Taylor Lorenz says she has "severe PTSD" from being a journalist

[Mr. X]

Is having PTSD something only people who work for major outlets have?

Do you know any journalists who have PTSD?

 

[Scout]

Attacking a journalist while doing their job should have its own separate set of severe punishments.

But if you are working for a "news" organization that antagonizes people, then, well...

 

[Mngwa]

Never heard of her

 

[DanOregon]

Back around 9/11, I covered a deadly crash, a bad fire, a memorial for a guy whose struggle against cancer I wrote about, and then 9/11 - I was grateful that the paper actually brought in a counselor and I checked in with her - there were times, dealing with a lot of death on the job, knocking on doors of grief-stricken families, times I asked an editor for someone else to cover a funeral because I was numb to death and my tank of empathy was empty - about a week after 9/11 I was at home, finally able to catch my breath, had a little cry about it all - and I was good. The important thing is to talk about stuff like this - acknowledge it. The military began having better results when they didn't have soldiers "self-report" PTSD anymore and just assumed everyone had it and gave them the tools and counseling so there would be no stigma to it.

But I am surprised a journalist who specializes in social media doesn't have a good filter (either personal, or an app) for crap. I don't answer the phone from numbers I don't recognize, I don't open e-mails from addresses I don't know or even care about comments from people who don't actually know me on social media. But I realize the younger generations live their lives on-line, and it is as much of who they are as they probably actually are.

 

[MileHigh]

Back around 9/11, I covered a deadly crash, a bad fire, a memorial for a guy whose struggle against cancer I wrote about, and then 9/11 - I was grateful that the paper actually brought in a counselor and I checked in with her - there were times, dealing with a lot of death on the job, knocking on doors of grief-stricken families, times I asked an editor for someone else to cover a funeral because I was numb to death and my tank of empathy was empty - about a week after 9/11 I was at home, finally able to catch my breath, had a little cry about it all - and I was good. The important thing is to talk about stuff like this - acknowledge it. The military began having better results when they didn't have soldiers "self-report" PTSD anymore and just assumed everyone had it and gave them the tools and counseling so there would be no stigma to it.

But I am surprised a journalist who specializes in social media doesn't have a good filter (either personal, or an app) for crap. I don't answer the phone from numbers I don't recognize, I don't open e-mails from addresses I don't know or even care about comments from people who don't actually know me on social media. But I realize the younger generations live their lives on-line, and it is as much of who they are as they probably actually are.

I worked on the digital team of a TV station for nearly six years. After the crash that killed my sister and her family, I didn't write up anything with plane crashes or near-plane crashes if it was local/in-state/we had to produce the content. Rest of the team was super cool with it and totally understood.

About a year after the crash, there was a plane crash in the north suburbs that killed two people on board. Another person was writing it up, but the TV stations' shared helicopter was over the site. I was working on another story and the video was put up on a big screen in the newsroom.

The blustery, asshole news director comes out and was watching it and was trying to direct the chopper out loud even though he couldn't. "Show the tail number. Show the tail number." I'm getting really pissed at this point because I knew what his intent was: Get the tail number, trace it and find out who was flying it and then track down family members to get that "first" reaction story. He had done this with other events as well, sending reporters to the homes of family of friends of deputies killed in the line of duty, for instance. And I had called him out on it because having been on the other side of things, the last thing people who are suffering through an unexpected tragedy is to have the media knocking on their door. No ever listened to what I said or tried to implement different standards.

Anyway, others in the newsroom were looking at me, making sure I was OK. I switched the video on the board and walked out (it was the end of my shift anyway). I must have gotten five calls within a few minutes making sure I was OK. I was more pissed than anything, but it was still too close to the crash that it certainly had an effect on me.

It took a lot of time (and a bit of counseling) to help me deal with those kinds of things. I still get a bit emotional whenever I see there's a private plane crash, especially the type of plane my sister and her family were on.

Thankfully, I'm out of media and don't have to deal with that anymore, though that POS news director is still there, doing his usual bullshirt stuff.

 

[Songbird]

I covered 7 games in one night. Didn't get PTSD. Did have the time of my life though.

And that was Razzie-level crying.

 

[Scout]

There was a local TV person and cameraperson doing some traffic piece and some loon started shouting Trump stuff and free speech while they were working. This was before dawn, at night.

The guy should feel the cold grip of the cuffs.

 

[Azrael]

Yeah. It's very different for women. I don't doubt she's sincere.

The threats of violence in response to straight news stories are bad enough, but the routine sexual threats to women in media are stomach turning.

Fearing for your life, being frightened all the time is one consequence of having a high profile on social media. Elizabeth Bruenig was tweeting about it the other day.

I remember when I first started in a television newsroom in 1975 the calls we'd get for the on-camera women were shocking.

I'd like to hear from some of our women here. Maybe @gingerbread and @OscarMadison and @Mngwa can weigh in.

 

[DanOregon]

This isn't journalism related, really - but I have noticed an "uptick" of stories about people who have "personalized" attacks of other people, by other people to claim victimhood for themselves. Maybe it does qualify as PTSD - a flashback to a previous episode in their lives, but I heard stories about women in general and black women in particular "dealing" with the rough treatment Jackson received from Senate GOPers (about a week after I read stories how the hearings "uplifted" them - pick a lane), throw in stories about people "dealing" with the horrific images from Ukraine on TV or even Schumer feeling traumatized by what happened to Rock. Not saying they aren't being honest about their emotions, but when someone else is dealing directly with a difficult situation, should you even dare make it about you - and be public about it?

 

[Col. Nathan R. Jessup]

Never heard of her

She is a must-read for tech and social media reporting.

 

[Mngwa]

She is a must-read for tech and social media reporting.

Well then, since I don't read about either of those things I guess I can move on.

 

[TexasVet]

She is a must-read for tech and social media reporting.

Um, yea. Not even going to try and wrap my head around how a tech/social media reporter has PTSD. I was thinking she may have covered war-torn areas or something. True PTSD vets must be shaking their heads as well. Kudos to her for making me waste my time to see who she was.