Fox News reporter Steve Harrigan was covering the unrest Monday night in Ferguson, Missouri, when someone in the crowd busted his photographer’s camera.
“When we got there initally we were surrounded by eight or 10 young men calling me Darren Wilson,” Harrigan said by phone. But then glass broke on a nearby store, and that “distracted people,” Harrigan said.
Harrigan in Ferguson.
He tried to show some of the goods getting looted when a smaller group — maybe four or five people — set upon him and camera operator Dutch Wargo. “I think there was some unhappiness we were showing looting,” Harrigan said.
One person shouted “Fuck Fox!” Another smashed the camera to the ground, disabling it. Harrigan and Wargo broadcast from iPhones while Wargo got his backup camera operating.
Steve Harrigan, who is normally based in Miami, has been in Ferguson for 11 days and also covered Ferguson in August. “Preparation was really lacking on the part of law enforcement” Monday night, he said. “It didn’t seem like they knew their opponent.” Later that night he and Wargo were near gunfire.
Harrigan said how long he’d stay in Ferguson depends on the protesters. I asked him if there were other stories he reported last night more important than the busted camera. “I don’t know, I think we just try to tell what we see, and that’s a part of it,” he said. “It’s chaotic and if you step into the swirl, you could get knocked over.”
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