The video of the man slapping the reporter’s butt on live television has been viewed more than 11 million times, but his decision has come back to back to bite him in the arse.
Alex Bozarjian was live reporting the Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run when youth minister Tommy Callaway made a beeline for the journalist, and slapped her on the bum while running past.
Following the incident, and the media storm that followed, Callaway has been banned from all future Savannah Sports Council-organised running events.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, December 8, Savannah Sports Council, which was in charge of the running event, said:
Yesterday at the Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run a reporter from WSAV was inappropriately touched by a registered participant of the event.
Our title sponsor, Enmarket and the Savannah Sports Council take this matter extremely seriously and fully condemn this individual’s actions.
Yesterday afternoon we identified him and shared his information with the reporter and her station.
We will not tolerate behavior like this at a Savannah Sports Council event. We have made the decision to ban this individual from registering for all Savannah Sports Council owned races.
Whilst Savannah Sports Council identified the man quickly, Twitter also did its own investigative work to name and shame the man, later to be discovered to be Tommy Callaway.
In an interview with Inside Edition, Mr Callaway explained how his initial intention was to wave to the camera, but instead got ‘caught up in the moment’ and decided to hit Bozarjian on the backside instead.
Callaway also said:
There was a misjudge in character and decision-making. I touched her back – I did not know exactly where I touched her.
The interviewer then read out Bozarjian’s tweet to Callaway where she said to ‘do better’, to which Callaway said he “100% agreed with her statement”.
He continued by saying that her ‘do better’ comment was the most important part of the tweet, and his intention is to do just that.
Callaway added:
I did not see her facial reaction – I just carried on running. If I did see her facial reaction, I would have been embarrassed, and I’d have felt ashamed. I would have stopped, turned around and apologised to her.
The interview has now had more than 60,000 views on Inside Edition’s YouTube channel.
One viewer commented:
He knew exactly what he did. He should have just admitted his error, apologized and asked forgiveness. Instead he comes across as a coward making excuses. Not a role model.
So there you have it – if you’re thinking about touching a woman’s arse without her permission, don’t. Especially if it’s on live television.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.