In 1990, the morning after then-Mayor Marion Barry was arrested by the FBI at the Vista International Hotel, reporter Sam Ford was getting his son ready for school. His assignment editor called with instructions to get over to the mayor’s house ASAP.

But first, Ford paused to explain to his son the bizarre reasons that he was rushing out the door: He had to go report on a mayor caught on camera using crack cocaine.

“I had come from Atlanta … I was used to Maynard Jackson and Ralph Abernathy and other distinguished leaders … I couldn’t believe that this guy smoking crack was the mayor of the city,” Ford recalls.

Nevertheless, Ford covered the Mayor-for-Life for 25 years—through triumph and tragedy—until Barry’s death in 2014. And then he kept covering the city as new leaders came and went. But Ford’s journey has come to an end.

Ford retired from WJLA Channel 7 in December 2023, earning praise and fond remembrances from fellow journos, Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, and a host of others.

Ford held a special place in D.C. journalism circles. At his retirement, he was one of the only active District reporters working full time who had covered Barry from the early days (WCP staff photographer Darrow Montgomery started covering Barry in the late ’80s). But it goes far beyond just longevity for Ford, who enjoyed an unusual relationship with Barry that informed his work throughout his career.

“Until the end I was joking with people that I was the last one standing,” Ford says. “By the end, I had grown pretty close to Marion, but he could still get pretty mad at me.”

Ford grew up in Kansas and still has family there, though he also has traced his roots to both the Cherokee Nation and to Nigeria. He lost his wife Gloria Murray Ford three years ago; his son and daughter live in Georgia and Maryland, respectively.

Although he spent 35 years covering the District at WJLA, Ford began his broadcasting career in radio in Kansas and Minnesota. His first TV job was at CBS, and he worked in New York for a few years before arriving in D.C. in 1982.

Ford says that one of his first local stories of note was covering Colorado Senator Gary Hart’s presidential campaign, when he was caught at his townhouse in Capitol Hill with Donna Rice. “We all had fun covering that story,” Ford says.

As for Barry, Ford’s time covering him was turbulent from the day he began working at WJLA in April 1987.

“He was very complimentary if he liked a story I did, but if he didn’t like it, he’d also call me up on the phone and tell me,” Ford says.

“Barry and I spent a lot of time together at church. We were both members of Union Temple Baptist under minister Willie Wilson,” Ford continues. “I taught Sunday school and Marion really wanted his son, Christopher, to attend Sunday school with me. I was the superintendent of all the church classes and we had Marion in one of the classes for a while.”

The Mayor-for-Life’s relationship with the minister had its own ups and downs, according to Ford, in part because Wilson began to amass his own political power in D.C. Barry saw it happening and grew suspicious of Wilson, as he was of all his political rivals, Ford explains. However, when Barry was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Wilson showed compassion (and his allegiance) to Barry by consistently asking the congregation to pray for him. The first time Wilson made the request, Ford was at church (as usual) and immediately reported a story about Barry’s cancer for Channel 7. He says Barry was furious that it became public knowledge that way.

Later, Ford would shift and begin worshipping at Ebenezer United Methodist Church on Capitol Hill, where he still lives.

For a while, Ford was part of a throwback twist on media and politics. Back in the 1980s, WOL-AM station owner Cathy Hughes offered former Council Chair John Wilson his own spot hosting a radio talk show. Wilson would get calls from his constituents and others, but he’d also invite reporters to come on his show—including Ford.

“I went on the show, and I remember John Wilson was interviewing me but then Marion called in to complain about something,” Ford says.

We might see something like that today on the Fox News network but otherwise it’s hard to imagine.

Ford doesn’t think too highly of other mayors either. In his estimation, Mayor Sharon Pratt (Kelly), who served from 1991 to 1995, was in over her head, and that Mayor Anthony Williams was dishonest.

Williams is the onetime CFO who served as mayor for eight years (1999-2007) and is widely credited with balancing the city’s budget and reestablishing its credibility with Congress. But Williams also favored a plan to sell a different radio station—WDCU—as a cost-saving measure. The station was then-owned by the University of the District of Columbia, and Ford remains disappointed with Williams for selling the station to this day. 

But it was Williams’ decision to close D.C. General Hospital in 2001 that still leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Ford considers him dishonest for publicly saying he would not close the only public hospital in D.C., and then turning around and doing the exact opposite.

For his part, Williams claimed that studies showed the hospital could be closed without a dramatic impact on services, and noted the persistent drain on city finances by the neglected hospital. Leading up to the decision, the District government had been effectively bankrupt and Congress and the White House were making all important governance decisions in place of local elected leadership.

Ford does credit Williams for helping bring Major League Baseball back to the District, though in the end he thought more highly of former Mayor Vince Gray, whom he considers the most “normal” person to serve as mayor of the city. “Vince was really just a normal, nice guy that you could imagine hanging out with,” Ford says. He did not offer his thoughts about Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Like many local residents, Ford has watched with dismay as the Washington Post has slashed its coverage of local news. “Some days you read the Post Metro section and there’s just nothing there,” he says.

As for what comes next, Ford says he’s optimistic that WJLA will continue to cover the District closely. He hopes younger reporters in D.C. are given the chance to gain the kind of experience that’s carried him throughout his career.

WJLA’s news operations underwent a major overhaul in 2014, when it was purchased by conservative TV mogul David Smith’s Sinclair Broadcast Group. Smith’s personal political allegiances are well-documented, as is the sort of deceptive and dishonest commentary that his stations are forced to broadcast. (Smith just announced his purchase of the Baltimore Sun this week. His first meeting with the paper’s staff did not go so well.)

But Ford has nothing bad to say about his local bosses. He believes they will continue to save a dedicated space in the newsroom for a reporter focused exclusively on District politics and news (though there is certainly more than enough work on that beat for a single reporter). He admits to some nervousness about the overall lack of experience across the D.C. news scene.

“A reporter who has a little more history can push back,” Ford says. “But some younger reporters … if they hear something, they just may accept it without asking any questions.”

Out of Ink covers media issues relevant to the DMV. Send tips, suggestions, or feedback to vmorris@washingtoncitypaper.com and connect with him on X @vincentmorris.