"NEVER BECOME THE STORY"
Are you putting blame on the reporter here?
If not, please clarify what you mean.
Good question. Not placing blame on reporter at all.
If I did a story, I never wanted to put myself “into” the story. I wanted the story to be about the story subject, the issue, the cause, the results, etc.... not me.
Nor did I, except when getting my Emmy, grant interviews to other reporters. My job was to get viewers for my station/network, not theirs!
Not being a hard ass, but that’s reality.