Inside the Untold Struggles and Triumphs of Carol Lin: A Memoir That Reveals the True Cost of Breaking News
L.L.: I loved reliving some of the biggest news stories of the past forty years. It was strangely comforting to relive them in the pages of When News Breaks versus when they were actually happening. The 1989 San Francisco earthquake, the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the mysterious murder of Jon Benet Ramsay…but not 9/11. That was chilling. Any theories on why the feeling was near comfort while gazing at these events from a longer lens?
C.L.: Interesting observation! I’d say when news breaks, we lack context. We only know what’s happening, but we don’t know why. Time offers context, analysis, public discourse and private conversations. That is the value of history, which unfortunately our country is not in agreement about as I write this in 2026. Without a common understanding of the six tenets of basic journalism. The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, we find ourselves at odds. Debate is healthy but the propaganda of ‘alternative facts’ is not.
