Inside the Untold Struggles and Triumphs of Carol Lin: A Memoir That Reveals the True Cost of Breaking News
Meanwhile, on the Eastern Seaboard, at the height of her career, CNN anchor Carol Lin, and author of When News Breaks: A Memoir of Love and War (Third Rail Press, December 2025), was the first network journalist to break the news of the 9/11 attacks. A month later, she found herself in the crosshairs of a Taliban sniper along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, a stark reminder of the sacrifices she made to succeed in a white-centric, male-dominated journalism career.
Carol Lin’s traditional Chinese mother warned her that reporting breaking news was ‘an adrenaline-fueled drug that will never love her back.’ But Lin persisted. She was determined. She did what she wanted—no, had—to do.
