Do You Know Who I Am?
There is nothing worse when TV news people play the “Do you know who I am?” card.
That appears to be what WHNT (Huntsville, Alabama) Reporter Samson Tamijani is doing on his station-branded social media.
It appears that Tamijani is set to travel on vacation to Brazil on United Airlines and he is not happy that the airline did not tell him he needed to show up early for his flight to South America.
Okay….there is a lot to unpack here, but let’s try.
First off, we are still in the pandemic, so why the fuck are you traveling?
Second, Brazil has just set a WORLD record for COVID deaths in a single day and is reporting over 100,000 new cases a day.
Third, you are a Reporter, shouldn’t it have been your responsibility to find out when you need to check-in at the gate and not the airlines? You’re using your position and station branded account to try to make a power play against an airline when you should have done your research.
Fourth, I hope if you do make it to Brazil, you plan on a full quarantine on your return and not just head back to work.
Fifth, is Nexstar OK with this guy using his station branded account to blast United Airlines? Also, if United is running ads on Nexstar stations, they might want to take another look at that media buy.
Lastly, It is never cool to use the “do you know who I am” routine as a Journalist, but come on dude, you work in Huntsville. It’s not like you are Lester Holt.
Hopefully, his bosses will explain to him that his child-like Twitter rant is really not a good look.