A TV reporter has faced criticism for bringing a news crew to the house of a Utah paramedic on Friday to question the man about a $10 donation to Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense.
The moment: The reporter, Jason Nguyen of local ABC affiliate KTVX, tweeted a photo of himself holding a microphone and knocking on the paramedic’s door hours before the “investigation” aired on Friday night.
- “Rittenhouse is accused of killing two protesters in Kenosha, [Wisconsin],” Nguyen said in the tweet. “I tried to get the paramedics side of things.”
Nguyen noted that the Guardian newspaper had earlier in the day named the paramedic as the source of a $10 donation to Rittenhouse’s defense fund, based on a data breach at Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo.
The Guardian, echoing widespread sentiment in the media and on the left, included Rittenhouse among “accused vigilante murderers, far-right activists, and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans” whom received donations from “serving police officers and public officials.”
Rittenhouse has been charged with multiple homicide accounts for shooting three activists, two fatally, during an Aug. 25 racial justice riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
- His lawyers and defenders, pointing to video evidence, have argued that he clearly acted in self-defense.
- The GiveSendGo campaign raised about $586,00.
The reaction: Nguyen’s reporting on the paramedic donor triggered Twitter outrage from the left and the right over what many saw as bullying of a private citizen over his political views.
Among conservative commentators, Jack Posobiec called Nguyen a “Scum bag,” Kyle Kashuv said, “You are trash,” and Cassandra Fairbanks wondered when the “asswipe activist” would do a similar exposé on Black Lives Matter donors.
Pulitzer Prize-winning left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald said of Nguyen’s reporting, “This is f*cking pathetic.”
- Greenwald went on to imagine how Nguyen and his fellow journalists would react if someone did the same to them.
Nguyen defended himself in replies to some comments, at one point saying the story was justified because the paramedic had made the anonymous donation to Rittenhouse using his official email address rather “privately.”
The big reveal: When KTVX broadcast the story at 10 p.m. on Friday, Nguyen revealed that “those inside the home” of the paramedic had declined to speak to him.
But West Valley City officials confirmed to the station that the man was an employee of the local fire department and they were “conducting an investigation into this matter.”
- “Shepherd will not be placed on administrative leave during this investigation,” Nguyen added. “It’s not clear how long that will take.”
