By Blogzworth
Chicago native Shaquille Brewster had no idea when he was covering the aftermath of Hurricane Ida that he would end up on every social media site as a trending topic this week. By now, many of us have seen what happened to Brewster.
While reporting on live TV from Mississippi, the MSNBC correspondent was confronted by an angry white man yelling for him to cover Hurricane Ida accurately. Video of the altercation from MSNBC shows the man, whose name was not immediately released by the Gulfport Police Department, pulling up in a white pickup truck. He then hops out and races over to Brewster while he was mid-segment. As the man gets closer and continues his rant, Brewster tries to cut back to MSNBC anchor Craig Melvin who was back in studio headquarters in New York City. But a split-second before the camera was able to cut away, the man jumps in Brewster’s face with his hands up, bumping the correspondent and screaming about fair coverage of the Hurricane.
Throughout the entire altercation, Brewster held his ground while staying level-headed and professional. Most folks would have bucked back.
Shaquille Brewster shouldn’t be defined by this moment. His accomplishments and accolades speak for themselves. Here is a quick peek into Brewster’s life and what makes him such a respected, multi-talented journalist.
Who is Shaquille Brewster?
Before Brewster became an MSNBC correspondent, he began his journalism career at a historically Black college. While studying at Howard University, Brewster was the executive producer for the student-run WHUT Spotlight Network — the first and only African American owned and operated public television station in the United States — and an associate producer in Hearst Television’s Washington Bureau.
Brewster is also an alum of the coveted Tim Russert Fellowship program, a one-year paid position in the NBC News Washington, D.C., Bureau that allows students to work on shows like “Meet The Press” and share resources with the NBC News Political Unit. The program was named after the late journalist, lawyer and former NBC News senior Vice President Tim Russert, who died June 13, 2008, from sudden cardiac arrest.
Brewster never shied away from internships. He worked for free at the Associated Press and News 12 in Connecticut. He’s also been a part of the MSNBC family since 2016, working his way up from a digital producer creating content for NBCNews.com to now being a full-time national correspondent, traveling across the country to report the news.
Besides that, he is still a contributing author and is a self-proclaimed political junkie who loves the NBA’s New York Knicks and keeps Philippians 4:13 in his Twitter bio.
Shaquille Brewster is a national gem, and we should not only protect him at all costs but also give this man his flowers now because we will be seeing much more of him as his career continues to blossom.
