I think this guy is a quality reporter who ended up in an unavoidable, embarrassing situation. Were they wrong to arrest and fire him?
His work looks to be high quality to me:
GOODYEAR, Ariz. — When you gotta go, you gotta go – but one Arizona reporter’s desperate decision to relieve himself resulted in him being arrested and fired.
Jonathan Lowe was working a story for KPHO when nature called. Instead of just holding it, he walked across the street and took a squat on the neighbor’s lawn.
He might have gotten away with it if another resident hadn’t spotted him picking up several papers from the street before leaning against the side of the home, dropping his pants and defecating in the yard, according to a police report obtained by his former station.
When officers showed up at the news van, Lowe told them, “I know what you want to talk to me about.” He told cops he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to bother anyone by knocking on their door to use the bathroom. “I’ve been stuck in this van all day.”
He also said he couldn’t leave the area to go to a nearby Fry’s Marketplace, and accused the people who called police of just wanting to “start problems,” according to the document.
Cops weren’t buying it and arrested him for public defecation.
According to a statement from KPHO’s news director, he has since been fired from his job.