The Day I Was Glad Not to Be on the News Desk
For most of my career, a Monday like this last one meant a newsroom running at full tilt, phones going, and someone leaning over my desk asking whether we had it yet. Or me doing the same to a poor news editor.
This time, I was glad to be watching from my kitchen. Three stories hit the news on Monday, two of them after unfolding over the weekend, and each was hard for its own reason. Selma Blair, a woman I put on the cover of Us Weekly, was arrested after a Delta flight to JFK. RJ Mitte, who played Walter White Jr. on Breaking Bad and spent his life championing disability rights, died at 34. And word spread that Sean Combs had been taken from federal prison to a hospital with a head injury nobody has explained.
One story involves a complicated illness and two injured flight attendants. One is a young man’s death and a family’s grief. One involving a prison that says almost nothing, and a rumor mill rushing to fill the silence. In a fast newsroom, the pressure is always to be first, and to break the news nobody else has. Days like this reward the people who slow down and think creatively. They ask what readers actually want to know, and how the news makes them feel.
So today I’m giving you my insider take on all three: what we actually know, what we don’t, and how I think each one should be covered.
If you or someone you love is struggling, call or text 988 in the US, or call Samaritans free on 116 123 in the UK.
One bit of joy before we begin. HBO announced on Tuesday that Girls is coming back for five new episodes, with Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet and Andrew Rannells all returning. Sex and the City sold me the New York I dreamed of. Girls was more like the one I actually lived in. More on that soon, but for now, I'm giddy.
In this edition we also cover:
