Luckily for us, this particular reporter is fictional. Dick Thornburg was played by actor William Atherton.

Thanks for pointing that out. Interestingly enough, character of fictional television repoter has a name strikingly similar to Dick Thornburgh, career Republican politician who was US Attorney General at the time (quite different character than his semi-namesake and widely respected by people of various political persuasions for his calm demeanour and professionalism).