Lynnie Westafer
Lynnie Westafer is a creative writer and journalist who had a long career as a writer/producer at KCBS/KCAL9 in Los Angeles until she found herself on the other side of a violent and traumatizing story.
A gunman took her and a dozen others for hostages inside a Trader Joe’s during a long and dangerous standoff with the LAPD. The resulting post-traumatic stress ended her career in daily news and has given her an invaluable perspective on the media, the broad insensitivity to crime victims and the lack of understanding about how common practices and storylines casually retraumatize some viewers.