For One Journalist, Trump's 'Enemy Of The People' Tweet Was Just Too Much

By Karoli Kuns — December 6, 2018

Wendi Winters was a Maryland journalist for the Capital Gazette before she was shot dead earlier this year while doing her job in a Maryland newsroom where she should have been able to report on her local stories and do her job without wondering if a crazed gunman was going to kill her that day.

But instead she is dead, remembered by her reporting partner, Joshua McKerrow, who was not at all appreciative of Trump's "enemy of the people" tweet earlier that day.

1. Today I did the annual story on holiday decorations at the Governor's residence. I've done it every year, for years. A very light but very fun story. Every year my reporting partner was Wendi Winters. This year, it was Selene. Wendi was murdered in June. https://t.co/hDlixzieht

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

2. Selene did a great job, of course. And I really thought I could hold it together. I moved through the rooms with my tripod, focusing on the trees and ornaments. All I could think about was Wendi. I felt like she was with me, that she was actually present.

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

4. I was ok til the very end. Interviewed the butler, like I have every year, and when we were done she took me aside and whispered, "I really miss Wendi. Next year I'm going to name a cookie for her."

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

5. And that was it. The tears started, and I'm standing in the Maryland Governors home weeping to myself about my dead friend. She died in The Capital newsroom on June 28th, shot by a man who wanted to kill every journalist he could.

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

6. We don't know what set him off yet. After years of silence. What finally pushed him far enough that he loaded his shotgun, drove the 40 minutes from Laurel, parked his car, walked through the busy lobby, barricaded our back exit, blasted the simple fragile glass door.

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

7. Five people died, Rebecca, Wendi, Gerald, Rob, John. I always type their names in the order I think they were killed. I think, Rebecca first, at the door. Wendi charged him. Gerald and Rob were trapped in their cubicle. John, trying to get out the blocked exit.

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

Here's the punchline that wants to rip my heart out every time I read it. She was 65 years old, a freelancer doing local stories about local people. (See video above)

8. Wendi was no ones enemy.

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

9. Every year Wendi made us all Oreo holiday cookies. except for the one year she made us jarred pesto. The question came up yesterday in the newsroom, who is going to make the cookies this year? Selene spoke up, I will.

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

10. I don't have a wrap-up to this story. I cried on and off all day. I miss her very much. I'm comforted that in a way she's still with me, when I do the work that she loved to do. Journalism. Patriotic, truth telling, American. We'll keep on doing the work.

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

11. And if we die for it, someone else will pick up the threads, and report on the holiday decorations at the Governor's house. Its what we do. -30-

— Joshua McKerrow (@joshuamckerrow) December 7, 2018

Journalists are not the enemy of the people. Arrogant, self-centered, egomaniacal, self-tanned, doughy fascists are the enemy of the people. Journalists are supposed to be the truth-tellers. Most succeed, some don't. We call them out when they're wrong, but real honest-to-god journalists are not enemies, but allies.

Rest in peace, Wendi Winters. May those who endanger the lives of real journalists (not right-wing yakkers, but the real deal) rot in hell on earth. Every one.