News anchor ‘regrets’ negotiating on air with man holding family hostage

Jose Luiz Datena, host of a popular Brazilian crime show, became part of the unfolding story he was covering when a knife-wielding man holding his own mother and sister hostage demanded to speak with him.

The man had been negotiating with police—who had surrounded his Sao Paulo-area home—for more than an hour late last month when he told negotiators he wanted to speak with Datena, host of "Urgent Brazil."

Police agreed, and Datena—who was already on the air--pleaded with the man for 20 minutes to release the women. The man eventually agreed, and the women walked out unharmed.

Datena, though, said he regretted blurring the line between journalist and hostage negotiator.

"I deeply regretted doing that," Datena said, according to CNN. "It is not our role as journalists."