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Behind the Byline: How One Abuse Story Changed a Reporter

(RNS) — A journalist reaches out to a trusted source — and instead finds himself writing her obituary.
Behind the Byline: How One Abuse Story Changed a Reporter
Jonathan Woodward


 

Sometimes a story breaks you open.

While reporting on abuse and accountability inside the Southern Baptist Convention, RNS journalist Bob Smietana reached out to someone he’d interviewed many times before — publisher and whistleblower Jen Lyell. What followed was not another update for a news story, but a devastating turn that forced Bob to confront the human weight behind the reporting.

In this episode, Bob joins Amanda Henderson for an unusually intimate conversation about Jen’s life, her courage, the institutional failures that shaped her final years, and what it means for a journalist when a story becomes personal.

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