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Hubbub at Castle Island as reporter demands answers but some people just want to be left alone

Janet Wu at Castle Island

Somebody called 911 this morning when a woman who said she was with WCVB began going up to the unmasked and asking why and videoing them with her camera. One person took exception and snapped her right back and then posted about "this lady [who] says she works for channel 5 and is provoking citizens."

Alert local Twitizens promptly identified her as grizzled veteran reporter Janet Wu based on A) her haircut, B) her distinctive rectangular watch, which she wears on air and C) that T-shirt, because, as the more media savvy know, she went to Yale, only the more media savvy are wrong, because it was the other Janet Wu, the one who used to be a reporter at Channel 7, who went to Yale - the one who apparently took in some bracing salt air this morning went to the University of Michigan (kids, be careful with Google, mkay?).

For what it's worth, both state and city officials have repeatedly said it's OK to be outdoors without a mask on as long as you're socially distanced from other people, even if, presumably, that includes reporters who suddenly invade your six-foot cone of distance.

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Comments

as well as in most municipalities. You can be unmasked if socially distant but it's almost impossible to be socially distant the whole time you're outside so you should have a mask with you if not on. Too many people are flouting this as students head here from the stuipid states and the "second" wave is nearing (can't really call it this since the first wave is still happening). I don't see a problem pointing out to people that they're breaking the law (orders by the governor and health department are enforceable by law) - don't feel bad if they're annoyed. Imagine breaking the law and then complaining to the government about being bothered about it. It's like reporting meter readers to 311 for putting garish pieces of paper on your car.

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Meanwhile Cambridge has signs saying you need to have a mask whenever in public, irrespective of distancing. And there are people who freak out because a jogger or cyclist past by without wearing a mask even though there's no evidence such a brief encounter in moving, fresh air is enough to cause an infection.

This sort of inconsistency is the reason why people question the need to take precautions at all. It's much better to hammer home the importance of mask wearing in medium-high risk zones (such as indoors when prolonged distancing isn't possible) instead of worrying about situations in which it's theoretically possible but extremely unlikely.

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This has pretty much always been true, but you see it in COVID restrictions all the time.

Like Somerville not opening gyms and inside dining.

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Was surprised to see AMC Assembly Row remains closed. I would trust them a lot more than the Boston Common.

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This is not correct, the City of Cambridge amended its mask ordinance at the beginning of the summer. The amended ordinance now stipulates:

During the summer months, masks or cloth face coverings may be temporarily removed when outdoors when a physical distance of at least six (6) feet from others can be maintained at all times

Signs indicating this change to the ordinance have been up in many Cambridge Parks since earlier in the summer.

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That comparison is inaccurate. We should not allow any citizen, in his or her discretion, to enforce laws or mandates from the government by means of harassment. We have members of various state and local agencies (presumably) trained to enforce these. Meter readers don't ticket a car because they guessed that it was parked illegally; they ticket it because it's parked over the painted line.

I'm all for wearing masks and would actually like to see more tickets/fines issued, but employing your line of reasoning (that random strangers can heckle you once you're an estimated 6 feet away [side note: hopefully this person was carrying a measuring tape to confirm]), would mean that any random Joe on the sidewalk could harass someone for allegedly trespassing (walking) in the wrong neighborhood...

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To call people from a state stupid and then misspell the word.

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six-foot cone of distance

Six-foot donut of distance.

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donuts

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Bring back hoop skirts

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Is it her job to monitor who is wearing a mask and who isn't? If it is, then she should be carrying a little book of citation tickets to along with it and issuing them to those not wearing masks. And if it isn't her job, then she should go fuck herself.

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It is asking questions.

She should have had her press credentials visible if she was doing interviews, though.

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"She should have had her press credentials visible if she was doing interviews, though."

There is absolutely nothing that requires a reporter to do this, I've never seen a reporter do this, "credentials" are not required for anything, and are basically just an indication that you didn't piss off the state police...

...and...is there literally any subject you aren't willing to 'splain about? You seem to consider yourself an authority on every subject known to mankind.

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Minding your own business and staying away from people is better.

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I can't be the only one who saw this and recalled the NBC-era Conan O'Brien "New Character" of "The Woman Who Went to Yale" that couldn't go a full sentence without telling people she went to Yale- can't find it online anywhere, though

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She should ride the Orange Line. If she met up with some of the riders I have seen in the past few weeks, unmasked and talking loudly on cell phones, it would be interesting to hear of their reaction to being asked this question.

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Yeah, I just read this Boston Magazine article today and sheesh. Made me feel bad for everyone who has to take the T for their jobs and be around unmasked employees. https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2020/08/26/mbta-worker-masks/

(To be clear, I'm not saying only T employees aren't wearing masks. It's both employees and riders and it sucks).

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The T employees who didn't give a shit before covid still dont give a shit. It just confirms my worst fears. I am in a couple of high risk categories, and I haven't used the T since March 6. I hate burning fossil fuel to get around Boston but that's what I will continue to do for the foreseeable future.
Silver lining- on street meter parking has been readily available everywhere so far.

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As a person with lung issues but has to ride the commuter rail, I found it appalling at the lack of passengers wearing masks on the train the other day. When I asked a conductor why they weren’t saying anything to those not wearing masks, they said that they have been told they cannot enforce mask wearing on the train! So, who is supposed to enforce it?

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Too many people are flouting this as students head here from the stuipid states

It's not just the T, although that's a near-worst-case example. When I go for a walk near my home, the barefaced outnumber the masked. We live in one of those "stuipid states."

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What was the result when she went to Maverick Square. Or Nubian. Or Central Square in Lynn?

Or did she only check places that have had 4 positive cases during the past week?

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Just because some reporter, recognizable or not, "demands answers" doesn't mean you have to answer them. Where are her press credentials? Very unprofessional behavior on her part.

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I went to Castle Island yesterday midday by chance for the first time in a while. It was stunning to see how few people were wearing masks. This was in the areas where people are congregating in close proximity to one another like the picnic tables, the playground, and around Sully's waiting for orders. Different story if you're sitting up on the grass not near anyone but that's not where the problems were. Janet Wu may have handled this a little too aggressively but the underlying issue is real there more so than any other busy area of the city I've been in since this all began. Why that is the case I don't know.

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If you are outdoors and at least 6 feet away from people you do not need a mask -

https://www.mass.gov/doc/may-1-2020-masks-and-face-coverings/download

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As someone who regularly runs outside with a mask at the ready, but not always on, I can confirm that there is very obviously a self-righteous type that delights in telling you that you should have your mask on all the time, irrespective of distancing.

Remember, if there were so many incidences of asymptomatic unmasked outdoor super-spreaders, Infecting passers-by despite not coughing or sneezing or singing or yelling or otherwise expelling large amounts of gunk,the epidermic would look a whole lot different.

What bugs me, at the risk of painting with a broad brush, is that the folks calling out others outdoors for not wearing masks are the same people that trumpet science, put signs on their lawns about science, etc. Yelling at people who are out for a walk on their own because they aren’t wearing a mask is simply unscientific.

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Castle Island‘s visitors remain for me the most blatantly disrespectful and dangerous of all and I go to lots of places all over the Boston area. Next would be Manchester-by-the-Sea.
Maverick Sq and Jeffries Point is where I see the most mask wearers and social distancers.

6 feet means nothing when you’re in a popular public park. You simply can’t control how close you’ll come to other people and they to you.
It’s annoying, to say the very least, to have to be on guard and aggressive with maskholes who are pushing the limits and seeing how much they can get away with.

If we as a society had responsibly dealt with the secondhand smoke problem, the covidiot problem would not be so rampant. Instead it’s the my right to breathe/blow smoke wherever I feel like it mentality that wins.

Remember, if you can smell someone’s tobacco smoke, you are breathing in their aerosols.

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Just did a story by one of their reporters who questioned several MBTA workers on their refusal to wear masks while working. The response by the employees to the reporter was f**k off and mind your own business.

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...were to marry and have a son named Arnold, and if Arnold were to eventually wed and adopt the surname of my great-niece Turalura Ginsberg, he would be known as Arnie Wu-Wu Ginsberg.

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.... proof of psychic powers of prediction.

Just in case.

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...only the more media savvy are wrong, because it was the other Janet Wu, the one who used to be a reporter at Channel 7, who went to Yale - the one who apparently took in some bracing salt air this morning went to the University of Michigan (kids, be careful with Google, mkay?).

...

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After the original tweeter tweeted the photo with a note indicating she did not know who the person was, except she identified herself as being from Channel 5, several people rushed to identify the person in the photo. Some said, oh, obviously Janet Wu, because, among other things, she's wearing a Yale Track t-shirt and Janet Wu went to Yale. QED, slap hands together, etc., etc.

Well ...

There are two reporters in Boston named Janet Wu. The one in question in the photo, however, went to the University of Michigan, not Yale.

How they IDed her as a Yale student was obviously by doing a Google search on "janet wu yale" and they got all these links to prove their point, only all those links were about the other Janet Wu, the one who used to be at Channel 7 but who is now at Bloomberg and NOT the one in the photo.

So be careful when using Google to identify people.

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dont care what you think of the "mask debate" but calling 911 is a waste of resources. A real emergency could be going on, so dont use it.

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