Some reporters adopt rescuer role
NEW YORK — While documenting the flooding in Texas, several news reporters have set aside their role as observers to help people in danger.
They have lifted people into boats, connected families through social media, flagged down rescuers and, in one case, coaxed people out of a flooding apartment house while on television. Most news reporters try to stay out of their stories, but those involved say the dire situations they’ve seen because of Hurricane Harvey and its remnants left them no choice.
“I’m a journalist, but I’m also a human being,” said David Begnaud, a CBS News reporter who guided residents out of a flooded house in western Houston to a rescue boat in which he’d been riding. Cameras recorded the scene live on the CBSN digital stream.
While on a live shot in western Houston on Tuesday, The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore was approached by a man who was waiting for his daughter’s family to be evacuated from a nearby apartment complex. When rescuers arrived, Cantore helped deliver their message on television that everyone should leave because there might not be another chance. About five dozen people eventually left; some told Cantore they had been watching him on TV, he said.
Cantore and rescuers lifted a man in casts from two knee operations into the back of the network’s SUV and drive him to higher ground.
“I learned this 12 years ago to the date with Katrina’s landfall,” Cantore said Wednesday. “When people are in trouble, you just do what you can to help.”
There are several reasons for reporters to stay out of stories, said Kelly McBride, vice president at the Poynter Institute, a journalism organization. It can change the relationship they have with sources, making them feel beholden to the reporter, she said.
A reporter’s job is to inform, and “anytime you spend your energy on helping someone, that is energy and resources not spent on telling the story to the audience,” she said.
That said, McBride empathizes with reporters covering crises. “You can’t divorce yourself from your obligation as a human being,” she said.
What makes her uncomfortable is when she sees a reporter’s actions getting attention on par with the flood victims. That’s happened with Harvey, she said, declining to cite specific examples.
CBS’ Begnaud said he’s been thanked several times by Texas residents grateful that journalists are there to tell their story. That’s not always the case; CNN reporter Rosa Flores was cursed out on live television Tuesday by one victim not interested in being interviewed about her experience.
CBS News reported on the story of Brandi Smith, a reporter from the network’s KHOU-TV affiliate in Houston who reported live from a highway overpass when her station’s studio flooded and lost power. On the road below, she spotted a truck driver with a rig caught in swirling water, and she urged him to stay put. She ran onto the highway to flag down passing rescuers, who were able to pluck the driver to safety.
Afterward, Smith greeted the driver while still on camera. “This is going to sound weird,” she said. “But can I hug you?”