The Mirror

Baltimore Burns, Wesley Lowery Sleeps Off His Fancy Pants Press Dinner Hangover

Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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If this was your beat, would you turn off the TV?

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Over the weekend, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery caught hell for ditching the Baltimore riots to cover the White House Correspondents’ Dinner red carpet via a live streaming Periscope app. Because what good race relations reporter misses a chance to rub elbows with Hollywood stars and powerful politicians? What good race relations reporter misses an opportunity to dance around with HuffPost‘s Ryan J. Reilly and reminisce about their days together at Ferguson summer camp?

“Thought you might want a few other photo options,” Reilly urged The Mirror.

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On Saturday night, Lowery tweeted about how conflicted he felt.

When confronted about why he wasn’t in Baltimore, he called HuffPost‘s Jason Cherkis a “dick.”

Lowery repeatedly insisted to The Mirror on Twitter Monday that he is not a “race reporter.”

His new beat, according to WaPo PR, is the “interactions between law enforcement officials and their communities.” (Pssst…I think that might involve race at some point or another. Like right about now.)

Fine. So after completely embarrassing Lowery over the weekend, shouldn’t WaPo have insisted that Lowery hightail it to Baltimore Monday afternoon at the first signs of looting and burning cars? (You know, to cover the interactions between police and their communities?)

WaPo inexplicably flew Lowery to Ferguson over the summer. After that — after he boasted his way into fall, got detained and roughed up by cops, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” did a second hand TED talk in Cleveland, demeaned journalists like CNN’s Anderson Cooper and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and fought tirelessly on Twitter with GotNewsCharles Johnson — WaPo handed him his brand new beat.

But he can’t go to Baltimore?

The Mirror sought comment from WaPo PR.

We didn’t understand Wesley’s excuse Saturday night. And we sure don’t understand him running away from his beat on Monday night.

Come on, WaPo, enlighten us.