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Behind the Stripes

Rose Scott

By Atlanta United FC

August 3^rd, 2023

In April of 2014, Rose Scott, among many other Atlanta journalists, gathered downtown on the roof of Ventanas for a special announcement. Falcons owner Arthur Blank, MLS commissioner Don Garber, Mayor Kasim Reed and other city officials, wearing bright red scarves and holding soccer balls, faced the excited crowd and revealed the news.

Atlanta would become the 22nd Major League Soccer team.

“I don’t even think [the club] had a name yet,” Scott recalled. “There was this big projection, and they were getting out of this helicopter, and we were like, ‘Wow, cool! Arthur Blank is going to build this [team].”

The excitement for the club, which would eventually become Atlanta United, continued long after that day. Scott remembered being in the WABE studio in 2018, recording a show with Atlanta United’s rowdy supporters before the team played in the MLS Cup Final. She said watching kids get their faces painted and hearing everyone rooting for the team all added to the feeling of camaraderie within the city.

Finally, after nearly a decade since standing on that rooftop, Scott was able to attend an Atlanta United home match as a fan for the first time. In July, Scott headed to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to watch the 5-Stripes take on Orlando City SC. Her eagerness grew minute by minute as time inched closer to kickoff.

“The stadium is absolutely just gorgeous and amazing. I want a suite here,” Scott said. “I think I’m just going to feed off the energy. It’s something I’m looking forward to. And I got a really cool jersey.”

Although Scott has been with the 5-Stripes from the start, her involvement with Atlanta sports dates back earlier than the club’s beginnings. After finishing college in Indiana, Scott moved to Atlanta right before the 1996 Olympic Games to pursue her dream of becoming a sports reporter.

“I’ve always wanted to be a journalist,” she said. “I was going to be a sportscaster, who was going to work at ESPN. I was going to be the next Robin Roberts. I moved to Atlanta in ’96. I figured, if I’m going to have a career as a journalist, this is the place to be.”

During that summer, Scott spent her days selling t-shirts, towels and umbrellas out of the Candler Building while she networked with people in town for the Olympics. Her strategy proved to be successful, as she said she found many mentors who helped her earn her first jobs in the industry.

Scott began covering sports on the local NPR station WCLK and the radio show 790 The Zone, and she also spent a year covering Georgia State University’s women’s basketball team. From there, she began covering major league sports in the city, including the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Hawks, and later, Atlanta United.

But as Scott continued producing at WCLK, her passions began shifting. The station covered issues—such as housing affordability, education and workforce development—that impacted minority and underserved communities within the city. Scott felt a calling to focus more on those topics that were hitting close to home.

“I just realized, as much as I love sports… I really enjoyed covering those issues,” she said. “It impacted communities from where I came from. When I was just a general reporter, I covered HBCUs, housing, LGBT and gender issues, sports as much as I could. There was so much that needed to be covered and covered in a way that wasn’t dismissive or exploitative of communities. It was a natural fit.”

For the past few years, Scott has been with 90.1 FM WABE, an NPR and PBS affiliate station for the Metro Atlanta area. She hosts “Closer Look,” which is the midday news program that discusses stories and issues affecting the city.

Many of the broadcasts feature hard-hitting topics, including domestic violence, public health, criminal justice reform and immigration. Scott explained that covering these issues can inform residents on what’s going on in their town—and around the world—and what they can do to create change.

“My job is not to tell people what to think or how to think, just to give them something to think about,” Scott said. “At the same time, can I also bring voices that talk about solutions? I don’t just want to report on the bad stuff, and then walk away and go to another topic. That doesn’t do me any good, doesn’t do the community good. It’s about, can we cover these issues and also potentially bring back solutions?”

“My job is not to tell people what to think or how to think, just to give them something to think about.”

Scott admitted that some stories can be overwhelming, and she has seen the emotional impact they can have. She recalled a moment where she had to pause an interview to allow herself and an interviewee to regain composure after they both began crying.

She said it’s moments like those where it’s important for her to stick to the basics of respect and compassion, which has allowed her to be able to share these stories that are so valuable for the city to hear.

“The way I was brought up in the journalism world is you need to have compassion and empathy,” Scott said. “Even if I’m in a spirited interview with an elected official, I still try to treat people with respect. It seems simplistic, but sometimes I think people forget that. It’s not about me. As the journalist, it’s about the issue.

“My job is to be fair. I’m always going to be fair,” she added. “Do I get emotional? Yeah… but that makes me human, right? So, I just try to approach every interview, every segment, whether I’m behind the mic, in the studio or out in the field, I just try to be respectful.”

Scott noted that her own identity and background has played a role in how she tells these stories. She said her lived experience as a Black woman has helped her identify issues that are often overlooked and understand issues within communities that others cannot.

Having her unique viewpoint in the newsroom is critical when covering a city as diverse as Atlanta. As soon as Scott moved to the city, she recognized that telling stories from different angles would be incredibly beneficial to those living there.

“I don’t know any other city I could have moved to... where I would have, so quickly, been presented with so many different cultures and ethnicities and diversity in thought and religions,” she said. “I love it, from food to culture to ideologies. That’s what I love about Atlanta. It really is a melting pot.”

Throughout her tenure as a journalist, Scott has not only watched how the city has developed but how journalism as whole has changed as well. She noted that, for better or worse, technology and social media have played a role in journalism’s evolution since her first job in 1996.

Whether she was reporting on gender inequality or Atlanta United winning the championship, she aimed to remain fair and factual, and she implores younger journalists to do the same.

“Technology allows you all to disseminate information faster, but I am concerned about the accuracy of that information,” Scott said. “So, my charge to those coming behind me is to keep those basic tenets of what it means to be a journalist and understand how a free and balanced press is connected to our nation’s democracy.”

Footnotes

Story by De Turner / Photos by Chamberlain Smith

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FootNotes

Story by De Turner / Photos by Chamberlain Smith

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