Reporting traumatic events takes a toll

They don't fight the battles. They don't chase down criminals. They don't fight fires. They don't survive crimes and most of the time, they are never touched personally by the events they report on in their own lives, but because they are exposed to all of them, they are forever changed by them. So how is it that if journalists can understand the price they pay just by paying attention to what's going on, the rest of us can't figure out a way to understand it when the ones with their lives on the line do in fact become wounded by it all?

Reporting traumatic events takes a toll
Journalists suffer consequences from stories they cover
By J. Ross Baughman
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Journalists who peer into the abyss of war, crime and natural disasters as part of their job can end up as emotionally scarred as the victims they never imagined joining.

"These are the kind of stories I've covered, the kind of images I carry with me," says Mike Walter, a 25-year veteran Washington broadcast reporter and anchor who explores the theme of journalism and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a documentary that will debut Saturday at Filmfest DC, formally the Washington, DC International Film Festival.

In the film's introduction, he offers a simple description of his career: "More fires than I care to count, more murders than I care to remember."

The psychological toll left him wondering how well other journalists handle the stress that lingers after the assignment ends - the subject of his 36-minute video, "Breaking News, Breaking Down."

On Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Walter was stuck in traffic during his morning commute to WUSA television station when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

"The jet slammed into the Pentagon once, but for me, it never stopped crashing. I don't know how I'm going to be able to sleep tonight," recalled Mr. Walters, who reported the story while standing in front of the gaping hole on the Pentagon's north side, breaking down as the cameras rolled.

Media figures with styles as diverse as Dan Rather and David Letterman also lost their composure on air while recounting the al Qaeda assault on New York City. But the shock doesn't have to be of historic proportions. Almost anyone can watch a tragic event unfold, never shed a drop of blood, and still be wounded quite severely.
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Reporting traumatic events takes a toll/