NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez has reported from disaster zones, war-torn cities, overwhelmed hospitals and one famously unforgiving bridge. In a new NBCU Academy series “Reporters Rewind,” he revisits four memorable assignments and explains how his journalism best practices for thoughtful reporting, strong characters and sharp writing helped viewers connect with each of the stories.
Watch the video above or read below for some of his tips.
Staying with a story after breaking news
Gutierrez’s coverage of Hurricane Maria’s aftermath in Puerto Rico is a good example of why journalists should stay with a story after the first wave of breaking news. Months after the storm, Gutierrez went back and followed U.S. veterans who continued bringing food, generators and other aid to communities.
According to Gutierrez, visual storytelling is key, pointing out that many of the interviews shot during his time in Puerto Rico were done in areas that told a story.
“It’s very important to shoot interviews in settings that tell a story,” Gutierrez said. “You don’t want to shoot this interview in a dry conference room. That really doesn’t show anything.”
Finding characters to tell a story
In Ukraine, Gutierrez and his team faced a different challenge: reporting close enough to Russian forces surrounding Kyiv to show the war’s impact while carefully managing their safety. Rather than letting military developments and statistics dominate the piece, he focused on people living through the conflict. In the news business, Gutierrez explains, we try to find “characters” to better convey a story.
“You have to find somebody who is living through it,” Gutierrez said. “It really doesn’t become personal until you see somebody on the ground living through it.”
Gutierrez says strong television stories often depend on finding a person who can convey a larger theme. “Viewers won’t always remember if you made them think,” he said. “They’re more likely to remember if you make them feel.”
That principle guided his pandemic reporting from a Covid intensive care unit in Billings, Montana. After extensive safety planning and wearing protective equipment, the team documented the strain on healthcare workers.
When nurse Joey Traywick became emotional while describing patients who had died, Gutierrez said his role was “to let him speak and ask very short, empathetic questions” while giving him the opportunity to stop. This exchange revealed a human cost of the pandemic that case numbers alone could not have captured.
Preparation and luck
The fourth assignment offered a lighter lesson in preparation and luck. In Durham, North Carolina, a low railroad bridge nicknamed the “Can Opener” had become notorious for truck drivers crashing into it. Gutierrez’s team had only hours to report and produce the story for “NBC Nightly News.” As he wrote sitting in a nearby satellite truck, another crash happened. “I look over at the producer I’m working with, and we both go, ‘No way,’” Gutierrez recalled.
The camera operator was already rolling, capturing the unexpected accident and the driver’s reaction. “In terms of putting out that story, everything fell into place,” Gutierrez said. “And I was like, ‘Finally.’”
Gabe’s writing tips and best practices
Across all four stories, Gutierrez’s process is grounded in clarity. He also looks for a central question to guide the piece. Sometimes he starts at the end and works backward; under deadline, he builds around the essential interviews.
When possible, he selects his strongest sound bites first, then writes narration around them. “I try to keep my sentences as short as possible,” he said. “If it looks too cluttered, it will sound too cluttered to the viewer.”
