12 News' Lin Sue Flood moved on: 'I loved what I did. But I really love what I do now'

azcentral.com
May 21, 2023
by Bill Goodykoontz

In early May, Lin Sue Flood returned to 12 News.

For one night only, though some viewers were hoping for more.

The station brought back former anchors and reporters as part of its 70th anniversary. Flood joined her former co-anchor, Mark Curtis, and her replacement, Caribe Devine.

Flood, who worked at the station for 31 years before leaving in 2015, said she enjoyed going back.

“There was no pressure,” she said. “All we did was reminisce. We didn’t have to talk about the stories of the day, so it was so much fun to see them.”

Wait. She did the job for decades. Was she still feeling pressure by the time she left?

“I think the pressure you feel in news is that it’s a hungry machine, and the minute you’ve done a story, you’ve got to update it, or you’ve got to get another story, because there’s another newscast that has to be filled,” she said. “So there’s that deadline pressure you feel. But you don’t feel performance pressure.”

That's one of the reasons Flood is adamant: As fun as the reunion was, she is not coming back to news. For one thing, she’s happy where she is as director of community engagement for Hospice of the Valley. Extremely happy.

Though Flood enjoyed the 12 News reunion, she is not coming back

“I loved what I did,” she said. “But I really love what I do now.”

Working in news is like getting a henna tattoo at a music festival. It’s hard to wash off, even after you leave.

Not for Flood, to hear her tell it. Not even a little bit?

“No,” she said. “Because in my new job I get to tell stories, and what’s really beautiful is that every one of them is uplifting and inspiring. 

“In news, you have to tell the stories of the day, and many of them are not uplifting. And sometimes when you tell those stories, I don’t think it necessarily helps resolve anything — and sometimes actually makes things worse, because it stirs people up.”

This is not, Flood cautioned, to criticize the people who work in news. It’s just the nature of the job.

Lin Sue Flood interview Jimmy Fallon. NBC

“Your whole point is to capture an audience and to be compelling and so it’s told in the most interesting way possible,” she said. “And I think it stirs people’s emotions up, and there’s not always easy solutions to complicated problems.”

There are aspects of the job she thinks fondly on.

“What I do miss is the people and the camaraderie,” she said, “and the focus to cover an event that’s important and to get the right facts and the truth out to the public so that they can make decisions.”

But, Flood reminds at every opportunity, one of the main reasons she doesn’t miss TV news is because she’s so happy at Hospice of the Valley.

Every twist in Flood's career path has been unexpected

Lin Sue Flood and Mark Curtis 12 News

“I didn’t expect to ever be in news,” she said. “But I never expected to be in hospice care. And it’s just such a gift to me.”

Flood never expected to be in news? With the lengthy, successful career she had there?

“I grew up a super poor, shy girl who thought I was probably going to be a school teacher or dreamed of maybe a career in law or something, because I loved to read and teach and write,” she said. 

“But I didn’t think I could be on TV, are you kidding me? No. Nobody ever thinks that. I grew up in Great Falls, Montana. My mom was a single mom who raised four kids. I just never dreamed that I would have a career in TV news, especially for as long as I did.”

Flood may have left the news, but she's still on TV

Flood worked at a time when local news anchors were genuine celebrities. It was a function both of a big audience and a commitment to appearances around town.

“You’re in their homes, and a lot of times at 10 o’clock they’re in bed in their jammies,” she said. “So you’re in their bedroom, and they will call you up and say, ‘Hon, you left your earring off, you must have been on the phone.’ Or, ‘Hey, Mark’s not on tonight. Where is he?’”

Lin Sue Flood and Max

She still gets recognized, Flood said, “constantly. But 31 years is a long time to be in a town and be coming into people’s homes every day in a newscast. So they do feel like I’m part of their families.”

Plus, she appears in TV ads for Hospice of the Valley.

“I think if someone watches TV the way most of us do, with the sound off, they might think I’m doing a news report, I don’t know,” she said, laughing.

Flood has old-school notions of objectivity in news

Flood went to Willamette University and the Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Perhaps that’s why, when it comes to news, she’s decidedly old school.

“There is no opinion in news,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what the anchor thinks. It should never matter what they think, because they’re not the story. I couldn’t go there. So I would have been in turmoil and probably would have been fired had I tried to stay.

“So it really was a perfect time to make a graceful departure and find a mission that I thought was super pure that I could just pour my whole heart and soul in.”

She laughed when she said the bit about firing, but she’s not kidding about her feelings when it comes to objectivity. Or about where her career has taken her.

'For 36 years I had a career that was not letting me use my biggest gift'

When she got to Hospice of the Valley, Flood took a test in which your personality and talents suggest certain jobs. After a long career in news, an ideal job for her was … a nurse.

“So for 36 years I had a career that was not letting me use my biggest gift, which was compassion,” she said. “Because you don’t show emotions. You’re completely neutral. You hide that on the news if you’re a good reporter. So it felt so good to be able to use the biggest part of me in what I do.

“That’s why I don’t miss it.”

It’s also why she loves her job at Hospice of the Valley.

“What I like about what I do now,” she said, “is that I know every night when I go home and put my head on the pillow that I have made people’s — families’ — lives better.”