When News People Become the News

NBC is having a week. 

Many months ago, NBC executives and newsroom managers in affiliates nationwide were in the early stages of planning coverage for two major sports events—the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Surely, hands would wring over how to handle everything since NBC faced a logistics nightmare assigning crews in Santa Clara, CA, and Milan, Italy. So much had to be considered: how many staff members would be needed at each location, how they would be fed and housed, and how to ensure the necessary equipment arrived and functioned on site. Who would anchor the two weeks of the Olympic Games, and how would every NBC news program get its share of the coverage? It would be tough, but, presumably, the network executives and talented news planners were ready for the challenge and even excited to see it pulled off. Every staffer would be ready to pop the champagne after the closing ceremonies.

Then, Savannah Guthrie’s mother was kidnapped. It’s a story with so much interest, it has me wondering about the impact behind the cameras.

Photo Courtesy of Savannah Guthrie's Instagram

In “Breaking” and “Live Shot,” I deliberately wove ethical questions into our protagonist, Bekka Douglas’s, journey as a journalist. In the first book, she discovered that a murder victim was a nurse by day and a webcam girl by night, raising the question of whether the side gig was relevant to the reporting. Did it influence her murder, and if not, should it still be included in the story?  

All of that is fiction. This week, NBC experienced a very real, frightening incident during its busiest coverage week of the year. Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie was thrown into a deeply personal and heartbreaking situation that also became a news story. Someone kidnapped her 84-year-old mother, and as of this blog post, Nancy Guthrie remains missing. How should this be covered? How do you give such an unusual and personal story the right amount of attention? And how do you lead a staff that’s reeling from a coworker’s personal tragedy, especially during a week that demands everyone to perform at their best?

Naturally, Savannah is off the desk, handling the family crisis. NBC had planned to send her to Milan to co-anchor the Olympic opening ceremonies. Finding a replacement is manageable, but navigating the personal grief of her co-workers and studio staff is much harder. People behind the scenes can at least grieve for Savannah off camera—those on the anchor desk are reading the sad details of the kidnapping into a lens, often fighting tears as they consider what the crime must be doing to Savannah and her family. Most of her co-anchors know Nancy from visits to the set, making their sadness even more palpable. Because the Today team is so close, the anchors might even know details of the kidnapping that Savannah has shared privately but asked them not to report. More ethical choices. 

There will eventually be an end to the Guthrie story—whether good or bad—but I wonder about its lasting effects. If the kidnappers targeted Nancy Guthrie because of her daughter’s role as a public figure, will Savannah be able to go back to her career? Even if her notoriety wasn’t a factor in the kidnapping, just being the victim of a crime will have long-term consequences for the family. You don’t simply bounce back. If Nancy is returned unharmed, that will be cause for celebration, but the family will be forever changed by the experience.

So, for now, we do as Savannah requested on her Instagram account. She wrote, Please Pray.

If prayer works, in two weeks, the Super Bowl and Olympics will be over, and a beloved 84-year-old mother and grandmother will be back in the embrace of her family.

From Savannah Guthrie's Instagram

"we believe in prayer. we believe in voices raised in unison, in love, in hope. we believe in goodness. we believe in humanity. above all, we believe in Him."

Thank you for lifting your prayers with ours for our beloved mom, our dearest Nancy, a woman of deep conviction, a good and faithful servant. raise your prayers with us and believe with us that she will be lifted by them in this very moment. We need you."