As much as I enjoy what I do (gosh, I love my job), there are parts of it that are difficult.

 

 

Last week a child went missing. She was found hours later outside of a Starbucks a few miles from her home.

 

 

My reporter and I were only two blocks away when she was found. We were heading to relieve one of the crews who had been on the story since earlier in the day.

 

We went directly to the location where she had been found.

 

 

Your first hope in these types of situations is that the child was unharmed by the person who took her.

 

Then you just hope the kid is returned alive.

 

 

As soon as we arrived on the scene, an officer approached us and asked us to please be discreet and even suggested we not put the girl on the air.

 

That’s a difficult position for me.

 

 

I understood what he was asking and I understood why he was asking

.

All I could do is assure him I’d do my best to be cover the story from a reasonable distance. I have some leeway in how I approach my job, but I still have a job to do.

 

If there were other news cameras at the scene, my options sadly would be more limited.

 

 

Since my camera was the only ground record of the event, how it was shot was completely up to me.

My reporter and I didn’t need to talk it over.

 

I kept my distance and covered the scene. She was mostly blocked by the officers and paramedics, but I could see the little girl in my viewfinder.

 

 

This was not a completely happy reunion. The little girl was alive; there’s some comfort to be had in that. She was sexually assaulted. I didn’t know it at the time, but I suspected that was the case.

 

Nobody asked me why there was only 10 seconds or so of video of the girl, so I believe I did my job to my station’s satisfaction. Maybe I could have been more aggressive and gotten more shots of her, but I honestly did what I could.

 

Bad decisions are easy. Bad decisions can cost you your job or your humanity.

 

It can be difficult, but I try to hang on to as much of both as I can.