Local TV Reporter's Bear Attack Video goes Viral

If you caught WJAR's 11 p.m. news cast the other night, you might have seen reporter Julie Tremmel lying face down in the grass, presumably outside the local NBC affiliate's station in Cranston.

Don't worry — Julie was fine. It was all part of the station's lead story: what to do when a bear attacks.

Northern Rhode Island has been in a tizzy ever since black bears have been sighted more frequently. Last year, a bear spotted rummaging through neighborhoods in Cranston quickly earned the creature the name the Cranston Bear. It also spawned Twitter accounts purporting to be the bear, tweeting such things as "a nice day for a walk down Pontiac Avenue."

But Wednesday night's report takes the cake. Tremmel, who says she "LOVES breaking news, and enjoys covering situations that evolve and develop while the newscasts are live, and the cameras are rolling" according to her station bio, apparently didn't have a breaking news assignment that night.

The report has started to become viral, getting a mention on the Today Show and other NBC programs as well as a nod on Mediabistro's TVSpy and other sites.

So what do you think of the video? All fun and games until someone actually gets hurt? Is this what should be leading an 11 p.m. newscast? Or kudos to Tremmel who showed that local news doesn't always have to lead with police sirens, fires and car crashes?