PD reporter Bill Swindell: 20 years after 9/11, breaking news is even more essential

“Behind the Byline” introduces you to those who write stories, snap photos, design pages and edit the content we deliver in our print editions and on pressdemocrat.com. We’re more than journalists. As you’ll see, we’re also your neighbors with unique backgrounds and experiences who proudly call Sonoma County home.

Today, we introduce you to business reporter Bill Swindell, who covers agriculture and the beer and wine industry.

―――

Twenty years ago, I was at the Yellow Line stop at the Pentagon Metro station in Arlington, Virginia, as I headed into my job covering Congress for Congressional Quarterly.

It was the era before smartphones, when we all were less tethered to breaking news and a transit commute meant reading the print edition of the Washington Post.

The rest of the day soon played out like a film on fast forward. It was hard to immediately process developments once I saw the Metro manager sprinting from his station cubicle and a woman rushing onto the train panting and invoking God to save her.

As the train emerged above ground to cross the Potomac River, the sight of the large pitch-black plume of smoke rising from the Pentagon was jarring.

The man next to me said that planes had crashed into both twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and our country was under attack.

The train was headed to the U.S. Capitol building, which organizers of the attacks said was the intended target of the United Flight 93 hijacking — if its passengers hadn’t fought back against the hijackers, causing the plane to crash in a rural Pennsylvania pasture.

After arriving at the Capitol, I could see Hill staffers were experiencing various stages of nervousness, fright and panic.

Fear permeated the air as people wandered aimlessly looking for information. Others were trying to figure out where to go as the concept of remote work was years away.

All anyone knew was that they should get away from the Capitol buildings.

Cellphones did not work after repeated tries. I could not reach my parents to tell them I was OK.

The only information being relayed was on the beeper attached to my belt that tallied all the news conferences that were canceled.

Amid the confusion, I found a colleague and we both decided to do what reporters do once big news breaks: head to the newsroom, even if that meant a more than 3-mile brisk trek by foot in dress shoes.

(I don’t remember much of our conversation as we made our way through the streets. But I do recall the snipers on the roofs, the throngs of workers eschewing the subway given it might be a potential target, and I remember a group of young Hill staffers walking out of a convenience store with a 24-pack of beer to presumably watch the events unfold on a TV at someone’s home.)

Years later as a veteran reporter, I am doing the same thing as a staff writer at The Press Democrat when big news breaks. That’s especially been the case when deadly wildfires have struck our region in recent years — even if our newsroom is more remote in practice now due to COVID-19.

The early morning stops during the Tubbs and Kincade fires allowed me to check in with editors and start reporting to make sense of the disasters even as, like others, I was under evacuation orders from my home and did not know where I would sleep the next night.

The Glass fire last September didn’t allow for that as I raced out to the Silverado Trail in Napa County to file from the scene of the massive blaze.

But, I checked in via text, emails and phone calls and filed stories in my car parked outside of the Calistoga Library using its reliable public Wi-Fi.

While I have gotten older, my craft remains the same: to report accurately and timely on major events during times of crises.

It also is to provide context in the aftermath, such as the lack of consumer protections for homeowner insurance coverage for wildfire victims, which resulted in legislative changes.

However, the job over the past 20 years has gotten much harder for two main reasons: the advent of social media and cutbacks in most newsrooms across the country.

Social media has benefits, as many of you may be reading or sharing this piece from a link via Facebook or Twitter. It also has major drawbacks as misinformation and disinformation can spread quickly.

The press is the main bulwark in this fight.

That was certainly the case with our local fires where wineries were rumored to have been destroyed, but were actually spared.

I acted as a clearinghouse in 2017 to provide accurate information about the wine industry from trusted sources. It was one role as part of a team that earned our Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage for breaking news.

Every day, media organizations play a crucial role in our democracy by ferreting out the truth and exposing false claims, which have been amplified during the pandemic over the last 18 months.

But this work comes as local newspapers across the country have been eviscerated by a combination of a decline in print subscribers along with fewer big box advertisers.

Yet, I also realize that I am lucky with local ownership at The Press Democrat, which is committed to making investments to produce top-quality journalism and expanding the newsroom budget under our new editor.

The stakes are high as democracy cannot function without accurate information placed in its proper context and reported without fear or favoritism, whether it is about who is bankrolling a recall campaign or understanding the ramifications of water scarcity in our region.

Going forward, I am eager to see these promises carried out given the vast benefits from such investments for readers like you; the strength of our local communities; and my colleagues and I, who will head out the next time a big story breaks with or without a central newsroom.

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.