As we mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, my guest on BookNotes this month is former CNN and ABC News anchor Carol Lin, who was the first national anchor to report the first 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. She has now published a memoir: When News Breaks.
Judith: My guest on BookNotes this month is former CNN and ABC News anchor Carol Lin, who is now out with a book called When News Breaks. This is a memoir of love and war. And Carol Lin has been described as steady, thoughtful, and most of all, reliable, the essential quality for any journalist working under pressure. And she's perhaps best known for being the first national anchor to report the first 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. We're marking the 25th anniversary of that devastating event this month. So Carol, welcome to WBJC and to Book Notes.
Carol Lin: Thank you, Judith. It's a privilege to be with you.
Judith: So as the face of the news, it's not that you are impersonal. You're obviously very well known to viewers, but nevertheless, it's very different from this deeply personal memoir that you have written. How do you reconcile those two personas within yourself?
Carol Lin: That's a terrific question, Judith, and I think it's a question that I wrestle with in When News Breaks. But I think we all wrestle with it in our own lives; the public-facing person that we put out to the world, and then the private life, the struggle, especially when you have a career in news, which is one that takes you away from the people you love. The decisions that you have to make if every time you leave, what makes it worth it?
Judith: Another question that I have for you is also one about duality. Working as a news anchor, it's all quick-fire, news breaking. You have to be on the minute. Writing, on the other hand, is this slow, solitary occupation. Every word is considered. So again, how have you approached your writing life versus your broadcasting life?
Carol Lin: Broadcasting, you're right. It's instincts, it's experience, it's the work of focus, and it's a team sport, even though it looks like it's about the individual who's on camera. But in writing, it's an emotional and intellectual exercise. It is something where you have to be willing to explore the slow burn of not only what happened in your life, but what it means. And not only what it means, but what is it going to mean to the reader? And I think in When News Breaks, I had one reader in mind, which was my daughter. She was 20 when I began earnestly picking up the pages, and I wanted to write so that she would know our whole story. And that's something that journalists don't often get to do. You know, we're so focused on other people's stories and what's happening in the moment, that to actually consider the decisions that we made in our own life, the sacrifices. And so I think all that's happening in the solitude of you and your laptop or your desktop, and it is a very, very different experience because in breaking news, you know that you're only as good as your last story. But in memoir, you're only as good as the whole story and the willingness to really go there.
Judith: My guest has been Carol Lin, former CNN and ABC News anchor, who has written a memoir of love and war. It's called When News Breaks. And to find out more, you can go to Carol's website. It's carollinnow.com. Carol, thank you so much for spending some time with us today.
Carol Lin: Oh, thank you, Judith. Thank you for being a reader.
