MIAMI — Some 15 minutes to the west of downtown, in the city of Coral Gables, local leaders on Saturday afternoon peacefully talked with a large group protesting the death of George Floyd, the African American at the center of the latest racially charged death at the hands of local law enforcement. The event ended in prayer.
Berkshire Hathaway-owned WPLG-10, the local ABC affiliate, covered the events live as part of an extended evening newscast.
Concurrently, “Local 10” reporter Ian Margol was in the middle of an unfolding and increasingly dangerous situation. With hundreds of protesters in lanes on Interstate 95, Margol and a photographer went from Bayfront Park to Miami Police Department headquarters. Things got ugly.
“My photographer Wade and I got tear gassed and I got hit with a rock, but it mostly hit my backpack,” Margol said on Twitter in the 8pm hour Saturday (5/30). “We’re both alright. Thank you to everyone who has reached out.”
Television and newspaper journalists are literally risking their lives by delivering reports of similar protests across the U.S. — many of them violent. These efforts were commended by the chairman of FCC, one day after the NAB and RTDNA condemned Louisville police for aiming at a Gray Television-owned station’s news crew covering a Friday evening melee incited by Floyd’s death.
