Yesterday, in a Patron-only story, FTVLive told you that WCNC (Charlotte) Reporter Billie Jean Shaw was threatened by two men who implied they had a gun.

Last week, FTVLive showed you video of WBTV MMJ Paige Pauroso getting punched while out covering a story.

It took two incidents for WCNC News Director Matt King to put out a memo to the staff about the safety of the station’s news crews. The memo was obtained by FTVLive:

King writes in the memo, “News crews in the field, if you are ever involved in a situation you feel is unsafe, alert me or one of the other managers immediately.”

No! What you should “immediately” do is call the police and try to get yourself somewhere safe. If you’re looking down the barrel of a robber’s gun, I don’t think calling Matt King is going to help you.

Mark Bell of ENG Safety adds, “Only in a corporate mindset do people, typically managers, feel they should be alerted to issues outside the station building and property before anyone else. Managers are there to save the corporation. The outside environment for field news crews is entirely an interface to externals, and laws, procedures, nature, and physics, trump corporate policies. The corporation is typically the resource for your ‘living’ in the field, but not that of your life in the field. Only you can help assure that with sound decision making.”

If you’re in a situation where you need immediate help, call 911.

Unless your News Director has a cape under their clothes, you can call them later when you’re safe.