Cool, calm and creepy-crawly: reporter unfazed by cockroach cameo on live TV | US news
Viewers of a now-viral video are sharing their amazement at a TV reporter who kept his cool after a giant flying cockroach unexpectedly landed in the middle of his report during live broadcast.
Rachel Menitoff, a reporter for Los Angeles station KTLA News, was reporting on dangerous conditions caused by extreme heat in Sherman Oaks, Calif., during her evening live shoot on Wednesday. His report took an unexpected turn when a giant insect disrupted the episode.
Menitoff later released a video. instagram Broadcast showing a large cockroach landing on his neck, then moving over his body, towards the microphone, and eventually flying away.
The text above the video read, “Yes, that’s a flying cockroach.”
Although he could clearly sense the bug, Menitoff continued to present his report and completed the segment without stopping or indicating to the audience that he was disturbed. After the broadcast ends, the video shows him quickly shrugging his shoulders and shaking as he looks for the bug. Someone off camera laughs and says, “How come you didn’t move?” he asks.
Menitoff later poked fun at the incident in an Instagram thread, saying the cockroach was “trying to steal my thunder.”
KTLA also published the clip In X, where Menitoff’s colleagues comment on what happened.
The local channel captioned the post: “SURPRISE LANDING.” “A bug hit @KTLA reporter @RachelMenitoff’s live footage last night and we must praise her professionalism. Who else can stay this cool!?”
After watching the video, KTLA host Eric Spillman said: “This is scary though!”
“I can’t understand how she’s not scared even though she’s in front of the camera,” one viewer wrote in response to the post on X.
“I don’t scream, swear, yell, vomit, light a fire and run away crying hysterically… Thank God for this woman,” another viewer wrote.
Just a reporter friend of mine at Axios in question: “Give this woman a promotion.”
Animals interrupting reporters is a long-established tradition in the world of live news, and countless examples have gone viral over the years. In 2020, CNN correspondent Joe Johns had to fend off a raccoon on the White House lawn moments before going on air, lamenting that this was the second time something like this had happened.
In 2021, a Moscow reporter’s live weather report was interrupted by a dog that grabbed his microphone and ran off with it. In late 2022, a reporter in Kenya went viral after a particularly affectionate speech. baby elephant got sick Its section deals with human impacts on the environment. In yet another example, a 2019 live interview in Kineta, Greece, came to a dramatic halt when a large, spotted sow decided to show her affection to a male reporter on air.
All of these examples, while perhaps equally surprising at the moment, are certainly more endearing than Menitoff’s experience. Accordingly NBCThe KTLA reporter responded to viewers praising her ability to stay calm on her Instagram story, writing: “Believe me, keeping my cool wasn’t easy.”
