Josh Hinkle, a reporter at KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says his ability to speak Spanish got him a plum assignment to cover a local story with national implications.
Last May, federal, state and local agents swarmed Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, Iowa, and arrested almost 400 immigrants for being in the U.S. illegally. The next day, Hinkle says his station sent him out on the story because he was the only reporter there who spoke Spanish.
Hinkle says that helped him get stories other reporters couldn’t. Once he started speaking to people in Spanish, he says, “the floodgates kind of opened.” Thanks to Wartburg College student Andrew Nostvick for writing about Hinkle’s experience in CyberWave, the INBA newsletter. Check it out to see a short video interview with Hinkle, a recent graduate of Oklahoma State University.
