Former TV reporter opens up about her darkest days, career collapse

MINNEAPOLIS - Veteran journalist Beth McDonough is no stranger to telling stories. 

But in her latest chapter, she becomes the subject, and revisits the darkest days of her life to inspire others navigating the road to recovery.

McDonough, who has worked in newsrooms across the country from Houston to Minneapolis, said she began writing her memoir, Stand By, while serving 37 days under house arrest following her second DUI conviction. 

What began as a private exercise in self-reflection quickly evolved into a public testament to resilience and redemption.

"I started writing it just looking to vent and kind of get all the gunk inside of me out," said McDonough. "Everything that I had been going through over the last year, which was self-imposed because of my alcoholism. And as I got into it and I got past chapter one and chapter two, I realized I'm not just writing this for me and for therapy. But I'm writing it for others to see."

The book opens in a jail cell — where McDonough, still reeling from the events of the previous night, saw her own mugshot flash across a television screen.

Grief and the Descent into Alcoholism

The backstory:

McDonough traces the roots of her addiction back to a tumultuous time in 2005. 

Her mother died, she ended a romantic relationship, and her father suffered a mental breakdown followed by emergency heart surgery — all within a matter of weeks.

"I'm kind of the go-to in the family, if you will. The problem solver: get things done. So I went back to Oklahoma, where my parents had retired to, and to take care of my father and kind of get that going. And anyone who's dealt with grief, you know, when you're the responsible one, getting everything done and planning the funerals and the cremation and this, that, and the other, I didn't have any time for myself to even contemplate mourning at that time," said McDonough. 

Returning to her job at a local FOX affiliate, McDonough threw herself into work. 

"When I came back, I just hit the ground running at work going as hard as I ever did, because that was kind of an outlet for me. And there's a distraction if you will. But I noticed I never drank during the job. Maybe after the news late at night or on weekends when, you know, colleagues and I would go out and maybe decompress after what we saw all day. But I noticed that my colleagues could stop drinking and I couldn't," said McDonough. 

As her drinking intensified, McDonough began quietly rearranging her life around it. 

She scaled back on everyday expenses — sometimes skipping medications or meals — in order to continue affording alcohol.

To avoid suspicion, she developed a rotation of liquor stores along her route to the station, deliberately varying her stops so that no single clerk would notice a pattern or question her habits. It was a calculated effort to conceal the severity of her addiction — from others, and for a time, from herself. 

That growing awareness, she said, was one of the reasons she knew it was time to tell her story.

Hitting Bottom and Starting Over

Dig deeper:

Following her second DUI, McDonough was fired from her position at FOX. 

"You know, the day I was fired by my boss, my boss at Fox News…that was the wake-up call for me because I love my job so much," said McDonough.  "I would have done anything for it. And that was the wake-up call of like, you know, Beth, you've got a problem, and you need to go to treatment. You need to get help. And the previous DUI a year before, my boss did offer me help. But shame is a powerful thing. No one wants to grow up and be an alcoholic or be labeled an alcoholic, right? And so I denied and said, 'No, I've got a handle on this.' And I tried to do it on my own, but that doesn't ever end in success."

She entered treatment, joined a recovery program, and began the slow process of rebuilding. Unable to find work in journalism, she started walking dogs in her neighborhood. That modest venture grew into a full-fledged dog walking and grooming business, which she eventually sold.

Then, out of the blue, a news station offered her a position as an investigative producer. It was a behind-the-scenes role that allowed her to return to journalism on new terms. 

The opportunity marked a turning point in her professional life, reigniting her passion for storytelling and allowing her to reclaim her career with a deeper sense of purpose. Looking back, she said her post-DUI career not only recovered but flourished in ways she never anticipated.

McDonough said stepping into the role of sobriety advocate wasn’t easy. 

"I've had a conversation with the boss who fired me, and now he's a big supporter. You know, I put him in a terrible position. But you really have to go through some of these experiences. And for me, rock bottom is where the rebuild began, to sobriety, because sobriety just opens the floodgates to everything else in your life," said McDonough. 

Now, with 16 years of sobriety behind her, McDonough speaks openly about recovery and the realities of alcoholism. 

What's next:

Stand By is expected to be released soon on McDonough’s website, bethmcdmedia.com, and will be available on Amazon, Audible and other major retailers.

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