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Arturo Rodriguez was a television news reporter and one of the few who openly supported the vigilante activities of the Batman.

Rodriguez reversed his opinion on the merits of vigilantism however during the violence that erupted during the great gang war in Gotham City, particularly the actions that resulted in the deaths of several students at Louis E. Grieve Memorial High School.[1]

Later, Gotham went into a massive blackout and when the power came back, Rodriguez was the first anchorman to appaear on the news, expressing his opinion on the futiity of costumed vigilantes on the streets.[2]

Arturo was reporting live on the north end of Gotham when he was approached by Black Mask and forced to tag along with him. Black Mask used Rodriguez's live broadcast to reveal what he believed to be the Batcave and took the reporter and the cameraman to the Gotham Clock Tower.[3] Black Mask took Rodriguez inside the tower and allowed him to film and report the events until the final chamber, where the crime lord told him to stay out and took the camera from him.[4] Arturo managed to get out of the Clock Tower and went directly to the police. When the Tower collapsed, Arturo witnessed the fall of the building and later he found Barbara Gordon and carried her to a safe place. The next morning, he reported the events from the last night concerning the battle between Black Mask and Batman and the aftermath of the gang war.[5]

Some time later, Rodriguez became anchor of his own TV show called "Taking Sides with Arturo!" where he discussed the latest crimes in Gotham and he interviewed a person called Aaron Black on the show.[6] Soon, Arturo contacted Crystal Brown and requested her to be on his show to talk about Stephanie. However, when Aaron Black was attacked, he blamed it all on Rodriguez, who benefited from the gang war as he was given his own TV show as a result.[7] To gain more ratings during his show, he interviewed Crystal Brown on the show but asked her inadequate questions about Stephanie's death. During this, Black Mask showed up on stage dressed as Batman and attacked them both. The show went off air and Batman appeared in time to stop Black Mask from further hurting Arturo and Crystal.[8]

A few days later, it was revealed that Arturo was secretly working for Black Mask. During the time when he was Black Mask's hostage, Arturo offered himself to work for the crime lord and provided him with all sorts of confidential information. After the revelation, Arturo was immediately fired from his network and he was arrested under the charges of conspiracy to commit murder, as he planned to kill Crystal Brown during his show, along with Black Mask.[9]


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