THE BALANCING ACT OF FAITH AND REPORTING
By CHARLES ROBINSON, III
BALTIMORE – There has always been a fine line to navigate when a story a journalist tells hits close to home. This one has hit close to home for me.
Tim Tooten, a longtime friend and fellow journalist, passed away on February 8, 2025. An ordained minister, the Rev. Dr. Timothy L. Tooten, Sr., was 66 years old.
In many ways, Tim and I were kindred souls. We began our journalism careers on radio before moving over to television news. Throughout our careers, we have always been committed to telling stories of disadvantaged or marginalized people. And we worked hard to find and report stories that uplift people.
“ The Reverend,” as I called Tim, was one of a small cadre of journalists I have known who didn’ t shy away from the Gospel and its teachings. During his time at WBAL-TV, the Baltimore station where he spent the bulk of his four-decades on television, Tim was the“ go-to-guy” for education stories. When he showed up at school board meetings, education officials got serious about their work. When he went on the air to announce that a snowfall forced the closing of schools, he did it with a wry smile that connected with both celebrating students and disappointed parents.
Tim was a reporter with a big heart. He comforted those who were going through trying times and shared in
Tim Tooten
the celebratory moments of others whose paths he crossed during his long broadcast journalism career.
Tim became a reporter for WBAL- TV in 1988, after stints at television stations in Huntington, West Virginia, Washington, D. C., and WMAR-TV, a cross-town rival in Baltimore. He founded the Harvest Christian Ministries – a non-denominal church – in 2006 and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Virginia University of Lynchburg four years later.
In 2007, Tim won an Emmy for“ Africa’ s Maryland,” a series he reported from West Africa for WBAL-TV about the Black men and women who migrated to Africa from Maryland in the early 1800s. They established a country called Maryland. It existed for over a decade before being annexed into Liberia.
True to his faith, Tim also found time to write a Christian parenting guide, titled,“ Leading by Example: A Parental Guide to Teaching and Modeling Christian Faith at Home.”
Photo courtesy of WBAL-TV
Reporters are often asked to put their personal feelings aside when working on a story, but for“ Reverend Tim,” the two were inseparable. He navigated the complexities of answering the five Ws of journalism( who, what, when, where, why), while always remembering that real people were an integral part of the stories he reported.
Tim was also a teacher.
“ He saw teaching as shepherding in a classroom,” said Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead, a professor of communication & African American Studies, at Loyola University of Maryland, where Tim also taught. The pair began teaching at the Baltimore school in 2009.
Another veteran journalist, Terry Owens, recalls that before coming to Baltimore Tim worked briefly for Pastor T. D. Jakes, the renowned televangelist. He thinks it was that interaction that led Tim to the ministry.
When the National Association of Black Journalists meets in August to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the group’ s founding, the organization will posthumously give its prestigious Legacy Award to the Rev. Dr. Timothy L. Tooten, Sr.
It is a fitting recognition for a life well lived. •
Charles Robinson, III, an award-winning television, radio, print and online journalist, has been a political reporter for Maryland Public Television since 2001.
37