NAHJ Backs Reporter Accused of Callous Interview
A Dallas reporter who two weeks ago was awarded Broadcast Journalist of the Year honors from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has been suspended indefinitely after viewer complaints that she appeared insensitive to the plight of the subject of a story.
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NAHJ wrote the station manager late Thursday urging that Rebecca Aguilar be reinstated “for the sake of good journalism and maintaining your newscasts’ credibility in the local community and national journalism community.”
Robert Wilonsky reported the episode this way Wednesday on his Dallas Observer blog: “Monday night, KDFW-Channel 4 ran a piece about 70-year-old James Walton, owner of Able Walton Machine & Welding in West Dallas, who, early Sunday morning, shot and killed [a] man trying to break into his business. What made Walton’s story so extraordinary was that it was the second time he’d killed an intruder in three weeks. As it happens, Walton also lives at his place of business.
“. . . Rebecca Aguilar’s piece elicited a torrent of outrage, both on local blogs (chiefly FrontBurner but also elsewhere) and from viewers who began deluging the station with angry calls Monday night and much of the day yesterday. As Trey Garrison pointed out on D’s blog:
“‘This is her idea of journalism? Ambushing a 70-year-old man who has been through life-and-death twice in three weeks? “Are you a trigger happy kind of person? Is that what what you wanted to do? Shoot to kill?” Good Lord, I hate the people in this field.’
“Well, Trey need not worry about Aguilar, at least for a while: Unfair Park has confirmed that Aguilar . . . has been indefinitely suspended, based on concerns about how Aguilar treated Walton.”
NAHJ disagreed. “What she did was obtain an exclusive interview for your station in a professional manner. This is far from the ‘ambush’ that has been portrayed in the blogosphere,” Rafael Olmeda, NAHJ president, wrote to Kathy Saunders, vice president and general manager of the station.
“Her suspension certainly mystifies us. The only explanation we can think of is that the news director, Maria Barrs, let herself be unduly influenced by the emails being received at the station from a certain segment of the viewers who apparently have other agendas and not journalism principles as their main concern.
“. . . The unceremonious and humiliating way Ms. Barr walked Ms. Aguilar out of the station before the astonished looks of her colleagues on Tuesday adds insult to injury. Even more shocking to us, Ms. Aguilar has received death threats by phone at your station as a result of this story, yet has not received support from her supervisors or management.”
Saunders did not return telephone calls from Journal-isms on Thursday. Aguilar referred calls to her lawyer, who was not immediately available.
Video of the original report (Breitbart TV analysis)