News wasn't like it is today. Reporters weren't out in the streets interviewing rioters or seeing first hand what was happening. It was really hard to get a real time report of what was going on. People didn't walk around with cameras taking pix of things and posting them for all to see. Cameras used film, and movie cameras were pretty bulky and hard to carry around too, so people in the neighborhoods didn't provide a lot of coverage, either.

That's only half wrong. [[Or half right.) Media certainly wasn't like it is today in a technological sense, but reporters were certainly out in the street during the riot, interviewing rioters and recording what was happening. Check out the archives of the Detroit papers and TV stations. The riot is where Bill Bonds made his name, for example, for his on-the-street reporting. The Free Press won a Pulitzer for its coverage.