Mass shootings, murder, kidnapping, terrorist attacks, wars and natural disasters — journalists see it all. But how do they deal with the psychological trauma of covering and surviving these terrible stories? This panel will explore what it’s like to cover these types of events and talk about the personal toll they take on journalists on the job. Most newsrooms have few to no resources available beyond employee assistance programs. This panel will help you better understand what trauma is, and give you advice on how to cope with it.
Moderator: Ken Miguel
Panelists: Jay Alpert, Nora Baladerian, Bruce Chambers, Kenneth Craig
KEN MIGUEL is a multiple Emmy Award-winning special projects producer at KGO-TV in San Francisco. In his 20-plus years at the station, he has done just about every job in the newsroom. He currently shoots, writes and edits the stories he produces and runs the station’s drone program. Miguel is a former NLGJA chapter president for the Northern California Chapter, served as a national board member and is currently the treasurer. He also runs the organization’s Rapid Response Task Force, addressing unfair and inaccurate coverage of the LGBTQ community.
JAY ALPERT is a veteran journalist with nearly 20 years of experience in communication. He is currently a writer/producer for ABC’s “Good Morning America” in New York, which recently won its second Daytime Emmy in a row for Outstanding Morning Program. Alpert covers a wide variety of topics at GMA, ranging from politics to general news to celebrities. Alpert previously worked at Al Jazeera America and local stations including WABC-TV, the number one station in New York; KTNV-TV in Las Vegas, where he was an executive producer; and KYW-TV in Philadelphia, which won the Edward R. Murrow Overall Excellence Award. Alpert also spent several years in public relations working for an agency, a large hotel/casino company and serving his own clients. Outside of the newsroom, Alpert lives in Manhattan with his partner, Blaze, and their dog Mr. Fox.
NORA J. BALADERIAN is a licensed psychologist in California, specializing in trauma treatment, primarily for victims of sexual assault, exposure to traumatic scenes (for social workers) and other causes of trauma. She convened three teams to respond to the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans in 2006. She also focuses on treating those who have cognitive and/or communication disabilities and has worked for the West Los Angeles Trauma and Crime Victim Center program since the early 1990s. As she is fluent in Spanish, she also reaches out to this community to provide trauma-relief services. She is a certified trainer of the first energy psychology healing therapy, Thought Field Therapy (approved by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for treating trauma) and has trained over a hundred TFT practitioners across the country.
BRUCE CHAMBERS completed a 35-year career as a photojournalist in 2014, when he left journalism to become a full-time psychotherapist. Chambers is currently a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Brea, California, working with clients struggling with relationship problems, depression, anxiety and trauma. Chambers was a daily newspaper photographer for five newspapers as a general assignment photojournalist, covering sports, local news and features. Among his assignments were four Olympic Games, the plight of refugees in Central America, the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, the consequences of poor radioactive waste management in Russia and the emergency/rescue response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
KENNETH CRAIG joined CBS News as a correspondent in June 2015 and is based in New York City. He has reported from the frontlines of the biggest breaking news stories in the U.S. and abroad, including the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels and the Pulse nightclub massacre. His reporting has also put a spotlight on the nation’s opioid crisis. His stories and live reports can be seen on CBS affiliates and clients around the globe as well as CBS News’ network platforms including “CBS Evening News,” “CBS Weekend News,” “CBS This Morning,” “CBS This Morning Saturday,” “CBS Morning News” and CBSN, CBS News’ 24/7 digital streaming platform. Prior to joining CBS News, Craig was a reporter for WFTV Channel 9 Eyewitness News in Orlando, where he covered the Trayvon Martin shooting. His investigative reporting exposed teacher misconduct and issues within law enforcement agencies. Craig was also a reporter at NECN in Boston and began his career at Charter TV3 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Emerson College in Boston.