For NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, “truth is a fact.” It’s a simple definition, but not everyone agrees with it.
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While reporting for PBS in 2020, Alcindor stood outside the White House waiting for former President Donald Trump to walk to St. John's Episcopal Church. Before she knew it, she was choking on tear gas that was being used to push peaceful protesters out of Trump's way. Alcindor quickly returned to PBS to report on what had happened, but after the news went live, the government called her story a lie.
“[The government] gassed me, this is not me interviewing someone. I was choking, I was crying, I was there,” Alcindor said. “Just a couple days later, the government then said, ‘Oh, actually we did use tear gas. It was some kind of gas, not really tear gas.’ This is a good example of, as a reporter, being like, ‘Okay, the government is telling you one thing, but can I tell you as someone who was there what’s going on?’”
As part of the Variety & Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit, presented by Paramount+, Alcindor was joined by CNN anchor Abby Phillip, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur, PBS News Hour co-host Geoff Bennett and CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil for the panel discussion Politics in the Zeitgeist. Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh moderated the discussion.
