Charlottesville Protesters Douse Journalists With Urine, Katie Couric Reports

“Hard to keep your cool,” veteran newscaster tweets while covering violent rally at home of her alma mater, UVA

The protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, clearly have no love for the media.

According to Katie Couric, who is covering the “Unite the Right” rally for her upcoming series on NatGeo, two of her producers “got sprayed with urine” while reporting on the increasingly violent protests Saturday morning. “Lovely. Hard to keep your cool,” she added.

Couric, a graduate of the city’s University of Virginia, posted several short videos of the protests on her social media channels — including clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters.

Couric also reported on the vehicle that plowed into counter-protesters on Saturday afternoon, killing one and injuring 19 others. More than 30 were hurt in total as a result of events at the rally.

Two Virginia State Police troopers were also killed when a police helicopter assisting with the melee crashed outside of Charlottesville. The incident is under investigation but police say that foul play is not suspected.

“Spectator told me a white nationalist car had been trashed so a driver plowed into counter protesters,” she tweeted. “I saw some taken away in bad shape.”

The veteran journalist, most recently as global news anchor for Yahoo News, quoted one white nationalist as saying, “This makes me feel like going home and putting my robe on.” To which she added, “And I don’t think he’s a judge.”

She also quoted one woman, presumably a counter-protester, as saying, “I guess neo-Nazis are at least a diversion from nuclear annihilation.”

Later in the day, Couric posted details of an interview with philosopher and political activist Dr. Cornel West, who told her “he had never seen such hatred from his fellow human beings in his life.”

 

Thom Geier

Thom is an award-winning editor and writer with a keen knowledge of American pop culture and a knack for finding original approaches that inform and delight readers. He’s handled breaking news as well as long-term feature packages, mentored young writers who have become industry leaders, and developed fresh, shareable content across both print and digital…

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