Omar Jimenez | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Omar Jimenez in 2024. | |
| Born | (1993-11-27)November 27, 1993 (age 31) Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University (BSJ) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Employer | CNN |
| Website | omarjimenez |
Omar Fernando Jimenez (born November 27, 1993)[1] is an American journalist andcorrespondent working forCNN.
Jimenez was born inWorcester, Massachusetts, and raised inKennesaw, Georgia.[2] His mother, Jayne Morgan, is acardiologist and African American,[3] and his father, Omar Jimenez Jr., is aneurosurgeon and native ofColombia.[4] Jimenez has three brothers.[5] He idenitifes asAfro-Latino.[6] When he was in sixth grade, his parents divorced, and he lived with his mother.[3]
Jimenez attendedKennesaw Mountain High School.[7] While playing high school basketball, Jimenez fractured his back and was unable to play for eight months.[3] He attended theMedill School of Journalism atNorthwestern University, where he majored inbroadcast journalism.[8] He played on themen's varsity basketball team from 2011 to 2013 at Northwestern after a successful walk-on tryout.[2][4][9] With other journalism and law students, Jimenez worked with the ChicagoInnocence Project to investigatewrongful convictions.[10]
Jimenez began his career in journalism as an intern in the Chicago bureau ofNBC News[2] For almost four years, Jimenez worked on-air as a multimedia journalist atWGEM-TV inQuincy, Illinois.[10] He was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor atWBAL-TV inBaltimore, Maryland.[2][7] Jimenez worked at WBAL from July 2015 to June 2017.[11]
Jimenez has worked atCNN since August 7, 2017,[10] first at CNN Newsource in Washington, D.C. He has reported for over 900 CNN affiliate news stations nationwide covering breaking news.[7] He is now based in Chicago as a CNN correspondent.[12]
Early on the morning of May 29, 2020, Jimenez and his three-person news crew were arrested by a group ofMinnesota State Patrol officers while reporting live onprotests in response to themurder of George Floyd inMinneapolis, Minnesota.[13] According to Jimenez, he was arrested despite agreeing to move where directed, and despite he and his team's media credentials being visible and valid.[14][15]
As he reported live on CNN'sNew Day program withAlisyn Camerota andJohn Berman, Jimenez was approached by two officers who ordered the team to move. He immediately agreed, asking where they should move to, but officers walked away. Minutes later, as Jimenez continued to report, he, along with producer Bill Kirkos, camera operator Leonel Mendez, and a security guard were approached by a group of officers who surrounded and arrested them as they continued to ask where the state police wanted them to move. They were detained on-scene, then at a local precinct station, before being released about an hour and a half later.[16] CNN PresidentJeff Zucker called Minnesota GovernorTim Walz directly to insist on the crew's release.[17] During their conversation, Walz apologized to Zucker for the incident, calling it "unacceptable."[18]
During theriots after theJacob Blake shooting by police, Jimenez reported on the situation fromKenosha, Wisconsin. He was on camera with a burning building behind him and a gas mask around his neck while the CNNchyron said that what was happening were "Fiery But Mostly Peaceful" protests, though Jimenez never actually described the scene that way in his report. This image was widely circulated on social media and CNN was heavily criticized.[19]
AtNorthwestern, he won various national and regional student awards for reporting, including the National Mark of Excellence Award for student television reporting from theSociety of Professional Journalists and a Bronze award from the National College Emmys in the newscast category.[2]
While working atWBAL-TV, Jimenez received an individualEmmy nomination for general assignment reporting.[12]
Jimenez began playing music in high school. He enjoys rap and hip-hop, and has released music onSoundCloud under the name OJ Tropicana. His debut EP,Reporting Live, was released in 2017. He worked with producer Daiz and musician Drew Tildon. His artistry is influenced byChildish Gambino.[20] In 2013, he appeared on a "Battle of the Instant Rappers" segment onLate Night with Jimmy Fallon.[21]
