Correspondent with Prison Record

She overcame a troubled youth, including a prison stint for armed robbery, to become a tv reporter and role model who gave young Black children recognition and hope.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

GC was born in Los Angeles, one of four children. Her father worked on an assembly line for an aircraft manufacturer. Her mother owned a beauty college. 

CHILDHOOD

GC grew up in Venice, California. She was aware of the reports of crime in her town and state – many featuring more Blacks than Whites as the perpetrators – and what appeared to be the different employment opportunities depending on your ethnicity. 

EDUCATION

Following high school graduation, GC was accepted at a college within the California state education system, where she spent three years studying world history before dropping out to join the military.

MILITARY SERVICE

Following Air Force basic training and three years of active duty, GC was honorably discharged.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Looking back decades later, GC has no good reason for using a gun to rob a victim of less than $100 at a hotel. “I really didn’t need to do it. It was kind of absurd. I had a loving family, unlike a lot of others in prison. I was just kinda pushed outta shape at the time,” said GC.

GC pled guilty to armed robbery. Due to her complete acceptance of responsibility, her military service and age in her mid-20s, the Judge sentenced her to service in a women’s prison for 18 months. 

APPLYING FOR EMPLOYMENT AFTER PRISON 

After serving her time in prison, a fellow parolee gave her a tip that the newspaper where he was working was planning to hire two Black reporters to diversify its staff. 

Without any experience as a news reporter but interested in pursuing such a career, GC talked her way into an apprenticeship by, as she described it, “Stretching the truth” – in fact, lying about her lack of experience. 

“I gave them this song and dance about having worked on this small Black paper that was burned out by the Ku Klux Klan,” she confessed later after she had established herself in her eventual career.

(Editor’s note – It is highly unlikely that GC’s lie would have been accepted now as truth. Instead, gaps in resumes can now be checked with sophisticated investigation tools, including academic, internet, government, and law enforcement records. Starting an employment career based on a lie is never a good plan. Instead, most employment counselors would likely recommend a completely honest presentation of the candidate’s background and – especially where a criminal record of a violent crime is involved – offering to work for a short (30 – 60 days) period to prove skills and good citizenship going forward.)

INTERNSHIP

Eventually, GC found an opportunity to participate in an 11-week summer program for minority students in broadcast journalism. (Geraldo Rivera was a classmate.) Two years later, she was hired by a local NBC affiliate, working there for six years before being hired by NBC News. 

CAREER COMMENCES AS TV CORRESPONDENT

GC became a visible presence in American living rooms with her coverage for NBC news of the trial of Patrician Hearst, the newspaper heiress who was kidnapped in 1974 by a band of leftist revolutionaries called – by themselves – the Symbionese Liberation Army. The kidnap victim was – ironically – convicted two years later for participating in a bank robbery with the group which had taken her hostage. 

For GC, it was not enough to simply gain exposure as a rare Black face on the evening news. “I always wanted to be ‘the Black reporter’ covering Black stories,” said GC. “I felt that was the reason I was there. I didn’t resent it in the least. I felt then, as I feel now, it is very dangerous for a group of people to live in a society where they are not allowed to interpret themselves.”

GC made good on her mission with features like “A Country Called Watts” an hourlong special for NBC News that explored the efforts by residents of that Los Angeles neighborhood to come together and reassess the bloody civil disturbance that had occurred in response to claimed police brutality and to rebuild burned-out blocks in the face of local residents’ perceived government indifference and continuing police harassment.

“GC kept pushing to get the faces and voices of Black people on TV news, so that footage of Black men in handcuffs would no longer be the only images of Black people that white viewers could see,” said the former faculty director of a summer program for minority students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. “GC was a pioneering role as a Black news reporter, allowing young Black kids to see, many for the first time, someone admirable on TV who looked like them. It gave them recognition and hope.”

GC eventually left NBC News to become news director at a public radio station in her native Los Angeles, where she created a “60 Minutes” style investigative series which featured several award-winning segments including one about a banking scandal that hurt low-income communities and another about a chemical spill that caused illness in an area of residents living in poverty. 

“Ever since I’ve been in the business, I always wanted to be one of the (senior managers) who go off in that little room and decide what will be covered and by whom,” said GC in an interview. “But at the major network, I never saw any women go into that little room. Nor any minorities. I figured this was my chance, at the public broadcasting network.”

“As Bobby Seale said”, she added, referring to one of the founders of the Black Panther Party, “Seize the time.”

CHALLENGE – CAREER ‘BURN-OUT’

GC’s tenure at PBS ended shortly after the network became embroiled in controversy for airing a pro-Palestinian documentary, which GC had acquired for PBS. GC was responsible for deciding whether to present it on the network. A news report asserted that the film had been backed in part by undisclosed Arab funding, which its producer denied.

Caught up in the latest controversy, GC decided she had had enough of being unfairly criticized. “You can easily burn out in high pressure situations, especially a no-win event,” said GC. “You get silence when things go well and outrage when there are questions.”

CAREER SATISFACTION

While GC had kept quiet about her prison time early in her career, she finally decided to divulge it to a management executive who she judged – and hoped – would be sympathetic since by now, she had established herself as a respected tv correspondent. “The guy just looked at me,” she recalled.” He says ‘I haven’t got enough problems? I have to listen to yours? Get outta here.’ I never heard another word about it from him or anyone else at the network.”

Aside from accolades about her reports of individual stories on tv, GC was most proud of being a role model who gave young Black children both recognition and hope.

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This career story is primarily based on an obituary written by Alex Williams, published by The New York Times on 4/29/23 plus internet research, including Wikipedia.