Maggie Raworth, a 24-year-old TV reporter for 9 News, was abused while about to film a live-cross outside a Victoria court house. Photo / Facebook
Maggie Raworth, a 24-year-old TV reporter for 9 News, was abused while about to film a live-cross outside a Victoria court house. Photo / Facebook
An Australian journalist was going about her job on Monday when a total stranger decided it was a great time to spit verbal abuse at her.
Maggie Raworth, a 24-year-old TV reporter for 9 News, was about to do a piece-to-camera outside Victoria's Ballarat Court when a man driving past in his car spotted her.
Raworth told news.com.au he then decided to park his car and double back on foot, purely to launch a tirade of insults at the innocent reporter.
"Get a real job, the both of you. F**king journos, lowest of the low," he said to Raworth and the cameraman.
It's unclear whether the man's anger spouted from a case he might have been attending at Ballarat Court.
Maggie Rowarth stood her ground while the stranger hurled abuse at her and took out her camera to film him. Photo / Facebook
Despite Raworth being praised online for handling the altercation like a pro, she admitted it's something she deals with everyday.
"It happens all the time, every TV journalist can say that happens to them almost on a daily basis. I get yelled at from cars all the time, it's just part of the job," she told news.com.au.
While Raworth said the personal insults were well and truly below the belt, his comments about her body weren't upsetting.
"I love my job and I love myself. I have a really thick skin, great friends and he couldn't of picked a more confident person to say that to," she said.
And despite Raworth admitting she's still "reeling and angry" from the altercation, she admitted it was his overall attitude that upset her the most.
"Don't just hate somebody you don't even know purely because they work for the media," she said. "Nobody deserves to be spoken to like that and you shouldn't just have to accept people speaking to you in that manner.
"I wanted to say to him: 'Do you hate fat people or do you hate journos?' People hate the media for no reason when they really don't understand what we do."
The abuse Raworth was forced to deal with came less than a day after a woman in the United States was blasted on social media for whining about the dress a TV reporter chose to wear.
In a now-deleted Facebook post, user Jan Shedd went online to voice an issue she had with Demetria Obilor's choice of attire.
"Has anyone seen Channel 8's new traffic morning reporter? Her name is Demetria Obilor and she's a size 16/18 woman in a size 6 dress and she looks ridiculous," Shedd wrote.
The post continued, saying the channel had "taken complete leave of their senses" and that she would no longer be watching.
"I understand that when I watch Channel 8 I'm going to get biased reporting and political correctness, but clearly they have taken complete leave of their senses," she said.
The Facebook post was picked up and shared by others on social media who hit back at the woman, including Grammy award-winning musician Chance the Rapper.
Obilor posted a thank you on Twitter to her supporters, saying she woke up to "a whole lot of love" after the post.
"The controversy is coming from people who aren't too happy with the way that I look on television saying, 'oh her body is too big for that dress' or 'she's too curvy,' she said.
"A quick word to those people - this is the way that I'm built, this is the way that I was born. I'm not going anywhere so if you don't like it, you have your options."
