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Journalist and Author Beth McDonough Shares Her Recovery from Alcohol in New Book, Standby
By Andrea Marvin
Author and journalist Beth McDonough worked in television news for decades and thrived as an investigative reporter.
She covered some of the biggest stories of our time, from 911 to the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and the murder of George Floyd by a police officer that spurred protests across the globe.
Her talent and commitment to journalism have landed her in some of the biggest TV markets in the country, including Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Houston. From an outsider looking in, Beth seemed to have it all, and to a large degree, she did.
However, Beth was struggling with a battle of her own that would eventually cause her to lose everything. She started drinking heavily during her time in Minneapolis, and her problem with alcohol led to two DUI arrests.
This caused Beth to be let go from her job in a very public firing and she would lose her career, her home, her financial stability and many of her friends. But through it all, she was able to recover and remains sober to this day. Sixteen years later, Beth is ready to share her story.
In her new book, Standby, author Beth McDonough aims to give a message of hope that recovery is possible by showing her path forward.
She talks about what it was like facing her battle with alcohol head-on and how self-accountability fueled her to take action.
Standby addresses her treatment experience and ways she put her life back together. She opens up about starting a doggy daycare for income until a station in Minnesota threw her lifeline - some of the best years of her life followed.
Beth hopes her story inspires people struggling with addiction or loss and shows them progress is possible by taking it one step at a time.
A conversation with Beth shows her enormous empathy for others and the human condition. She shows us that recovery is possible, and that one can come out of hardship wiser and stronger.
You have had a high-profile career as a journalist – tell us about your background.
News can take you to many places. I started as a little cub reporter in Joplin, Missouri. I knew I wanted bright lights in the big city, so I started small and worked up to more significant markets and larger cities.
I worked in Lubbock and Tyler, Texas, then Houston, where I worked for some years, reporting and anchoring at the NBC station.
Then, my experience led me to land a job at KYW in Philadelphia, which I was excited about because I always wanted to see if I could get to the proverbial network as a journalist - Philadelphia put me right next to New York.
My husband was from New York City. The saying is that everything lives and dies in New York, and that's where it all is.
Later, I got hired across the street at WCAU in Philly. I worked there for four years during the 9/11 era and covered it.
When there was a change of ownership, Comcast bought out NBC, so my contract and many newsroom staff members were terminated. Fox News in Minneapolis came calling, so I went there for several years.
I always thought of Minneapolis as flyover land but fell in love with it there. It's just beautiful, smart, clean, and very cultural. It became home.
Why did investigative journalism peak your interest?
When you start in the news business, you do everything. You're a producer and reporter; some people want to be anchors. I thought I wanted to be an anchor in the beginning, too, because it looked like fun and seemed to be the pretty part of the business - and you make more money.
However, when I anchored in Houston, I was honestly bored. I like to be where the action is and on the frontlines. That was one reason I wanted to pursue other opportunities and Philadelphia provided that for me.
Did your problem with alcohol start in news – or when do you recall the issue escalating?
After I moved to Philadelphia, there were a few times that I noticed I was starting to drink more than normal.
There were five TV stations at the time. At the end of the newscast at 11:00 pm or midnight, some of us would go out during the week and blow off steam.
We would talk about what we covered that day, kind of in hope that we didn't take it home to our families, because we saw a lot of ugly stuff.
When I changed jobs and moved to Minnesota it got worse. My mother died, and we were very close. Then, my father had a bypass. All of this happened within several months, and I started to notice that I was drinking to medicate myself.
I did get back on track for a few years. Then in 2007, I covered the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis when 13 people died and about 145 were injured during the evening rush hour. It collapsed into the Mississippi River totally out of the blue and unexpected.
People were just on their way home from work and there were no warning signs. Cars were falling into the river, and we covered the story nonstop. It was not long after that when I got my first DUI.
When did the fallout happen?
That first DUI in 2007 stung a little bit, but not enough, sadly. I was arrested and jailed, and my boss was upset. It's hard to be a crime reporter when you commit a crime yourself.
My boss and I had a tough meeting and he asked if I had a problem. He threw me a lifeline by offering to help with treatment and I said no.
I didn’t think I had a problem and felt I could get on top of it. The newspaper had just a little blurb, so the DUI wasn't widely covered. When I came back after being on unpaid suspension for a month, I apologized to the newsroom, and we all put it behind us and moved forward.
I was good for about 6 to 9 months. Then, I started having a glass of wine here and there. If you're an alcoholic, one glass can occasionally become two or three.
About a year and a half later, on Halloween night, I had gone out with friends and knew I was starting to drink too much. I told myself that I had to get home. Why I didn't take a cab or an Uber, I don't know.
We all know the right course of action to take, but that's what alcohol does. We make bad decisions, and I certainly did that night. I got in my car to drive home and have no memory of it to this day, which is 16 years later. I hit the car in front of me. The driver wasn't injured thank goodness.
I was arrested for the second time. When I woke up, I was in jail with women in a holding cell who were watching TV, and my mug shot was on the television.
How did that make you feel?
It was like a punch to my gut. My stomach dropped because I knew right then how much of a problem I had. I knew I would be fired and remember thinking my life was over at that time.
When I got home, all the TV stations were parked in my driveway. Inside Edition, many entertainment shows were parked along my street to get the proverbial walk of shame that I’ve done thousands of times.
A couple of the people with me the evening of drinking were there. I understood where they came from because they were truly doing their job. I was very ashamed of myself and my behavior in that moment.
Is your book Standby an outline of your personal story and recovery?
I started writing it after the DUIs when I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I talk about my recovery journey and the challenges I faced, like losing my home and going broke.
I had applied for bankruptcy because I was sued and had all these fines and penalties to pay. I went from being at the top of my game to being very publicly outed and then broke.
Everybody's rock bottom looks different. Mine was pretty ugly.
What was it like to lose everything at once?
It was humiliating and emasculating. You feel like your insides are eviscerated. I knew I dropped an atomic bomb on my life, and it was my fault. It was just one of those moments where I knew it was time to hold up the mirror and take some action.
Alcoholism is just such a disease you can't control; it controls you. And I was just so very ashamed and very helpless in that moment. I was such damaged goods that nobody would touch me or take my calls.
I had to call a friend of a friend to get rides because my car was taken, and my license was taken. I had a hard time just getting to treatment because I was such damaged goods at that point.
I tried very hard after about the first year to get back into TV news locally, first in Minnesota. But nobody wanted to touch me. I lost my home, and I was broke.
My family stopped talking to me because they were disappointed, and I had also lost a lot of friends.
What's your message in the book? What would you say to someone struggling with addiction?
My message is sobriety doesn't have to be a solo journey. It really does take a village, and there's so much help these days. Life is so much different now compared to ten years ago in the recovery world. People will stick out a hand and not bat an eyelash.
I want people to believe in their ability to get better because they can face the pain that they've been trying to drink away. I always keep post-it notes around my desk, and one that I love says difficulty doesn't kill who you are, it reveals who you are.
During difficult times, you put one step in front of the other, and every step becomes easier along the way.
No one wants to talk about being an alcoholic, and no one dreams they grow up to be one. I think that a huge part of being able to maintain your sobriety is owning and dealing with it. That takes away some of the shame and the stigma, and it can't be used against you going forward.
I feel like my path can bring some purpose instead of bringing shame. Sixteen years later, I have turned it around. My life is so much better now than it was before and getting sober allowed me to get back into the profession that I love so much.
I came back better and stronger, and the best part of my career and life is this last half with KSTP. They took a chance on me and believed in me and my sobriety. I probably broke some of the most significant stories that Minnesota has seen in the last 10 years, like the overdose of Prince.
You discuss treatment in your book. How important do you think this aspect of recovery is - how did it change you?
I would say treatment was a blessing. It was so therapeutic and a game-changer in my life. While you're there, you lay all your stuff out. You do therapy every day, meet people, and hear their stories about alcoholism.
It takes all the questions away, whether you're an alcoholic. You learn the medical part of it, such as women are more susceptible to alcohol than men and why, plus examine your family history. I learned I'm kind of hardwired to be an alcoholic.
I recommend treatment. I almost think it could be a maintenance thing. I went to treatment at Hazelden, and I've been back there to speak on occasion, and it's just amazing.
In the book, I walk readers through the experience. I haven't discussed this publicly before, but I wanted to wait. I've been sober for 16 years.
I wanted enough time under my belt to say this was my path forward – this is what it looked like for me to let others struggling to know that it can be done. I show readers what I did.
What's next for you?
I'm contracted for two books. My second book picks up where the first one left off. I'm sober, and KSTP throws me this lifeline to get back into the TV news profession.
What happens next is I almost lose it all again, and it's not for anything that anyone could have foreseen. It's because a tick bit me on the job, and I get Lyme disease. It's awful and very common in the Midwest and on the East Coast.
I came down with Lyme disease while I was covering the Jamie Closs abduction, and there was a nationwide Amber Alert until she escaped from her kidnapper.
During that time, I also covered George Floyd. I was working the night shift that night, and that was the start of the racial reckoning riots that erupted in Minneapolis and Saint Paul and spread nationwide. In the media, we worked 12 hours on 12 hours off every day.
A few days into the riots, the Twin Cities were being set on fire. I continued to work during all of that, and I was very ill. Lyme disease feels like food poisoning, motion sickness, and the worst hangover of your life all combined.
A few months later, one of the rioters pointed a gun at my head and said, “You’re media; you’re next.” That was the last night that I worked in TV news.
The second book delves into all of these tremendous stories that I broke and explores getting back into the profession that I love so much. And then finally leaving it after 30 years and why I did, which was not because of alcoholism but because of unforeseen things that would happen that no one could predict.
Author and journalist Beth McDonough has earned several Emmys for her journalism and was part of the KSTP-TV team given the duPont Columbia Award for coverage of the officer-involved death of George Floyd.
Beth is in the process of making her author's website for Standby, which is being published by Fulton Books.
Standby will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, and other places where books are sold.
Beth lives with her two rescue wiener dogs in the red rock mountains in Utah where she is at peace and is surrounded by five national parks.
In her free time, you can find Beth on the trails hiking, or at a studio practicing yoga. Beth is an avid reader, writer, and traveler.
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