A Defining Moment

This is a guest post by Kristine Lazar. The two of us went to high school together in San Diego. While we are both journalists and moms, we find different challenges in our everyday lives.  Kristine does a wonderful job finding a balance between the hectic life of a television reporter in Los Angeles and being there for her family.
People often ask me, what are the defining moments of my TV news career? I assume most think I will recall a certain high profile story (I covered the Scott Peterson trial), meeting a famous person (I’ve met many, from Caroline Kennedy to Paul McCartney to Jennifer Aniston), or getting my dream job here at CBS 2 and KCAL 9 in Los Angeles.  Instead, I tell them I was forever changed as a journalist on July 18th and November 25th, the days my 3 children were born (I have twins, in case you’re having a hard time with the math).

You see, when you become a mom, at least for me, everything on the job changes.  The way you cover stories, the way they affect you, and the way you do your job- right down to the constant juggling and multitasking you must do to be both a career woman and the caretaker of 3 little humans.

I remember when I first returned to work after having my oldest, I got assigned to a fatal car crash in Malibu.  While interviewing the highway patrol officer, he mentioned the date of birth of one of the victims.  It was the same month and year of my son’s birth.  I was reporting on the death of a boy who could have been my own.  My family and I had traveled along this same stretch of busy road.  I finished the interview and spent the next few minutes weeping in our news van.  I knew then that I could no longer be a “hardened journalist.”

And it wasn’t just stories about children that now affected me greatly.  Any story that had to do with loss or tragedy struck a chord with me.  After all, we are all someone’s baby.  I even reacted differently to happy stories.  I felt a deeper connection with everyone I interviewed.  I started keeping in touch with these people, on Facebook pages or via email.  At first I worried I was taking my work home with me, and that my career would be negatively impacted, but then these families started emailing me other story ideas, or tipping me off to newsworthy events throughout their communities.  Suddenly, I was getting more exclusive stories than ever before- and I didn’t need to be sneaky about it, or “bribe” law enforcement officials or local politicians with cookies or coffee.  All I had to do was…care.

So often, we reporters get a bad rap.  Have you ever seen the movie Nightcrawler?  I can promise you, 99.9% of us are nothing like the news people in that movie.  But I do think many of us have had to emotionally check out so that we don’t suffocate under the weight of what we see on a daily basis.  Car crashes, fires, murders and corruption.  I have chosen, though, to take my work home with me, and to let me feel some of the pain, loss and hope of those who I interview.  I may not be as hard hitting as I used to be, but I am OK with that.  I think there’s a market for my softer side.

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Kristine Lazar is an Emmy award winning reporter at CBS 2 and KCAL 9 news in Los Angeles.  She is also mom to a 5 year old boy, Griffin and twin girls Mary and Lola, who are in the throws of the “terrible 2’s”.
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