You're listening to the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Michael Lohanger.

Happy New Year. For the first pod of 2024, I wanted to re-air one of my favorite stories that I've reported.

In the fall of 2022, I was a witness in the federal criminal trial of Oath Keeper's founder Stuart Rhodes,

who was sentenced to 18 years for leading his group's siege on the capital.

I did an episode for the show called Seditious Conspiracy, in part about my reluctance to testify.

I wanted to know how other journalists had navigated similar cases in the past, which is how I learned

about the idea of immunity for journalists in federal court and the story of this man.

We're interviewing Earl Caldwell this afternoon.

I'll be inspiring Earl to speak on various issues connected with his career.

This is a 2001 oral history done by the Maynard Institute for Journalism education.

Thank you very much to the Institute for giving me permission to use it extensively in this piece.

Earl and I spoke many, many times over the phone, but he never agreed to speak with me on the record.

He's writing a book about his life and he's stopped doing press.

How long was that?

It's two hours plus a few minutes.

Whoo!

Once I start to rub my mouth, it's all easy.

The story begins when Earl Caldwell, then a reporter in his

early 30s, joined the New York Times. There was only one other black reporter on the

staff when I got there and what was approaching was the summer of

67 which was to be like no other summer in the history of the republic.

The worst race riots since those two years ago in the history of the republic. The worst race riots since those two years ago in the what section of Los Angeles

...