Fox 5 reporter George Franco has a long way to go before he matches Stephen Colbert as the TV news guy whose antics captures the nation’s zeitgeist. But it’s not for a lack of trying.

Franco was arrested Monday morning after allegedly pushing past a BP employee who was overseeing a beach cleanup. The employee told Franco a part of the beach was off limits, according to Escambia County sheriff’s spokeswoman Melissa Aiken Rawson,

But Franco pushed Mitchell and walked passed him, authorities said.

“Franco argued with the contractor, shoved the contractor and started grabbing him,” Aiken Rawson said.

Mitchell told Franco several times to leave, then said he was going to call the sheriff’s office, turning his back on the reporter.
That’s when police records say Franco grabbed Mitchell’s arm, spinning him around.

“Witnesses supported the claim of the victim,” Aiken Rawson said, referring to two U.S. Coast Guard members listed in the sheriff’s office incident report.

Franco was arrested and booked, and then let out on $500 bail. Had he just waited a bit longer, however, the WAGA-TV reporter might have picked up some tips from Colbert. Monday evening on the Colbert Report, the Comedy Central talk show host beat up BP CEO Tony Hayward (actually, an actor playing Hayward) to demonstrate to President Obama how to be angry.

Fox 5 News Director Budd McEntee told the AJC that Franco and the station deny the charges, and the reporter remains in Floria reporting on the BP spill. If I was Tony Hayward, though, I’d steer clear of Pensacola.

Related posts:

1. Jet skiing through the tar balls
2. Hands Across the Sand: Don’t drill off Tybee Island
3. ‘Seize BP’ rally in L5P