The biggest of stories came to the small city of Butler. Here's how its newspaper met the moment
Butler Eagle reporter Irina Bucur had a relatively straightforward assignment when a Trump rally came to town
BUTLER, Pa. — When gunshots echoed at the Trump rally where she was working, Butler Eagle reporter Irina Bucur dropped to the ground just like everyone else. She was terrified.
She hardly froze, though.
Bucur tried to text her assignment editor, through spotty cell service, to tell him what was going on. She took mental notes of what the people in front and behind her were saying. She used her phone to take video of the scene. All before she felt safe standing up again.
When the world's biggest story came to the small western Pennsylvania hamlet of Butler a week ago, it didn't just draw media from everywhere else. Journalists at the Eagle, the community's resource since 1870 and one that struggles to survive just like thousands of local newspapers across the country, had to make sense of chaos in their backyard — and the global scrutiny that followed.
Photographer Morgan Phillips, who stood on a riser in the middle of a field with Trump's audience that Saturday evening, kept on her feet and kept working, documenting history. After Secret Service officers hustled the former president into a waiting car, the people around her turned to shout vitriol at the journalists.
A few days later, Phillips' eyes welled with tears recounting the day.
“I just felt really hated,” said Phillips, who like Bucur is 25. “And I never expected that.”
“I'm very proud of my newsroom,” said Donna Sybert, the Eagle's managing editor.
Having put a coverage plan in place, she had escaped for a fishing trip nearby with her family. A colleague, Jamie Kelly, called to tell her something had gone terribly wrong and Sybert rushed back to the
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