Maine Wire reporter Joe Sokol was taping a segment outside a methadone clinic when he was nearly run down by a crazed motorist who was unhappy about what Sokol said was an invasion of privacy. Sokol said the driver might have been under the influence, as the driver’s speech seemed mumbled and slurred. Sokol was well within his rights: he was not on the clinic’s property but across the street. 

The driver drove off, made a U-turn in the nearby parking lot, and then gunned it toward Sokol, who got out of the way. Sokol recorded the driver’s tags as he sped away. Sokol was reporting on the clinic, which has received $25 million in taxpayer funds. This isn’t the first time Maine Wire reporters have been assaulted or accosted while doing their job. Sokol was shoved by an anti-Trump protester in July. (via Maine Wire):

A Maine Wire reporter was involved in a potentially dangerous confrontation with a driver Thursday morning while reporting outside a Bangor methadone clinic.

Reporter Joe Sokol was conducting reporting from public property near Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center, also known as Discovery House BR Inc., at 689 Odlin Road when a driver confronted him and attempted to interfere with his work.

Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson said the driver recognized Sokol as a reporter and confronted him in an apparent effort to interfere with his reporting.

“The bedlamite identified Sokol as a journalist and expressed a clear intent to stop him from conducting routine journalism from public property,” Robinson said in a statement.

Robinson alleged that the driver then attempted to strike Sokol with a vehicle, characterizing the incident as an attempted killing.

Sokol was able to move out of the vehicle’s path and was not injured.

Robinson said Sokol also recorded the vehicle’s license plate immediately after the encounter, allowing police to identify the driver.

“Sokol’s quick-thinking and training immediately allowed him to preserve the license plate,” Robinson said. “He is unharmed and safe.”

The Maine Wire identified the vehicle as a blue Jeep Compass bearing Maine registration 841-LZD.

[…]

Sokol had been reporting on Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center, an active medication-assisted-treatment facility that provides methadone treatment. The Maine Wire said the facility has received roughly $25 million in taxpayer funding.

The incident comes amid a series of confrontations involving Maine Wire reporters this year. In January, reporter Jon Fetherston was physically confronted while covering a Lewiston City Council meeting, and in July he was shoved, spat on and struck in the head with a skateboard while livestreaming an anti-ICE protest in Biddeford; a man was later charged with assault in connection with that incident.

Just insane.