Toluse Olorunnipa is a Bloomberg reporter whose usual beat is state and municipalities news in Florida. Recently, though, he was deployed to cover a major national story elsewhere — the events transpiring on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri.
In Depth sat down with Toluse to discuss both the Ferguson story and his usual day-to-day grind covering the Sunshine State.
You were in Ferguson covering the situation for Bloomberg. What was it like to be on the ground covering such a significant event?
Ferguson has been an exciting place to be a journalist. The images of armored tanks rumbling down suburban streets with police in military gear brandishing assault weapons were surreal on TV, and even more so in person. Writing about the clashes between police and protesters, while digging deep into the history of the city to find out what caused such unrest, has been invigorating. It’s not often that a town the size of Ferguson — with a population of 21,000 — becomes the center of an international media firestorm. Being right in the middle of the action as a journalist has been a great opportunity to witness, record and decipher history as it unfolds.
How do you go about developing a story amid such a chaotic and emotionally charged scene? What difficulties do you face?
To cover a fast-moving story like the unrest in Ferguson, I resorted to a tried and true tenet of reporting: talking to people. I talked to people on the street, in the barbershop, at the lunch counter and just about everywhere else I went to find out what was going on. Conversations at the airport, the rental car office and the hotel check-in desk during my first hours in St. Louis helped familiarize me with Ferguson. I also spent hours on the scene of the protests and visited the site where 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed, sparking the unrest. I attended protests where there were just a couple dozen people marching in the midday heat as well as violent midnight standoffs between hundreds of demonstrators and riot police.
Two of the major difficulties of covering the story were staying safe amid the violence, and staying alert on very, very little sleep. There were moments when I feared for my safety, as gunshots rang out from an unknown direction, and police dispersed tear gas into crowds that included both protesters and journalists. At one point, the sound of gunfire rang out behind me while plumes of teargas were in front of me, forcing an unfortunate choice. I chose to run into the gas, swallowing it in pungent gulps when I could no longer hold my breath.
Events in Ferguson were taking place around the clock, with protests sometimes not ending until 4 a.m. or later, Eastern Time. I’d update the story before dawn, then rush back to the hotel to get in a nap before planning for day ahead with my editors in New York.
When not covering the Ferguson story, your normal beat is state and municipalities news in Florida. Florida is a fairly wacky and offbeat environment — what sorts of topics do you most enjoy covering there?
There’s always something wacky or unnatural happening in Florida, which makes it a gold mine for news. I enjoy covering government and politics in the nation’s largest swing state, which has a diverse population that makes it somewhat of a bellwether for American public policy and elections. Florida is also home to a large number of businesses and international financial interests, so it holds its own weight as a financial story. In addition, Florida is relevant to many of our readers, who own property there or visit places like Miami and West Palm Beach for business or vacation.
The great thing about covering Florida is the unpredictability of the state. You never know when a hurricane is going to hit, or when the simple tradition of voting on Election Day will become a nationally-televised debacle.