While I was actively talking live on TV, one even through his arm around my shoulders and took a selfie with me. Since I was live on TV, I finished my story as best I could. After they left, my producer told me they covered live shot almost entirely with video (b-roll) so no one saw what they were doing. When I should have come back on camera at the end of the shot, they did not.

This was far from the last time this happened to me. Every time was shocking, infuriating, and terrifying. And unfortunately, I am not alone in this experience.

It did not take long before the viral video of Liv Cleary filled my social media feeds this week. In the video, Cleary is live on camera reporting about Oregon State University’s football game against Lafayette for KEZI 9 news out of Eugene, Oregon. As she recaps the game and provides analysis just before halftime, you can see fans, all male representing, yelling behind her, dancing, and even blocking her from the camera’s view at points. Throughout the deep disruption, Cleary persists with her report.

The video came from Cleary’s sports director, who shared the incident on X, saying, “Sometimes it's a tough job reporting live.” Many people on social media have applauded her “professionalism” in the face of such blatant harassment. Others have questioned whether she was put in an unsafe situation.  

It is experiences like mine and Cleary’s that led me to a career of researching harassment of journalists. Now I am a journalism researcher and professor, and the biggest lesson of this incident is not to applaud Cleary for her strength and persistence—it is to question the many aspects that got her, and so many other journalists, to this place.

1.      Women journalists experience more harassment than men

In 2021, I published a research paper highlighting the discrepancies between how men and women journalists experience harassment. Not only did women experience more sexual harassment than men, but they also experience more non-sexual harassment, much like Cleary did here. In interviews, women journalists tell me constantly that being a woman instantly makes you more susceptible to harassment, but being a woman who does journalism makes you a target. This is even worse for women in sports. In a 2018 article by Tracy Everbach, she states that for women sports journalists, “they should be able to do their work without having to face threats and harassment […] women in sports media simply want a respected place on the team.” For Cleary, by simply being a woman, and reporting on sports, she was more susceptible to harassment and abuse.

 In fact, a reporter who worked at another station in Eugene, Oregon, wrote an article about this issue back in 2017, arguing journalism has a harassment problem, especially for women. Ellen Meny stated, “Harassment by viewers is so commonplace, it’s basically become part of the job. You’re a public figure in a small town, a woman always dressed up and made up. Your first creeper is a rite of passage. A text from a weirdo obsessed with your shoes is just a hilarious screenshot. It’s something to laugh about at drinks with fellow reporters — until it isn’t funny anymore.”

2.      She was alone

It is common for broadcast journalists in the early years of their career to operate as a “one-person-band,” also called an MMJ or solo-journalist. While historically journalists were always paired with a photographer/videographer, they now shoot, edit, write, and report everything themselves. This cost cutting measure has been an industry standard for more than a decade now, where TV stations are looking to leverage their staffs to do more with less. As they move up in their career to larger stations in bigger cities (i.e. markets) the reporter/photographer pairing becomes more common.

However, for those younger journalists who are early in their careers, they will undoubtedly work alone and do live shots alone, much like I did. Herein lies the issue. Research has shown that journalists who work alone experience significantly more harassment than those who are paired up. In a study where I interviewed women TV journalists about their experiences with harassment, one told me, “If I’m working alone, especially, it can get bad.

I’ve had people follow me before in cars just to try to get my number or will shout nasty things at me [while] working alone.” Another stated, “I really think it’s because they see us as weak and vulnerable, and my biggest concern is that MMJs, true MMJs who are out alone […] doing their own live shots, which is so unsafe, is not okay.” They argue that when paired with another person, especially if that other person is a man, they experience little to no abuse compared to when they are alone. And unfortunately, as financial models shift for stations across the country, the solo-journalist model is one likely to remain.

For Cleary in this situation, she was not only alone in her live shot, but near a crowd, and alcohol was likely involved. She has no one to intervene on her behalf. And unfortunately no one did.

3.      Journalism values grit and resiliency over care

Journalists are taught to be strong, resilient watchdogs. We are trained to push for truth, and to present information objectively. A pillar of journalism is to shed light on information people try to hide, and to be a voice for the voiceless. But as a woman journalists told me in an interview, “if we are the voice for the voiceless, who is the voice for is?” Unfortunately, taken together, these strong tenants of good journalism often translate to a culture of hiding one’s feelings and struggles in order to appear calm and professional.

And if you look at the video, Cleary did that quite well. In fact, many people have taken to social media to praise her for her professionalism and her persistence, noting in one tweet that, “Her ability to remain poised and professional deserves significant praise.” What they are praising is Cleary’s strong emotional management skills. Emotional management is the ability to sustain or suppress certain emotions. When we do this for work, it is called emotional labor. As evident by the end of the video—and most people’s ability to empathize—Cleary is likely managing some strong emotions.

Had Cleary cried, lashed out, or even walked away mid shot, we can only assume how this video might have recharacterized her. However, because she remained calm and consistent during the live shot, she received praise by many. This praise for “poise” is not inherently the issue. The concern is that the reward for suppressing emotions is often given at the neglect of caring for the fall-out of doing so.

Emotional labor takes a toll. As I wrote in a research article, “It is concerning for these women specifically and broadcast journalism generally that the youngest corps of the labor force is consistently tasked with emotional labor that is neither compensated nor regulated in a way to help minimize burnout and emotional exhaustion.” Because emotional labor takes a toll. In one study, I found harassment caused anxiety, depression, PTSD, and low job satisfaction, among other concerns. In fact, 29% of journalists surveyed said they considered leaving journalism altogether because of the harassment they experience.

Moving Forward

                  I do not know the details about how Cleary’s station may or may not have made changes or worked with her to address her needs after this incident. What I do know is this situation is largely a common one—and this is just the video that went viral. My hope is that while Cleary is praised for her “poise,” that news stations also reflect on the situations that put her in this place to be so severely harassed on live television.