Earlier this week, we told you about a Milwaukee TV reporter, A.J. Bayatpour, who had been arrested for fighting with a rival reporter during a Brewers-Cubs game at Miller Park.
Now, some details have emerged regarding the incident, and they are pretty wild. Here is how the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel summed up the criminal complaint against Bayatpour:
Ben Jordan, a reporter at WTMJ-TV (Channel 4), was at the Brewers vs. Cubs game Friday night with his fiancée, Madeline Anderson, a reporter with Bayatpour at WITI.
The couple noticed Bayatpour at the game and invited him to sit with them in extra seats. Around the sixth inning, Anderson showed Bayatpour a photo of a bulldog on her phone and said it represented how she felt.
He said he thought Anderson looked disinterested. Anderson perceived the comment that she appeared disinterested as somehow pertaining to her on-air performance as a TV reporter. Jordan asked Bayatpour to step away, but he said he was still watching the game.
Per the Journal Sentinel, Jordan suffered a broken nose, a chipped tooth, and orbital bone fractures in the fight.
We should caution that the criminal complaint isn’t unimpeachable fact, as it represents only Jordan’s side of the story. But it sounds as if what Bayatpour told the police was pretty similar to Jordan’s account, only with an extra reference to a certain dour-faced former Chicago Bear.
After his arrest, Bayatpour confirmed Anderson’s account that she had shown a picture of a bulldog on her phone during the game, and said it represented how she felt. He said he told her the picture seemed to suggest disinterest instead of anger and teasingly told Anderson she should have shown him a picture of Jay Cutler, the former Chicago Bears quarterback.
Bayatpour said that during his insult-laden dust-up with Jordan about the apology, Jordan made a threat and Bayatpour “instinctively” stepped back and hit Jordan first.
Comparing someone to Jay Cutler is the type of insult that warrants an apology.
Anyway, whatever Jordan allegedly said to Bayatpour must have really been something. Either that or Bayatpour just lost his mind.
A spokesperson for Tribune Broadcasting told the Journal Sentinel that Bayatpour will not report for WITI while his fight with Jordan is under investigation.