Former News 9 Producer Seeks To Help Journalists With Trauma

When the Murrah Building bombing happened 27 years ago, the people working at News 9 that day responded right away. Desiree Hill was an Executive Producer at News 9 that morning and is now a professor at UCO.

Tuesday, April 19th 2022, 7:47 am

By: News 9, Jordan Ryan


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When the Murrah Building bombing happened 27 years ago, the people working at News 9 that day responded right away.

Desiree Hill was an Executive Producer at News 9 that morning and is now a professor at UCO.

She says the day started out as any other, and then in a moment, everything changed.

"At 9:02, we were in the news director's office and we all just heard and felt something. We thought it could be a natural gas explosion…and that was the moment," said Hill.

Everyone in the newsroom worked quickly to get what little information they had out to Oklahomans.

Then the team got the first footage from the helicopter and realized just how devastating the situation was.

"That was the first moment that it began to hit us very differently," said Hill.

Like first responders, the crews had to put aside their feelings to do their jobs.

"We were getting phone calls from people, we were telling people what we had felt, we were seeing the plumes of smoke and we were starting to gather info,” Hill said.

Desiree felt the weight of the tragedy and determined she wanted to find out how to help newsrooms better serve their journalists when they experience firsthand devastation.

"My research actually started right here, at the Memorial,” said Hill.

She went through the transcripts and made enlightening discoveries of how journalists here in Oklahoma were being impacted.

"I found through the transcripts that the journalists suffered from all of the different markers of PTSD," Hill said.

Then she discovered solutions and realized severe tragedy will impact the entire team.

"We think why is that manager traumatized, they didn't come down here and cover it, but everybody needs preparation and training," said Hill.

Hill is sharing her ideas with organizations around the world regarding journalism and trauma.

These include resources, access to counseling and other tools to help them cope, plus a designated mentor in the newsroom before tragedy strikes.

Now, her discoveries and training are being recognized by organizations around the world.

To learn more about her research, click here.


Jordan Ryan

Before joining us here in Oklahoma City, Jordan Ryan was in Huntsville, Alabama at WHNT News 19. While in Huntsville, also known as the Rocket City because of NASA's presence in the community and the large aerospace industry.

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