Anger toward media spreads into local communities

The hostility she's felt from the public recently wasn't necessarily the last straw in television news photographer Lori Bentley-Law's decision to quit the business after 24 years, but it was one of them.

Bentley-Law's recent blog post explaining why she was leaving Los Angeles' KNBC-TV hit home for many colleagues.

While President Donald Trump's attacks on the media are usually centred on national outlets like CNN and The New York Times, the attitudes unleashed have filtered down to journalists on the street covering news in local communities across the country.

When a president describes the press as enemies of the people, "attitudes shift and the field crews get the brunt of the abuse," she wrote. "And it's not just from one side. We get it all the way around, pretty much on a daily basis."
"The environment has changed," said Chris Post, a photographer for WFMZ-TV in Allentown, Pennsylvania. "I've witnessed the transition."
"I'm 6-foot-5, 300 pounds," he said. "I've had somebody try to grab my camera. When it gets to that point, where does it stop? It's a tough time to be a journalist."
On her blog, she wrote that "I don't want to be immersed in sadness every day. I don't ever want a cute little girl in pigtails to look up at me and say, 'We hate you.' I don't want to hear 'fake news' shouted at me anymore, or to be flipped off while driving my news van."
His friends muttered, "fake news."