Alex Bozarjian, You Deserved Better [OPINION]

This past week social media has erupted with rage over a video of a female reporter being smacked on the behind on live television. The video, which has garnered over 11 million views, shows WSAV-TV anchor Alex Bozarjian cheerfully reporting on the Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run in Georgia. Runners parade by, waving at the camera. One racer, 43-year-old Tommy Callaway, trots up behind Bozarjian and slaps her on the butt as he runs by. Bozarjian becomes visibly upset, stopping-mid sentence, mouth-agape as Callaway runs out of frame. Bozarjian remembers she’s on live television and quickly returns her focus to reporting the story.

The video is undeniably appalling. As a woman in journalism I felt personally shaken witnessing a fellow reporter have her autonomy challenged in front of a camera. As if the details surrounding the event couldn’t get any more bothersome, Callaway has now released a video to the press with “his side of the story.” I’ve been looking all day and I still can’t find who ever asked him for it. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that Mr. Callaway should’ve just kept his mouth shut.

 The first thing we should make known about this guy Tommy Callaway is that he’s a youth pastor and a Cub Scouts leader. It’s really the cream of the crop we have out here influencing the youth of America. That information may have been given forth to defend this man’s character, but it definitely makes the entire thing just that much more nauseating. I would’ve rather heard that you’re the greasy register guy at the gas station not a community leader, Tommy. It’s so much easier to compartmentalize the scale of microaggressions against women when the perpetrators are the same scummy dudes from the back alley of life. But alas, we’re slapped (pun intended) with the harsh reality that us women have known for a very long time: the men who perpetuate these microaggressions aren’t just perv-y low lives who prey on women every chance they get. No, more often than not they’re respected members of communities, leaders, fathers with daughters. 

The painfully humorous part about Callaway’s decision to come forward with a statement is that nowhere in that statement is there an apology. That in and of itself should be as bad as it gets, right? No. In this video, Callaway claims that if he had turned and seen the shock on Bozarjian’s face, he would’ve run back to apologize. Yet 11 million people saw the shock on Bozarjian’s face and when it was his turn face the camera, he didn’t have the wherewithal to apologize. It felt pretty phony. I think as Tommy Callaway sauntered off, leaving Alex Bozarjian stunned in her shoes, he didn’t think twice about what he had just done. In fact, I think he slept fine until he woke up to find his little grab-n-go had gone viral.

To the future Tommy Callaways, of which I’m sure there will plenty, keep your side of the story to yourself. Save your defense of character. Hold in all your “I got caught up in the moment” excuses till you’re blue in the face. Maybe pass out for a few minutes due to lack of oxygen and make the world a little bit safer for women to exist in. Because frankly, I’m tired. Alex Bozarjian is tired. We are all tired.