I am pleased to introduce a new series on the Massé Musings Substack platform: EXTRAORDINARY LIVES. Some of these individuals are famous, but most are not. Their lives are extraordinary because of the challenges they have faced, the impact they have had, and the special qualities they possess.

On the 10^th anniversary of receiving the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Award for Excellence in Journalism for “Transformer,” a chapter from my 2011 book, Trauma Journalism: On Deadline in Harm’s Way*, I begin this new Substack series with extended profiles of a remarkable group of men and women—frontline reporters who cover conflicts, crimes, disasters and tragedies with courage and commitment.

*Trauma Journalism: On Deadline in Harm’s Way features in-depth reporter profiles and analysis of traumatic news coverage worldwide. © 2011, Mark H. Massé (Continuum International Publishing Group now Bloomsbury)

Trauma Journalism: On Deadline in Harm’s Way (Paperback)

Trauma Journalism: On Deadline in Harm’s Way (Kindle)

“TRANSFORMER” (Part Nine)

"To ensure that future journalists not only have the reporting skills to compete but also the emotional and psychological skills needed in order to survive." (Dworznik & Grubb)

Oklahoman reporter Bryan Painter was somber as he toured the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum after interviewing Memorial officials. Painter had never visited the museum, with its extensive artifacts on the 1995 bombing, including photos, video, and audiotape of the disaster and personal mementoes of the 168 victims. He walked reverently through the floors of exhibits. It took him several minutes to regain his characteristic wit en route to the Oklahoman offices.

The next day, he headed to Guthrie (OK) to meet with Vickie Blount, the mother of Tyler, a local young man who had died in a 2000 rodeo accident. Tyler’s father, Pat, was on a business trip to New York. The Blounts and Painter participated in a conference call from the family’s investment company offices in Guthrie—also the site of the Tyler Blount Memorial Foundation (“promoting outreach and training for tomorrow’s leaders whose focus is on agriculture, tourism and economic growth”). Seven years after Tyler’s death, the Blounts consider Bryan Painter a good friend. Their lives have been connected by grief and loss. On this particular visit, the reporter and Tyler’s parents uncovered new insights wrapped in painful memories.

Vickie Blount, a petite red-haired woman with striking blue eyes was dwarfed by the dark-haired, mustachioed 6-foot-2 Painter, who bowed from the waist as he shook her tiny hand. As they sat at a long wooden conference table, topped with an 8-by-10 black and white photo of a 3-year-old Tyler, wearing a cowboy hat and riding a pale rocking horse, Vickie and Painter, together with Pat (via speakerphone) reconstructed events from that horrible June night in 2000. Pat Blount and Bryan Painter were already at the hospital when Vickie arrived. Before Vickie would see Pat, his shirt covered in his son’s blood, she met Painter, who averted his eyes.

“That look on your face told me that Ty was dead even before I saw him in the hospital room,” Vickie said, trying to comfort Painter, who apologized for causing the grieving mother any unnecessary pain that night. “That look on your face,” she continued, “made me feel as sorry for you as anyone.”

On the ride back to the office, Painter talked of the Blounts’ friendship. He then bragged about his baseball-star son, Cody, a high school senior, and his freshman daughter, Keilee. He had never mentioned to the Blounts that in April 2001 he had received a statewide AP award for spot sports reporting for his coverage of Tyler’s death. Some awards, he felt, were better left on the shelf.

Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

On Wednesday, August 1, 2007, during the Minneapolis evening rush hour, the I-35 W. bridge collapsed, plunging cars into the Mississippi River, killing thirteen people. The next day, Joe Hight checked in with Brenda Rotherham, news recruiting and training manager, Minneapolis Star Tribune. He had first met her when he was chairman of the Mid-America Press Institute. Subsequently, the Dart Center had run training sessions at the Star Tribune offices. Now, Rotherham was asking Hight if he had any advice about how the staff could take care of itself while covering such a difficult community-based story.

“We need to react so the newsroom can be prepared,” she told Hight. On Friday, August 3, Hight responded with two lengthy e-mails, containing recommendations on crisis coaching: (1) have a calm sense of energy, (2) establish priorities, (3) be compassionate and understanding, (4) set good examples, and (5) communicate constantly (through one-on-one conversations, through e-mails, through memos). He recommended that management post notices about available (phone, e-mail, and on-site) counseling. But Hight advised against EAP (Employee Assistance Program) counselors because “newsroom staff members are usually very skeptical of them, unless the person is trusted within the newsroom.” He wrote: “Sometimes, even the offer of a counselor can be calming to staff members, even if they don’t use the person. Again, it shows that management cares about their welfare.” He also contacted Frank Ochberg, who agreed to provide three days of free phone counseling to Star Tribune staff.

The Oklahoman’s generous spirit would be mentioned on Tuesday, August 7, 2007, in an online article by Joe Strupp, senior editor, Editor & Publisher. He wrote that in the wake of the bridge collapse tragedy, editors at the Roanoke Times (Virginia) had sent boxes “filled with Moon Pies, pork rinds, and other treats, . . . likely meant more as a sign of sympathy than just a snack pack” to the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. As Strupp noted, in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy in April, “The Roanoke paper had received its own care package then— from the Oklahoma paper that lived through the trauma of the Timothy McVeigh Terror bombing.” According to Carole Tarrant, the editor in Roanoke:

A few days after the Virginia Tech shootings, a large box arrived in our newsroom. Inside was a note and lots of stress-relieving junk food. The note was from Joe Hight, managing editor of the Oklahoman. Hight wrote that similar boxes arrived in his newsroom after the McVeigh bombings. He recalled what that gesture meant to his staff, which had been worn down to a nub covering the catastrophic community event. She said that Hight concluded by writing: “Please consider this a journalistic chain letter of sorts, one that you’ll pass on when the next bulletin breaks in a newsroom somewhere in America.”

As fall arrived, Joe Hight and Frank Ochberg made plans to collaborate again, this time for a professionals-in-residence presentation on trauma journalism at Ball State University (BSU) in Muncie, Indiana. It would be the first time the two of them had been co-presenters in many years, and the site would be about an hour northeast of Indianapolis, where Joe Hight gave his first speech on the topic back in 1996. But Hight and Ochberg wouldn’t appear on stage together on Wednesday, September 26 because Hight had been called to serve on federal jury duty in Oklahoma City. He had petitioned to be excused for just a couple of days. But the judge refused. So Hight sent a PowerPoint presentation on “Covering Tragedy and Trauma,” which was delivered by a BSU professor moderating the panel. He then addressed the audience of students and faculty via a speakerphone and answered questions. Ochberg engaged students with a primer on PTSD. He also handled Q&A on the psychological impact of traumatic news reporting. Lastly, he urged BSU journalism program officials to incorporate more crisis coverage techniques in their reporting and media ethics courses.

A few weeks before the fall 2007 BSU presentation, a research study (by journalism professors Dworznik and Grubb): “Preparing for the Worst: Making a Case for Trauma Training in the Journalism Classroom” was published in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, a leading academic journal. The article discussed the work of researchers and authors, including Feinstein, McMahon, Newman, and Handschuh. It spoke of the “psychological hazards of journalism.” Echoing the words of Hight, Ochberg, and a host of trauma journalism reform advocates, the article concluded: “More investigation into this area may shed light on another avenue that can be used to ensure that future journalists not only have the reporting skills necessary to compete in the high-pressure world of news, but they also have the emotional and psychological skills needed in order to survive it.”

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© 2023 Mark H. Massé

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Massé Musings

"TRANSFORMER" (Part Nine)