The actions of Society member Joe Hight, who oversaw the writing of the 168 “Profiles of Life” vignettes to honor those individuals killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, are discussed in Mark Masse’s article in the Fall 2009 issue of Project MUSE: River Teeth.
Masse writes:
Oklahoman Joe Hight is a throwback to a time when most men parted their Brylcreem-glistening hair, when only Elvis had sideburns, and when you kept your suit coat on and necktie taut until quitting time. The stocky fifty-one-year-old journalist with the high-pitched laugh may strike some as too ordinary a fellow to be a reformer.
Others may correctly note that Hight didn’t launch the movement to humanize newsroom culture and transform media coverage of tragedy and trauma. He was preceded by advocates in the United States and overseas. But Joe Hight learned the lessons firsthand and found a cause when terrorism struck his community, forever changing his life and those of so many others.
I worked with Joe on that dark day of the 1995 OKC bombing and the months and years that followed. Nobody called Joe a trailblazer then, but he was cracking open the door on recognizing a traumatic event for what it was — human, horrible and hard. Of course the investigation into who committed the bombing mattered, but more important — and more long-lasting — were the parents, spouses, children and everyone else who lost loved ones, corny as that may sound. But think about it — these were people who over the years we needed and did get to know very well. For a while, we reported daily on painful moments, like when Kathleen Treaner got a call from the ME telling her they found part of her young daughter’s hand and asked what they wanted her to do with it. Sad thing is, that is one small item of one day for one reporter under deadline for a story that never seemed to end.
I was a young reporter then, but I rubbed shoulders with plenty of hard-edged journalists who found tears as a bonus, but failed to recognize them as more than a soundbite. Some of them (Connie Chung, for one) were truly left dumbfounded at how to deal with sheer, raw emotion. I’m gratified to say that through Dart and others, reporters have since felt more free to recognize tragedies in their true, elongated states.
So good for Joe, who never held us back, who never looked at us sideways if we shed a tear. Good for a newsman who drew out the best from us in the worst of times.
Thanks, Penny, for this eloquent and heartfelt tribute. I’m sure that Joe felt fortunate to work with reporters like you!
Jeff