Today was a day when you really learn about what it takes to be a journalist. Over the weekend a young man driving friends home struck a tree, killing his younger sister and his best friend. Talk about wake up call. This was difficult for me. I have tones of younger siblings, I’m a nanny, I care for someone else’s children. Every day I pray that I get them home safely. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to any one of these people, let alone if it was my “fault”. I really feel for this kid. It’s terrible. And you know he’s blaming himself ever so harshly. And you know his parents are ripped apart, but they don’t blame him. It just makes my heart ache. Talking to these people, I felt like we were imposing to a degree but really, for me, I knew that wasn’t the intention. It was a terrible accident and these kids…well they were young and that is a tragedy.
The interesting thing about today was the encounter with the competitor. No, I won’t say who, you never know where you’ll be working in the future. I felt like there was no journalistic integrity. We were doing an interview and the reporter just barges in the house. At least we called and arranged something. It appeared as if they were not so considerate to the grieving family. Anyway, the reporter starts talking to the other family members, quite loudly while we were interviewing. I just didn’t understand. I’m all for getting the story but have some consideration. Jeeze. This was eye-opening for me. I mean real journalism, racing to get the story, trying to get all the angles, beating out the competitors. This is journalism. Yes, the story is what matters, but I think the people do too.
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