When Reporters Are Attacked

Sept. 9, 2006 — -- San Diego investigative reporter John Mattes still is recovering from cracked ribs, bite wounds and cuts to his face.

He got the injuries from people he was trying to interview, but he certainly is not the first reporter to have been roughed up on the job.

ABC News' chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross has suffered his own share of frightening moments.

"I've been hit in the face a number of times," he said. "I've had guns pulled on me. You know, I've had threats relayed to me that were very specific and very real by dangerous gangsters."

While trying to uncover a bogus charity event in Dallas in 2003, Ross got more than he bargained for.

"They took me, slammed me -- you know, knocked me against the wall," he said. "My nose is bloody and, you know, all I was thinking was, 'Did we get that shot?' That's all I could think of before it sort of dawned on me what had happened."

Ross may have gotten off easy. Other reporters have been punched, kicked in the face, threatened with weapons and chased by bulldozers.

A local reporter in Louisville, Ky., was held up against a wall by the neck, and then put in a headlock.

Other reporters even have had run-ins with celebrities.

After arriving at the Bangkok airport for a tour in Thailand, the musician Bjork attacked a reporter who simply extended a greeting at the airport.

Attacks also can happen in the relative safety of a television studio, as they did at ESPN when a football player threw a desk and pushed a reporter.

One of the most memorable reporter run-ins involved ABC News' "20/20" anchor John Stossel and a professional wrestler.

"I was doing consumer reporting, and I was constantly going up to people and saying, 'Why are you a crook?' " Stossel said. "And I always worried that I would get beaten up, or shot, or stabbed because I was challenging people's livelihood. But it never happened until this one lunatic beats me up for my saying something that everyone knows is true anyway."