WINK reporter Britni McDonald stepped into the line of political fire after doing a report on a guy who vandalized a Donald Trump sign with his car.
Manuel Retiz is accused of driving across traffic, over a sidewalk and onto a field to run over the sign and then posting video of the act on Facebook. He wasn’t arrested, but was charged with first degree criminal mischief. WINK says a Trump volunteer told police the campaign would press charges.
McDonald is getting some pushback from viewers on Facebook about it. One commenter called the story “unworthy” another told her to “go cover real news” while others went after Democrats. Her Facebook live video promoting the story and shot in front of another Trump sign sprayed with a swastika has 12,000 views and 280 comments.
“What would you like me to cover?” McDonald wrote. “Property was vandalized, and an arrest was made. It’s also related to the political season. So this would be ‘real news.'”
The vitriol got so bad, McDonald had to tell commenters to check themselves before posting.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — I will NOT tolerate comments with curse words, threats, or bullying. Fortunately, Facebook helps me out by hiding them, so you shouldn’t even bother, but I’ve already have to delete many and even ban people from the live video below. Even a local police representative said the political season brings out the worst in people, and I agree. What’s ironic is many of these inappropriate comments were made on a video in which I was reminding people to respect each other after a man was arresting for basically disrespecting someone else. An amazing thing about being Americans is the privilege to vote. So let’s use our voices productively that way instead of attacking each other.
reports The Fort Myers CBS affiliate reports “The since-deleted post on Retiz’s page included a caption in Spanish that translates to ‘Oops, my apologies to all Latinos of the world’ and several laughing emoticons.”