News reporters and anchors have one job – to report the facts. Most of the time those facts have nothing to do with their personal lives. It makes their job much easier when they’re talking about a situation, no matter how horrible, when it has nothing to do with them, like a shooting or accident in a distant state. But in those rare moments when the news is about their family, the facts take on a whole new meaning.
When a news anchor covering the area of Chattisgarh in India was sitting in front of the camera, she was asked to report an accident that resulted in a death. The news anchor was Supreet Kaur, and she was doing her job.
As a station veteran, who has worked there for nine years, she knew how to deliver the news with the right mixture of compassion, concern, and objectivity. News anchors and reporters need to be a bit cold in their telling or else risk breaking down from all the horrible things that happen to others around the world and in our local communities. Murders, accidents, natural disasters don’t seem to be slowing down – to the contrary they are getting more frequent and dangerous. The news industry is one field that shows no sign of slowing down in recent years.
Kaur was sitting in front of the camera as the teleprompter displayed the words to the story. She did her job and read what was written on the screen. And on this day, she started reporting the details of a fatal car crash. It was brutal, but it was just part of her job.
As she reads the words, Kaur has no idea that this car crash will change her life. Because she doesn’t know who the victim of the accident was, she has no idea that her husband was the man who died. Only later in the report when photographs were flashed on the screen did Kaur realized she was reporting the story of her husband’s violent death. And seeing her husband of eighteen-months must have been difficult.
But Kaur is a professional. She did not let the horror break her. She kept a calm look on her face. In front of the camera, she did not falter as she delivered the facts, even when they held such emotional meaning to her personally.
Because she kept a professional demeanor, viewers at home did not know that she was suffering inside. They had no inkling that she was speaking about the man she loved and had just learned she had lost. But when the cameras stopped rolling, she finally spoke how this story struck home for her.
Everyone in the studio was stunned. And they mourned for her.
“It could have been a difficult situation for anyone. But she controlled her anxiety, remained composed and showed exemplary commitment to her job. We are proud of her,” a fellow employee of her TV channel told Times of India.
After she left the studio following the report of the crash, she reportedly broke down from the weight of the news.
We send our thoughts and prayers to Kaur in her time of difficulty.