Georgetown reporters pursue the ‘Story of a Generation’

This story follows four reporters who are covering the pandemic, all of whom have connections to Georgetown’s graduate Journalism program. Mason and two of his colleagues, Jack Gillum of ProPublica and Ryan Teague Beckwith of Bloomberg Politics, teach in the program. Alumna Lezla Gooden graduated in 2016 and is now a television reporter for 23ABC in Bakersfield, Calif. 

The man on the phone was angry, hurt, and confused, and he was taking it out on Lezla Gooden, a television reporter for 23ABC in Bakersfield, Calif. 

Gooden had been with the station for only a year, but she understood. As a reporter covering breaking news, she had made enough of these kinds of calls to know that the man was not attacking her personally: He had just lost his sister to COVID-19. She was the first person in the sprawling Kern County to die of the disease. 

It’s Gooden’s job, as always in these cases, to find out as much about the victim’s life and death as possible, while also being respectful toward her close relatives. It can be a difficult, imperfect balancing act.

“I always reach out to the family because I want you to have the opportunity to tell your loved one’s story,” she recalled telling him. “We don’t want them to be just another name and face. And we want to get it right.”

What made it harder for Gooden was this: the victim’s name was already out on social media—along with some hurtful misinformation that her family had all tested positive for the virus. Now family members were getting threatening posts and people accusing them of ignoring social distancing and even spreading the virus intentionally.

Even though she and her station were not to blame, Gooden felt she had to apologize and speak for the entire profession. She told him that good journalists don’t spread rumors, that they don’t deal in “fake news” and work very hard to be accurate.

She had a short story on that night’s 6 p.m. newscast, and when she called the family the next day the mood had changed. They thanked her for her work and said they were ready to talk with her at length.

A portion of that interview ran the next night—the first comprehensive account from family members of the life and death of a mother, grandmother, business owner, and committed member of the community. But the station didn’t stop there: it made the entire 20-minute segment available online.

Unedited, the interview must have made some viewers wonder about Gooden’s competence with the camera, she said, because she was periodically zooming in and out and trying different angles and lighting. 

In the end, however, that wasn’t a big concern, just as getting the story first wasn’t as important as getting it right and being respectful of the people most affected.

It was a public service.

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