TV Reporter Returns After Backlash from Teen Drinking Investigation

Daily News Article   —   Posted on February 17, 2012

(from CBSDC.com) WASHINGTON – A CBS news reporter whose on-air coverage of teenage drinking led to threats against her children, a backlash across social media and her brief leave from reporting is now back at work and speaking out about the alcohol problem affecting Washington DC’s community.

Andrea McCarren, a reporter for WUSA-TV since 1991, investigated a report from a local parent that a store in northwest Washington DC was allegedly selling liquor to teenagers below the legal buying age.

“We watched and videotaped dozens of teenagers buying alcohol at Town Square Market in northwest Washington without being asked for identification,” reported McCarren in the story that was broadcast on Feb. 2.

Following the story, teens flooded the station’s Facebook page with angry messages such as “…you’re now the most hated woman in the dc (sic) metro area.” A follow-up report by McCarren about a police raid on an underage drinking party brought out further anger on social media against the reporter. In addition, parents of teens being arrested by police at the scene became upset with WUSA-TV’s coverage and questioned police as to why law enforcement was granting video access to the raid.

After her children were threatened at school, McCarren took herself off the air and reporter Derek McGinty continued the series of reports on the issue. McCarren said parents at the scene of the police raid also threatened to sue police and WUSA-TV.

In an interview Thursday on CBS This Morning, McCarren spoke about the backlash and its affect on her three children.

“At first I was frightened and then I became angry,” said McCarren. “It felt like an orchestrated Facebook and Twitter campaign of hate. People put my home address on the internet. There were calls for revenge and retaliation against my family. I’m now in about my 27th year as a reporter and I have never seen anything like this.”

WUSA-TV said 99 percent of the feedback they had received from the public had been positive about their investigation, and supportive comments on the station’s Facebook page have been growing.

“Shame on the parents for being angry because their child was caught drinking under age,” posted one user. “One parent actually said, why didn’t you run. We ask why this generation has less morals and respect.”

McCarren told CBS News she has vowed to continue her stories around the topic.

“Personally as a reporter, I felt like I could not cover one more carload of drunk kids wrapped around a tree and interview one more set of grieving parents without trying to do something with this extraordinary reach of the media to affect positive change,” she said.

There was no word about if McCarren’s children with husband Bill McCarren, executive director of the National Press Club, had returned to school.

©2012 CBS News. All Rights Reserved.  Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from CBS News. Visit the website at washington.cbslocal.com.

Background

The following is from a CBS News interview with Andrea McCarren: 
(watch the interview at cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57379064/reporter-on-underage-drinking-expose-backlash)

CBS anchor Erica Hill remarked, "One of the most surprising parts about that backlash from the outside is the reaction that you got from parents who were [as] equally outraged [with you] as their teenagers were."

McCarren said the parents were outraged because they didn't want the attention and that their children were not identified in the reports.  "We didn't identify them. We were very careful not to. We were on public streets. We could have legally shown their faces but as minors, we chose to protect them," she said.  "One of the most memorable things, was at an underage drinking party that was busted by police, one of the parents showed up to collect his son and he said right in front of police, 'Why didn't you run?'"

"As a bit of background, I should tell you that two months before we confronted that liquor store owner that has been selling for years to minors as young as 14 in plain sight, we brought this to the attention of D.C. Police as well as the Control Board, yet they did nothing and continue not to (take) any action," McCarren said. "We just can't understand what is more pressing, what is more important than protecting the children of the district and surrounding areas. It's...incredibly baffling to all of us how D.C.'s Liquor Control Board has taken no action."

As for McCarren's children, she said the situation at school has improved. McCarren said before she went back on the air Wednesday night, she talked with her kids about the support she's received from viewers.