Melissa McCarty - News Girls Dont Cry

A battle between personal success andprivate anguish, a captivating brave tale of a womans drive tosuccess and tireless struggle to keep her family intact. The readeris pulled into Melissas story... an honest account of thecommon battle of addiction.

Susan Hendricks, CNN Headline Newsanchor

* *

A beautifully crafted and gut-wrenching taleof a young womans unfailing love for a brother who repeatedlypulled her into his own private hell. Hard to read; harder yet toput down.

Jack Sheehan, author ofSkin City,Class of 47, and Buried Lies

* *

News Girls Dont Cry is a remarkablesaga. Open this book thinking Oh, those newsgirls are all justSuzy Cream Cheese: clueless ex-cheerleaders who smile and read ateleprompter. Do that, and be transformed by a harrowing journeyof pain, survival, and triumph that is the journey of MelissaMcCarty. I could not put it down or look away.

James Dalessandro, author of1906and Citizen Jane

* *

Melissa McCarty is the underdog you root forthrough her brutally candid storytelling. An inspiring memoir thattouches addiction, mental illness, and her journey finding truelove.

Sarah Mutch, Guess model andactress

* *

Finally a story from a true story teller.Melissa McCarty opens her heart and door to her storied past andallows readers an intimate look at her family and lifeoff-camera.

Christina Brown, producer, EmmyAwardwinning journalist and former MSNBC anchor

* *

Its rare to get an inside look at thethoughts and emotions of someone in the line of work that Melissais in. To see and feel that she is a human beingnot just some(although beautiful and sexy) robotic teleprompter reader, but onewith struggles and victories within her life not seen or understoodby the general publicis something she shares brilliantly in herbook. Im honored to have read it.

Rob Patterson, rock guitarist

* *

A truly inspiring story of love and devotionin overcoming all the odds to reach success in the rough and tumbleworld of television journalism.

Jules Haimovitz, media executive

An inspiring story of overcoming adversity, secondchances

and becoming happy and authentic

Melissa McCarty

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014, Melissa McCarty

All rights reserved, including the right toreproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission inwriting from the publisher, except for brief passages in connectionwith a review.

Disclaimer: This is a true story, and thecharacters and events are real. In some cases, the names,descriptions, and locations have been changed, and some events havebeen condensed for storytelling purposes, but the overallchronology is an accurate depiction of the authors experience.

Cover design by Tatomir A. Pitariu

Interior design by Min Gates

Senior editor, Mark A. Clements

Line editor, Jazmin Gomez

BETTIE YOUNGS BOOK PUBLISHERS

http://www.BettieYoungsBooks.com

If you are unable to order this book fromyour local bookseller or online from Amazon or Barnes & Noble,or from Espresso or Read How You Want, you may order directly fromthe publisher (info@BettieYoungsBooks.com)

Library of Congress Control Number:2013949565

Book ISBN: 978-1-936332-69-4

eBook ISBN: 978-1-936332-70-0

1. McCarty, Melissa. 2. Newscasters. 3.Bettie Youngs Books. 4. Careers in Television. 5. Newscasters. 6.Media. 7. Publicity. 8. Substance Abuse. 9. Media Personalities.10. Self-esteem. 11. Dyslexia. 12. Learning Disabilities. 13.Bipolar Disorder. 14. Inner Child. 15. Literacy. 16. MentalHealth.17. Inspiration.

To my brother: its now time to laugh, time tosmile,

time to live up to our potential.

To my unbreakable and enduring family, I loveyou. To my brother, keep rising; Ive got your back. Thanks toJames, Ken Lindner, and his A-team. To Shari, Jill, and Melissa fornever giving up on methank you for that. To Daisy and family:thanks for always being there when we were growing upand for beinghere now, too. To Sarah Mutch, the greatest friend a girl couldhave, and Kurt, along with the rest of my crew of inspiringcharacters and misfits: thanks for keeping me sane each day withyour constant support.

Id also like to thank Liam Collopy andMichael Levine for their friendship and support over the years. Anda thank-you to Brittany Berggren and Brittany Renee for the photothat graces this cover. A heartfelt thanks to Bettie Youngs and herstaff at Bettie Youngs Books, especially the senior editoron this book, Mark A. Clements, for getting my story and for hissensitive editing of this book, and to Jazmin Gomez for a great jobof line editing. This book has been several years in the making;thank you Bettie for believing in me and the power of this story tovalidate that regardless of how arduous our lives may seem, we can,with diligence and great work, recover, heal and thrive.

And to you long-standing fans and to you thereader, thank you for taking the journey I walk in this book. Mylife has been an exercise in enduring. Traveling it has beenexhilarating, exhausting, sometimes glamorous, and often a privatetime of secret-keeping. Sharing it with you has been cathartic. Myhope is that you will always search for meaning and purpose andthat you will always find the courage to grow into the person youwere destined to be.

MEAN STREETSAND MIKEY

My Glamorous Life and Other Fallacies

At the age of twenty-two, only recentlygraduated from college, I conducted my first live news broadcast inGrand Junction, Colorado. I stood next to a dead child whose tinybody was covered by nothing but a thin cloth. I was barely able tospeak, deeply shaken by the family on bended knees wailing at thefeet of their baby. The father had been pulling out of his drivewayfor a trip to the market, unaware that his four-year-old had snuckout the door and run behind the SUV to join him.

I became fixated on the tiny foot poking outfrom under the sheet. Quietly hyperventilating, I wanted to screamat someone to have the decency to cover it.

In the many years since then, I have, in myrole as a newscaster, seen hundreds of lifeless or injured bodies,and witnessed up-close, distraught and hysterical parents,children, siblings, friends and bystanders. The bodies come inevery manner and demeanor and disfiguration: decapitated,dismembered, bloodied, and bloated. Ive stepped in blood, feces,brain matter and more.

Its something Ive never gotten used to. Idid expect that my ability to stomach such scenes would grow overtime; others told me it would. I expected that Id becomedesensitized to it and be able to efficiently and effectivelyreport on it and move to the next assignment. Isnt that whatpolice officers and firefighters and first responders learn to do?Why couldnt I?

Long after the cameras were turned off, theimages and the backstories lingered in my mind, memories stackingup like books on library shelves. Regardless of the Im tougharmor I strapped on for work each day, the images lived on in meand replayed themselves over and over. Visions of death haunted meat night; the sounds of screaming, pain-filled crying and shriekingrobbed my sleep. Tragic accidents, terrible crimes, devastatingfiresand the faces and tears of the family and friends uponlearning about the demise of their loved onesseared my memory.