Silvia Foster-Frau did her job.

The 27-year-old San Antonio Express-News reporter hopes her dedication to her profession didn’t expose her to COVID-19.

For more than two years, Foster-Frau has produced sensitive, nuanced coverage of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas — site of a Nov. 5, 2017, mass shooting in which 26 people died and 20 were wounded.

Her journalistic prowess has earned her honors such as Texas AP Star Reporter of the Year in the biggest newspaper category and the national Cornell Award for religion reporting excellence at mid-sized newspapers.

On Sunday, Foster-Frau returned to the rural area southeast of San Antonio to report on the Baptist church continuing to meet, “despite the potential danger posed by the novel coronavirus” — as she put it in her story.

Her news article was excellent. No surprise there. Equally impressive were the compelling images captured by Express-News photographer Josie Norris.

But given the concerns over the possible spread of COVID-19, I wondered about the decision to send journalists into an assembly with 40 worshipers, none of them wearing masks, according to the newspaper’s story.

Foster-Frau was kind enough to talk with me about her experience. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Bobby Ross Jr.: You developed some really good relationships with people involved in the massacre and have excelled at covering that. Can you tell me a little about that?

Silvia Foster-Frau: Yeah, I grew really close to them. I never had an experience quite like that. I never would have met those people if not for what happened.

For me, being the one covering it, I got really close to these people I was covering, and it brought up a lot of questions I hadn’t had to deal with about journalism and ethics. It was unlike anything I’ve experienced before, and it definitely changed me as a person.

I wasn’t like, “Oh, I learned a lot on the job.” It was actually very transformative personally. I’m really grateful for that.

Ross: In any specific way?

Foster-Frau: I guess for one, I learned a lot about grace and recovering from it, and how people do that, and what helps and doesn’t help. Fortunately, intense grief isn’t something I’ve had to grapple with. Personally, kind of experiencing that almost vicariously with them really changed me. It made me a lot more sensitive. I think I developed there in ways I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

And then, apart from that, I feel like the people at the Springs are people who are not necessarily media-friendly folks. I guess learning more about their culture — rural Texan culture — and finding something in common with them was really special, even if you feel like you come from different worlds.

Ross: They learned they could trust you, I think. 

Foster-Frau: Yeah, I think they learned that. I was very transparent from the beginning about my mission.

I was always trying to explain that it was our public service mission to tell their stories so people could understand what they’re going through and maybe make changes in their lives and advocate for others in the future based on what they learned in their stories. I think that resonated with them. We were on the same page about what the mission was most of the time.

Ross: Tell me about your story Sunday. I’m intrigued that they’re still meeting given some of the warnings that are out there. And also, that you went and covered it in person. How did you find out that was happening? And what was your thought process in deciding how to cover it?

Foster-Frau: I knew something was going on because we’re all Facebook friends now. I saw the pastor and his wife and other members of the congregation, too, posting pretty outspokenly about how church is an essential service. They were definitely getting blowback online, too, which is why they felt more compelled to be vocal about it on social media.

As the threat of the virus became more real here, and more and more restrictions were being imposed statewide and in San Antonio, their position didn’t let up. They’ve livestreamed church services for a while now, so every once in a while I’ll tune in because I’m used to going to church with them now.

So I noticed a pretty sizable crowd on their livestream. That’s when I started to think there was a story there. It was a few days later when Gov. Greg Abbott kind of clarified the church exemption (to his “stay at home” order limiting business activity and social interaction). It seemed like there was a point of contention in Texas with whether or not churches were essential.

I decided I needed to go down there to report on it. I felt like I needed to be there to at least understand the different layers of protection. It’s hard — you can’t tell totally from the livestream if everyone has face masks or if anyone has gloves on. Sometimes it’s hard to tell depth, how far apart they are. So a photographer and I went down.

Ross: Were you wearing a mask?

Foster-Frau: I had a scarf. I planned on wearing it. And then one of the congregants, as I was walking in, I kind of put it up, and he said, “Are you planning on stealing something here, or are you planning on robbing this church?”

So I was like, “OK, here we go.” I ended up, and I’m not sure if I’m proud of this decision, but I ended up just keeping it up around my neck and not putting it on. In retrospect, I probably should have still kept it on. 

Ross: In some ways, you’re as exposed as the rest of the congregation if anyone happened to have the virus? 

Foster-Frau: I would say so. I tried to hang back during the service. But even afterward, I’m interviewing them, so you’re going up and talking to them. A woman hugged me without me even having a second to react.

There was just one fun moment at the end, too, where I was about to leave, and I was talking to this woman, and I put up my elbow, and she said, “Oh, no, still give me a hug.” And I just looked at her and just kept walking away, like, “OK, bye.”

Ross: What is it about journalists that we put ourselves in those situations, and the story is so important, even in a case like this where it could be a bad thing to catch a virus like that? 

Foster-Frau: I was anxious going down there for that reason. But it felt important to me that people understood what was going on there, and I thought it was a story that was very revealing and just interesting psychologically about how people are coping with this unprecedented time.

I feel very lucky in a lot of ways. I still have a job. I have health insurance. I have people I know will take care of me if I get sick. So, in that way, I try to put things in perspective.

I think journalists, we end up talking to people who are a lot less fortunate than us. Not that journalists have it all. We aren’t doing super great these days. But I just always keep that in mind, so when I go up for these stories, I’m like, “OK, I’m putting myself at risk, but there are people every day who put themselves at more risk and don’t have a choice about it.”

That’s the mentality. I don’t know. Maybe it was foolish. [End of interview]

• • •

I appreciate Foster-Frau’s self-reflection. I remain one of her biggest fans.

When I was younger, I ignored a tornado warning to drive to a hospital and interview survivors of the May 1999 Oklahoma twisters that claimed 44 lives.

Two decades later, I’d like to think I’m older and wiser and would take cover rather than risk my life in the storm.

Power Up: The Week’s Big Questions

1. How can newsrooms cover the coronavirus pandemic AND protect journalists?: I shared a little of Silvia Foster-Frau’s experience with Kelly McBride, the Poynter Institute’s senior vice president and chair of its Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership.

The media ethics expert offered this advice: “Journalists are known for their courage. For running toward big stories while others run away. But deliberately putting yourself at risk to cover a COVID-19 story doesn't make any sense, because there are so many alternatives. In this case, she could have asked congregants to FaceTime her during the service, take pictures for her. She could have stayed outside. ... The problem with putting yourself at risk with this virus is that you put everyone else that you come in contact at a higher risk.”

I also reached out to Marc Duvoisin, editor and vice president of the San Antonio Express-News.

Here’s what he told me:

To protect our journalists from COVID-19, almost everyone in the newsroom is working remotely. Hardly anyone goes to the newsroom anymore. I have been working from home for the past three weeks, and so have nearly all the department heads and other staff members.

My guidance to reporters is to report remotely to the extent possible — via Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, etc. — and, when they must go to the scene of a story, to observe social-distancing rules and stay at least 6 feet away from others.

We have distributed hand sanitizer and masks to reporters, although supplies sometimes run out.

Photographers, who by the nature of their work have to be out in the world, have been given masks, sanitizer and sanitary gloves.

No one on our staff has tested positive for the virus or gotten sick from it that we know of.

Silvia tells me that when she went to Sutherland Springs to report on the Sunday in-person worship service at First Baptist, she wore a scarf as a face mask, brought along and used hand sanitizer and tried to maintain proper social distancing, although it was difficult at times.

The photographer, Josie Norris, wore a mask and kept her distance from people.

Covering the coronavirus crisis presents great challenges to journalists, including how to witness and record events without exposing oneself to infection. My guidance to Express-News journalists has been to put their personal safety first, always — to report remotely whenever possible and observe strict social distancing when they have to go out in the world. No story is worth getting sick for.

I appreciate Duvoisin taking time to respond to my question.

2. Speaking of houses of worship still meeting during the COVID-19 threat, are news organizations putting too much emphasis on them?: That media coverage question has emerged, somewhat predictably, as noted in a post by GetReligion’s Terry Mattingly.

Mattingly’s main point: The few churches refusing to socially isolate is a legitimate story, but so is the massive move to online worship by the overwhelming majority of faith groups nationally.

“(I)f this is still happening in areas that have had outbreaks, it's a serious, serious issue,” Washington Post religion writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey tweeted concerning the tiny minority of churches still assembling. “It's not just a ‘one church’ thing. The reporting is deeply important.”

Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins suggested: “(T)he rationale for the media attention is pretty straightforward: it doesn’t take a ton of gatherings to infect an entire community.”

Continue reading “This Journalist Did Her Job: She Hopes It Didn't Expose Her To COVID-19,” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.