Journalists brace for protests in what’s now ‘scary territory’
NEW YORK — While monitoring online chatter about protests at state Capitols in advance of this week’s presidential inauguration, the Seattle Times came across a chilling description for journalists: soft targets.
The phrase drove home the importance of safety precautions being put in place by news organizations across the country this weekend, including those planned by Times managing editor Ray Rivera and his colleagues.
“This is scary territory,” Rivera said. “I don’t want to overstate this, but there is always the concern. It’s hard to know how much of this is rhetoric or bombast, but it’s easy for me to think that some person is going to take those messages seriously and do something.”
At Capitols across the country, National Guard troops are being called up, fences built, windows boarded up and employees warned to stay away. No one wants to see repeats of the siege at the U.S. Capitol last week, and no one wants to be caught flatfooted.
Video of journalists being roughed up is fresh in mind, along with graffiti scrawled on the U.S. Capitol saying “Murder the media.”
Reporters at the Minneapolis Star Tribune went through a harrowing summer of covering civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, with some shot by rubber bullets, tear-gassed or detained by police. The current situation is different, said Suki Dardarian, the Star Tribune’s vice president and managing editor.
“The protest this summer was targeted at the system,” she said. “The risk to us was as bystanders. There were a few people who didn’t like us, but it wasn’t an anti-media situation. In this case, people are inflamed not just against the government but the media.”
A “Storm the Capitol” rally in St. Paul, Minnesota last week shifted to the residence of Gov. Tim Walz, who said state troopers had to hustle his 14-year-old son to safety.
Gas masks and bulletproof vests are being provided to Star Tribune journalists assigned to cover upcoming rallies, and they will be watched by security hired by the newspaper. The experience of last summer helps in planning; without it, Dardarian said she didn’t know whether the vests would have been ordered.
“It did help us think more clearly and more strategically about what we needed to do, and to take it seriously,” she said.
While demonstrations are not expected everywhere, The Associated Press is prepared to cover Capitols in all 50 states, said Brian Carovillano, the organization’s vice president and managing editor.
“The safety of our journalists is our No. 1 priority,” he said. “We’re drawing on the expertise of a lot of people who have a lot of experience covering difficult and sometimes scary situations.”
Most organizations stress the importance of teamwork, so journalists who are working are accompanied by someone responsible for looking around them for potential danger. Plans include escape routes and regular check-ins with editors.
“If you go out to these demonstrations alone, that’s a bad decision,” said Connor Radnovich of the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon.
The AP learned firsthand at the U.S. Capitol of the dangers. Some of the company’s equipment was stolen and vandalized, and photographer John Minchillo was roughed up by demonstrators before being pulled to safety. He went back to work.
“It’s the AP’s mission to be there and bear witness when others can’t be there,” Carovillano said. “That’s basically our whole reason for existence.”