The Washington Post writes about the role of local reporters during times of crisis, like the Baltimore riots after the death of Freddie Gray.
Saying it seemed “voyeristic” for networks like CNN and MSNBC and FOX to come into the city to cover events, writer Stacia Brown says she’d rather watch the locals cover the news, since they’re part of the neighborhood.
“[O]ur anchors have a unique investment in seeing Baltimore heal,” writes Brown. “When outside reporters roll out of the city, they’ll still be here, listening to the stories of those who call it home.”
I’m not an outsider looking in right now; I’m an insider looking around. I don’t want to talk to or hear from anyone who can’t recall what Baltimore was like long before this Monday. I’d rather watch anchors such as WBAL’s Barry Simms, who reported all day on Tuesday from the 3200 block of Piedmont Avenue, where he was raised.
He let his childhood memories of the 1968 riots choke him up and mist his eyes. I watched him recall a liquor store that was burned down on Monday as a place where, decades ago, families could purchase light groceries and fill prescriptions. I watched as he shared footage of the fire. “My old neighbor, Willie Price Jr., recorded it,” he said. He reported the story of a mother who not only lost her home in the fires that raged the night before, but also the wheelchair that belonged to her son, who has cerebral palsy. Within hours, offered poured in from area residents and viewers to replace the wheelchair. At one point, newsroom anchor Stan Stovall even offered to connect the mother to his wife, who he said had access to hospital supplies through her job. That would prove unnecessary; her neighbors showed up with donations and a wheelchair before the end of the day.
There’s a marked difference in the way so many interviewees talk to local reporters such as Barry Simms or his fellow Baltimore-native colleague Deborah Weiner and the way they talk to national news personalities such as Chris Hayes or Don Lemon. Residents talk to their local reporters like they know them.
image:David Goldman/Associated Press