Gotta think it takes a lot to spook a newscaster.
They don’t really get enough credit for walking into dangerous situations, but the men and women who report the news often find themselves in places that most people wouldn’t want to be in. From reporting on crime scenes to trying out new things for a cool story, journalists often put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of a good news report.
But this guy may have been rethinking his life choices when he found himself face to face with a 3,000 lb bison.
Back in 2020, Deion Broxton was a reporter for NBC Montana who was sent out in the field at Yellowstone National Park to report on the park’s closure during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Side note, but it’s crazy that we closed outdoor recreation areas like national parks during the pandemic).
Well because of the social distancing at the time, Broxton was forced to do the report on his own, setting up his own camera and filming his own news segment. And this isn’t uncommon, even when there aren’t social distancing requirements, but it’s situations like this when you probably want to have somebody else there with you…
As Broxton was wrapping up his shot, he spots a herd of bison heading his way. But when he spots one breaking away and looking towards him, he hilariously side-eyes the oncoming beasts while giving some of the best comedic commentary you’ll ever hear:
“Montana 3… oh my God, oh my God. Oh, nope I ain’t messing with you. Oh, no. Oh, no.”
After quickly looking back and forth between the camera lens and the incoming bison, Broxton walks out of the shot and you can hear him taking the camera off the mount and beginning to load it up.
The camera continues to roll, catching his panic as he tries to get out of dodge:
“Oh no, I’m not messing with you. Hmmm mhm.”
The bulky camera clanks into the back seat of the vehicle and shuts off, and Deion then gets into the safety of the vehicle. When he eventually was looking back at the footage, he thought the interaction was too good not to share:
The Baltimore native took some time shortly after the event to speak with a news station from his hometown and describe more about how the bison encounter (or lack thereof) went down:
“They started moving towards me, and the one that was closest to me made eye contact with me and he didn’t stop walking towards me. The other ones were all kind of moving in a group.
I’ve covered stories in Yellowstone where the girl was tossed last year, the man went viral two years ago for taunting the bison and the bison charged at him, so all that stuff was playing through my mind.
I’m not trying to be on the news, ‘Only Black Man in Montana Killed by Bison.'”
Broxton clearly handled the whole situation with class, and was able to laugh at himself, which is one of the more difficult things to do in this day and age. The viral video that spawned from his natural reaction of a wild animal stalking him brought a light to many, as he also revealed in the interview:
“One lady emailed me, she said ‘this is the first time I’ve laughed in 5 days.”
And let this be a lesson to all those Yellowstone National Park visitors: you don’t have to be an idiot around the wildlife to go viral. Being smart can pay off too.
The additional story and interview can be seen below:
