Incident details
- Date of incident
- July 17, 2025
- Targets
- Jeff Weinsier (WPLG)
- Assailant
- Private individual
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
- Equipment damaged
- Actor
- Private individual
Equipment Damage
WPLG investigative reporter Jeff Weinsier retrieves parts of the microphone ripped from his hands by a restaurant employee in Hialeah, Florida, while reporting on health violations there on July 17, 2025.
A news crew with television station WPLG was confronted by an employee at a restaurant in Hialeah, Florida, on July 17, 2025, while attempting to ask questions about its latest shutdown by state health inspectors.
Jeff Weinsier — WPLG investigative reporter behind the segment “Dirty Dining” — recounted in an article for the station that he and photojournalist Frank Debesa went to the South Florida restaurant China Buffet after it was shut down by inspectors for the seventh time since 2014.
In footage captured by Debesa, Weinsier is heard asking through an open door to the kitchen whether someone would be able to speak with them about the inspection. Seconds later, a man storms out, first shoving Debesa’s camera and then grabbing at Weinsier’s microphone.
After a brief scuffle in which Weinsier defends himself, the man darts back into the restaurant, grabs a metal tray and starts to go back outside, but another individual appears to pull him back inside.
Weinsier is then seen retrieving the microphone and its sponge cover, which was ripped off.
The same man also aggressively approached Weinsier during an investigation at the same restaurant in 2017, he reported.
Weinsier, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote that neither he nor Debesa filed charges.
“We were attacked for simply trying to hold them accountable,” he said. “Instead of answers, we were met with aggression from a restaurant that should be answering to the public.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
