Exhaustion and adrenaline is all I have right now. For the past four days, I've been covering an Amber Alert in Frankfort. A two year old girl was on a court ordered visit with her father when he stole a car and a gun from his grandfather and skipped town rather than returning the girl to her mother.
This has been a very trying story in many ways. Too often people forget that we are here as a public service. That is the whole point of news, in any form. Covering Amber Alerts are the perfect example of providing that service. Unfortunately, competition and sensationalism can take over, as it did on occasion with this story.
How often do you beg someone to talk? How hard do you push to get information that is not ready to be released? What do you report and what do you pass of as hearsay or unconfirmed information?
I ran into all these questions this week. It was quite a learning experience. I grew as a reporter and a person covering this story. My values and ethics were questioned, but I stuck to what I knew was right and in the end, it paid off.
Of course, what I learned is definitely not as important as the fact the little girl was found in Mexico safe and sound with her father and will return back home tomorrow.
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