You have no idea what I know of those riots. The only thing Gates did was to personally arrested football Williams, the perp that beat Reginal Denny have to death. That was televised. Chief Gates only appeared on three occasions to conduct news conferences during those 7 intense days of the biggest riots in American history. He did not give blow by blow news conferences during the riots. But he did utilize spokespeople to deal with the media on a hourly basis. Trust me.
I will say however, *after* the riots, the Chief was on TV quite a bit. Hehehe......