
NICK EICHER, HOST: Sarah Crawte is a young field reporter for Channel 9 news in Sydney, Australia. Last week she was recording a feature on snake safety. To demonstrate, she agreed to let a snake handler drape a 4-foot nonvenomous snake across her shoulder.
Everything was fine until the snake decided her microphone looked like a threat.
AUDIO: [Scream] He just bit my microphone! Oh just stay still. That’s it, just keep the mic nice and still. It’s just cuz it’s right in front of his face.
And then he bit it again!
AUDIO: He’s biting my microphone, what do I do?! You’ll be alright. It’s just the mic that he’s seeing. But what if he sees my hand?!
But then like a true professional, she pulled herself together, and delivered her report with that snake focused on that microphone, quite ready to attack again.
AUDIO: While they might not be everyone’s cup of tea, most of the time, snakes are more scared of you than you are of them.
But she told the Today Show that just as soon as the camera stopped rolling…
AUDIO: I said to the snake handler, get it off me!
That’s what we teach at World Journalism Institute: bravery and poise!
It’s The World and Everything in It.