As a journalist with 25 years of experience, CTV's Kent Molgat is used to chasing the story. But when the story hits back in the form of a wayward pole and the reporter becomes the story -- that is something new.
Video of Molgat chasing a lawyer for an interview and then walking straight into a pole has gone viral, joining a long, proud history of television news bloopers.
"Oh my God that hurt!" Molgat exclaims in the video, after walking right into the light pole. The lawyer, previously trying to make a dignified but brisk escape, stops to check on him.
The video has been picked up by numerous media outlets and has been viewed tens of thousands of times on YouTube.
Several days after hitting the pole, CTV British Columbia's Okanagan Bureau Chief admits he's still a bit fuzzy.
"It feels like I was at a party last night," he said in a telephone interview.
But Molgat seems to suggest the pain was worth it.
"I've looked at the video about 50 times, and I still laugh and I don't know why," he said.
"Even though it's me, it's funny to look at. Why is it that when people hurt themselves it's funny? I bust a gut looking at it."
Molgat said that everyone he showed the video to also wanted to show their friends, and voila, you have yourself a viral video.
He says people ask about his health (he has some visible bruising and cuts) but he says that's mostly because they want his permission to laugh.
But he does want to explain himself. The pole didn't exactly jump out of nowhere but he does offer some reasonable excuses.
"The gentleman had already given me one ‘No comment,' but due diligence, I was attempting to persist and see if I could get him to say something about the case," he said. "I was throwing a question at him and looking to my right . . . I think the slightly blocky frames of my glasses might have been obscuring any peripheral vision I had . . . but that grey post came as a great surprise."
And the rest is painful, viral history.
