By Audrey J. Bernard
Yamiche Alcindor is the White House Correspondent at PBS NewsHour in Washington, D.C. since January 2018 where she reports live on-air about developments involving the White House and the administration of President Donald Trump and works on feature stories about social issues affecting the national political discourse. In this role, the feisty journalist has become as popular as her subject (the president) which has elevated her to national rock star status.
Her poise, professionalism and aplomb have earned her the respect of the American people and fellow journalists. Becoming an arc enemy of the president is not what she signed up for but she is determined to do her job especially now when the coronavirus calls on journalists to hold our elected officials accountable for providing accurate information which makes her perfect for the job!
In his contempt to disparage her during a recent White House press briefing to discuss America’s next steps to fight the pandemic coronavirus she asked the President about his previous comments on The Sean Hannity Show. He went ballistic!
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“Why can’t you people act … why don’t you act in a little more positive … it’s always trying to getcha, getcha, getcha. It’s why nobody trusts the media anymore. That’s why you used to work for the Times and now you work for somebody else.” Continuing to cut off Alcindor’s questioning, which concerned the number of ventilators needed in New York, Trump chastised her, “Be nice. Don’t be threatening. Be nice.”
Alcindor was referring to a direct quote from Trump’s call-in appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show where in response to New York’s urgent need for ventilators, he voiced skepticism about the amount. “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be. I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators.”
This did not deter Alcindor from pushing forward. In an attempt to get an answer to her question, her mic was cut and Trump moved along to the next reporter. However, when it was time for CNN’s Jeremy Diamond to speak, he passed the microphone back to Alcindor so she could finally finish asking her question. He was applauded by Twitter users online for sticking up for a fellow reporter.
Alcindor stood her ground and insisted she was merely quoting to Trump exactly what he had said on Fox News. “You said repeatedly that some of the equipment that governors are requesting, that they don’t actually need …” she repeated. He shot back, “That’s such a nasty question,” before turning off her mic After being muted Alcindor tweeted out the exact quote she was referring to.
As one of a few Black correspondents in the White House pool, this award-winning journalist is admired for her tenacity and holding the President accountable for his actions. Out of admiration for her doing her job and the president not doing his, the hashtag #WeLoveYamiche” was launched!
In addition to performing her duties at PBS NewsHour, Alcindor is also a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC often appearing on a number of shows including Morning Joe, Andrea Mitchell Reports, The Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.
In the past this venerable journalist has worked as a national political reporter for The New York Times where she covered the presidential campaigns of Mr. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders as well as Congress. She also wrote about the impact of President Donald Trump’s policies on working class people and people of color. She wrote stories and produced multimedia packages about Congress and the 2016 presidential election as well as covered social issues affecting the national political discourse and shot and edited videos on deadline for stories as well as appeared on-air live for national networks such as MSNBC.
Before joining The New York Times, Alcindor worked as a national multimedia political reporter for USA Today where she produced multimedia packages on national breaking news stories such as the Boston Marathon bombing, the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. followed by the trial of George Zimmerman and the police related protests and civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo. and Baltimore, Md.
As a writer, videographer and on-camera journalist, Alcindor has split her time covering quickly developing incidents and stories about the social issues affecting the United States. She travels across the country to cover stories and spends time writing about societal concerns such as wrongful convictions, human trafficking, civil rights violations, gun violence and poverty as well as fatal police encounters.
Alcindor shot and edited videos on deadline and explained stories on-air live for both USA Today and local
Alcindor was born to two Haitian-born parents and grew up in Miami. When she was in high school, she was an intern at the Westside Gazette, a local African American newspaper, and The Miami Herald (2005). She interned at The Seattle Times (2006), The Miami Herald (2007), the Botswanan newspaper Mmegi (2008), The Washington Post (2009), and the washingtonpost.com (2009).
She aspired to become a civil- rights- journalist and was inspired by African American journalist Gwen Ifill and contemporary newspaper reporting surrounding Emmett Till.
Alcindor earned a master’s degree in broadcast news and documentary filmmaking from New York University and a bachelor’s in English, government and African American studies from Georgetown University. A native of Miami, Fla., Yamiche is married to a fellow journalist Nathaniel Cline and is the daughter of Haitian immigrants who met while attending Boston College. (Photos courtesy Getty Images)
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