Moment furious Boston TV reporter chases away man who grabbed him from behind during live broadcast outside stadium, before branding interloper’s behavior ‘Not ok’

• Grant Hermes, a journalist with WHDH 7News, was reporting after a Bruins game
• A young man ran up behind him, grabbing his shoulders and shouting ‘Yeah boy!’
• Hermes then chased the man off camera and yelled to him: ‘Don’t do that, dude’

This is the moment a furious Boston TV reporter chases away a man who grabbed him from behind during a live broadcast.

Grant Hermes, from WHDH 7News, was standing outside TD Garden on Saturday night following the Bruins’ victory against the Montreal Canadiens.

At first, all appeared normal as Hermes waited for his signal to start the broadcast. A woman jumped into frame in the distance, flailing her arms and whooping.

But suddenly a young man in a flannel shirt leapt behind Hermes, flexed and shouted ‘Yeah boy!’

He threw his arms around the journalist’s shoulders as Hermes wheeled around, confused.

Grant Hermes, a reporter with WHDH 7News, was reporting outside TD Garden in Boston

An elderly woman appeared in the background, waving her arms, before a man in a flannel shirt ran up behind him

The man flexed, shouted ‘Yeah boy!’ and grabbed Hermes from behind, giving him no time to react

The reporter shoved the man off and chased him off camera, admonishing: ‘Don’t do that, dude’

The reporter pushed the stranger off and chased him away, saying: ‘Don’t do that, dude.’

Shortly after the incident, Hermes took to social media to post the clip with a message.

‘I’m fine. My photog is fine. But I wanna be clear how not ok this is,’ he wrote.

‘The people you see on TV are at work, at a job where people make threats at us regularly. So we don’t know when you yell at us, run into our live shots or grab us, we don’t know what you’re there to do.’

Hermes continued: ‘I’m glad this guy wasn’t someone with a gun or a knife or who wanted to hurt me or my photographer. But the point is there are those people out there. We’ve seen it happen.

‘So the next time you think about getting your 3 seconds of fame at a reporter’s expense. Don’t.’

In the wake of the incident, several other journalists voiced their support.

‘Not ok at all,’ newscaster Dave Bondy wrote.

‘Oh no, here’s what we’re NOT going to do. I’d be ready to throw hands,’ said Johnathon Hayes, weekend anchor at KTUL News. ‘Glad you’re OK buddy.’

Hermes took to social media in the wake of the surprise attack, begging people to respect his space and that of his colleagues

‘We’ve seen it happen,’ Hermes said of acts of violence against reporters

He urged people to think before seeking ‘3 seconds of fame at a reporter’s expense’

Hermes is an award-winning journalist who began working at 7News in 2023

While the surprise attack fell short of an act of violence, journalists have seen more threats – of kidnapping, torture and even murder – in recent years.

Last year, 66 journalists and members of the media were killed worldwide in connection with their profession, according to the International Press Institute.

This number is a sharp increase from the 45 journalists killed in 2021. 

The incident in Boston came just weeks after the ninth annual International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, observed on November 2.

The day, established by the United Nations General Assembly, draws attention to the fact that most crimes against journalists go unpunished.

The global impunity rate is a shocking 86 percent worldwide, according to the latest UNESCO data on killings of journalists.

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