Мэтт Малкехи, работающий в центральном Нью-Йорке почти 40 лет, возвращается к расследованию исчезновения Хейди Аллен

For nearly four decades, Matt Mulcahy has covered Central New York through political change, major criminal investigations, historic weather events and the steady transformation of the communities he serves — a career Ithaca College is now highlighting as an example of the enduring value of local journalism. Mulcahy, a 1987 Ithaca College graduate, is managing editor and anchor at WSTM-TV, CNY Central’s NBC3, and CW6 in Syracuse. His career has included reporting assignments overseas, major investigative work at home and recognition from some of the state’s leading broadcasting organizations. Mulcahy has been inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame and the Syracuse Press Club Wall of Distinction. He has also won five New York Emmy Awards during a career that began after he discovered an interest in journalism while attending Ithaca College. Mulcahy originally enrolled at the college as an exploratory major before becoming heavily involved with campus radio and television. By his sophomore year, he had transferred into what is now the Roy H. Park School of Communications to study television and radio with an emphasis in broadcast journalism. His college experience included work with ICTV and WICB, election coverage, sports broadcasting and reporting on then-President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign visit to Broome County. But Mulcahy said one of the experiences that had the greatest impact on his career came from covering something much closer to home: a barn fire near Irish Settlement Road outside Ithaca. “I found that to be exciting and compelling to cover spot news and news that happened in your own community,” Mulcahy recalled. That interest ultimately turned into a career centered on Central New York. Decades of reporting across Central New York Mulcahy has covered the Syracuse region long enough to see stories, issues and public figures reappear across decades, giving his reporting an institutional perspective that can be difficult to develop in an industry where newsroom turnover has become increasingly common. His career has also taken him well beyond Central New York. Mulcahy traveled to Lockerbie, Scotland, following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, reported from Bosnia while embedded with Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division and covered the canonization of Mother Marianne Cope at the Vatican. He was also an early adopter of social media and digital reporting in the Syracuse television market. That combination of longevity and changing technology has helped define Mulcahy’s career as the local news industry itself has changed dramatically. When he entered journalism, Syracuse had multiple daily newspapers and larger groups of beat reporters regularly covering government, courts and other institutions. Those ranks have since diminished, leaving fewer journalists responsible for monitoring many of the same public bodies and issues. Mulcahy said that makes deeper reporting and accountability work increasingly important. “How do we collectively cover local news better and more comprehensively and with accountability and an investigative eye, instead of only doing press release type stuff?” he said. Revisiting one of Central New York’s enduring mysteries One example of that approach came through Mulcahy’s renewed examination of the 1994 disappearance of convenience store clerk Heidi Allen. Mulcahy first covered the case when Allen disappeared more than three decades ago. Years later, he returned to the investigation, obtaining records through Freedom of Information requests and spending more than a year reviewing investigative files, recorded interviews, police video and other evidence. His reporting uncovered previously undisclosed investigative material and raised new questions about a case that remains one of Central New York’s most widely known unsolved mysteries. Mulcahy has taken a similar approach to more recent public accountability questions. When a suburban school district selected a superintendent with limited public discussion, he began examining whether the board’s process complied with New York’s Open Meetings Law, including questions surrounding interviews that took place outside public view. The work reflects a philosophy Mulcahy has carried through his career: Local journalism shouldn’t end with reporting what happened at a meeting or repeating information provided by an institution. A career built on knowing one community Mulcahy’s decades in the Syracuse area have also given him a long-term view of issues that often extend beyond a single news cycle. An archival 1919 map of Syracuse hangs in his office, showing neighborhoods divided by race and ethnicity and documenting patterns of segregation whose effects can still be seen in the city. Asked by Ithaca College whether he considers himself a historian of Central New York, Mulcahy said that description has become more fitting with time. “More as every decade passes,” he said. That institutional memory remains particularly important as newsrooms across the country shrink and communities lose journalists who have spent years covering the same governments, neighborhoods and institutions. Mulcahy has also remained connected to the next generation of journalists coming out of Ithaca College. Three recent graduates — Emma Kersting, Jack Marxen and Charlie Nichols — are among the producers working in the CNY Central newsroom. It’s a continuation of the same hands-on model Mulcahy experienced as a student, when campus television and radio gave him opportunities to report, produce and broadcast before entering the professional industry. Now, nearly 40 years after graduating, Mulcahy remains in the same region where he built his career, continuing to report on the communities that first convinced him local news could be every bit as consequential as the national stories he once imagined covering.