John Hockenberry
Encyclopedia
John Charles Hockenberry (born June 4, 1956) is an American
journalist
and author
. A four-time Emmy Award
winner and three-time Peabody Award
winner, Hockenberry has worked in media since 1980.
Hockenberry has reported from all over the world, has anchored programs for network TV, cable, and radio, and has reported for magazines, newspapers, and online media. He is a prominent figure in the disability rights movement
; Hockenberry sustained a spinal cord injury
in a car crash at the age of 19, which left him with paraplegia
from the chest down.
In 2007, he was named a Distinguished Fellow at the MIT Media Lab
. Since April 2008, Hockenberry has been host of The Takeaway, a live national morning news program created by Public Radio International
and WNYC
New York. He is author of the nonfiction book Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence and the novel A River Out Of Eden.
and grew up in upstate New York
and Michigan
. He graduated in 1974 from East Grand Rapids High School
in East Grand Rapids, Michigan
. In 1976, he was paralyzed while hitchhiking
on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
. The driver of the car fell asleep and crashed, killing herself. Hockenberry's spinal cord was damaged, and he remains paralyzed without sensation or voluntary movement from the mid-chest down. At the time he was a mathematics major at the University of Chicago
, but after his spinal cord injury, he transferred to the University of Oregon
in 1980 and studied harpsichord
and piano
.
in Eugene, Oregon
. In 1981, he moved to Washington, D.C.
, where he was a newscaster. From 1989 to 1990 he hosted a two-hour nightly news show called HEAT with John Hockenberry
. During his 15 years with NPR, he covered many areas of the world, including an assignment as a Middle East correspondent, reporting on the Persian Gulf War
in 1991 and 1992. Beginning in November 1991 he served as the first host of NPR's Talk of the Nation
.
After leaving NPR in 1992, Hockenberry also worked for ABC News
series Day One
from 1993 to 1995, covering the civil war in Somalia
and the early days of al-Qaeda
in Afghanistan
, before joining Dateline NBC
as a correspondent in 1996.
In 1995, Hockenberry published his memoir Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence. In 1996 he appeared off-Broadway
in his one-man autobiographical play, Spoke Man. From 1996 to 1997 he hosted Edgewise
, an eclectic news magazine program that aired on MSNBC
.
In 1999, he hosted Hockenberry
, a show which aired on MSNBC for 6 months. He also reported on the Kosovo War
in 1999. His weekly radio commentaries aired on the nationally broadcast public radio program The Infinite Mind
from 1998 to 2008. He also served as host on The DNA Files for the series airing in 1998, 2001, and 2007. He began developing The Takeaway
in 2007 and has hosted since its 2008 premiere.
Hockenberry has narrated several nonfiction projects on healthcare, including Nova
series Survivor M.D.: Hearts & Minds, Who Cares: Chronic Illness in America, Remaking American Medicine. He also narrated the eugenics
documentary War Against the Weak.
He has written for The New York Times
, The New Yorker
, I.D.
, Wired
, The Columbia Journalism Review, Details
, and The Washington Post
. He published his first novel, A River Out of Eden, in 2002, and he has written about "The Blogs of War" in Wired
magazine. In May 2006, he began writing his own blog, "The Blogenberry". On April 2, 2008, he hosted the premiere of the series Nanotechnology: The Power of Small, discussing the impact of nanotechnology as concerns the general public.
Hockenberry has appeared as presenter and moderator at numerous design and idea conferences around the nation including the Aspen Design Summit, The TED conference, the World Science Festival
, and the Aspen Comedy Festival. He also regularly speaks on media, journalism, and disability issues. He was one of the founding inductees to the Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame in 2005.
called "And the Loser Is..." The review was submitted to a disability website with the title "Million Dollar Bigot" as an exclusive feature. The essay was discussed in news articles globally, and Hockenberry was interviewed about it on FAIR
's weekly news show Counterspin
. A short documentary film was made, also called Million Dollar Bigot, completed on July 13, 2005, featuring Hockenberry as well as many other disability activists.
Hockenberry wrote in the January 2008 Technology Review
magazine that on the Sunday after the September 11 attacks he was pitching stories on the origins of al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism
. He wrote that then-NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker
, who came into a meeting Hockenberry was having with Dateline executive producer David Corvo, said Dateline should instead focus on the firefighters and perhaps ride along with them à la COPS
, a Fox reality series. According to Hockenberry, Zucker said "that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine." Hockenberry has further claimed that General Electric
, NBC's parent company, discouraged him from talking to the Bin Laden family about their estranged family member. Hockenberry says that he asked GE, which does business with the Bin Laden family company, to help him get in contact with them. Instead, a PR executive called Hockenberry's hotel room in Saudi Arabia and read him a statement about how GE didn't see its "valuable business relationship" with the Bin Laden Group as having anything to do with Dateline. In another instance, Hockenberry claimed a story he did about a Weather Underground member would not appear on the Sunday edition of Dateline unless its lead-out, the 1960s family drama American Dreams
, did a show about "protesters or something."
and in Massachusetts
with his wife, Alison Craiglow Hockenberry, whom he married in 1995. They have five children, including two sets of twins: Zoe, Olivia, Regan, Zachary, and Ajax.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. A four-time Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
winner and three-time Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
winner, Hockenberry has worked in media since 1980.
Hockenberry has reported from all over the world, has anchored programs for network TV, cable, and radio, and has reported for magazines, newspapers, and online media. He is a prominent figure in the disability rights movement
Disability rights movement
The disability rights movement is the movement to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for people with disabilities. The specific goals and demands of the movement are: accessibility and safety in transportation, architecture, and the physical environment, equal opportunities in independent...
; Hockenberry sustained a spinal cord injury
Spinal cord injury
A spinal cord injury refers to any injury to the spinal cord that is caused by trauma instead of disease. Depending on where the spinal cord and nerve roots are damaged, the symptoms can vary widely, from pain to paralysis to incontinence...
in a car crash at the age of 19, which left him with paraplegia
Paraplegia
Paraplegia is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek: παραπληγίη "half-striking". It is usually the result of spinal cord injury or a congenital condition such as spina bifida that affects the neural elements of the spinal canal...
from the chest down.
In 2007, he was named a Distinguished Fellow at the MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
. Since April 2008, Hockenberry has been host of The Takeaway, a live national morning news program created by Public Radio International
Public Radio International
Public Radio International is a Minneapolis-based American public radio organization, with locations in Boston, New York, London and Beijing. PRI's tagline is "Hear a different voice." PRI is a major public media content creator and also distributes programs from many sources...
and WNYC
WNYC
WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
New York. He is author of the nonfiction book Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence and the novel A River Out Of Eden.
Early life
Hockenberry was born in Dayton, OhioDayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
and grew up in upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
and Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. He graduated in 1974 from East Grand Rapids High School
East Grand Rapids High School
East Grand Rapids High SchoolLocation2211 Lake Drive SEEast Grand Rapids, MI 49506InformationPrincipalJenny FeeAssistant PrincipalCraig WiegelGuidance DirectorLori S...
in East Grand Rapids, Michigan
East Grand Rapids, Michigan
East Grand Rapids is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is a suburb of Grand Rapids and is located on the shore of Reeds Lake. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,694.-Geography:...
. In 1976, he was paralyzed while hitchhiking
Hitchhiking
Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is gained by asking people, usually strangers, for a ride in their automobile or other road vehicle to travel a distance that may either be short or long...
on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Pennsylvania Turnpike
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a toll highway system operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. The three sections of the turnpike system total . The main section extends from Ohio to New Jersey and is long...
. The driver of the car fell asleep and crashed, killing herself. Hockenberry's spinal cord was damaged, and he remains paralyzed without sensation or voluntary movement from the mid-chest down. At the time he was a mathematics major at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, but after his spinal cord injury, he transferred to the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
in 1980 and studied harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
.
Journalism career
Hockenberry started his career as a volunteer for the National Public Radio affiliate KLCCKLCC (FM)
KLCC 89.7 FM is a National Public Radio affiliate for Eugene, Oregon and the southern Willamette Valley. It also operates on various other repeater frequencies at other cities in West Central Oregon....
in Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
. In 1981, he moved to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where he was a newscaster. From 1989 to 1990 he hosted a two-hour nightly news show called HEAT with John Hockenberry
HEAT with John Hockenberry
HEAT with John Hockenberry was an independently-produced American radio program hosted by John Hockenberry. The show aired from February through October 1990. It won a Peabody Award in 1991.-History:...
. During his 15 years with NPR, he covered many areas of the world, including an assignment as a Middle East correspondent, reporting on the Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
in 1991 and 1992. Beginning in November 1991 he served as the first host of NPR's Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation
Talk of the Nation is a talk radio program based in the United States, produced by National Public Radio, and is broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Its focus is current events and controversial issues....
.
After leaving NPR in 1992, Hockenberry also worked for ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
series Day One
Day One (TV news series)
Day One was a television news magazine produced by ABC News from 1993 to 1995, hosted by Forrest Sawyer and Diane Sawyer.One of its stories, titled "Smoke Screen", was an important report on the cigarette industry's manipulation of nicotine during the manufacturing process...
from 1993 to 1995, covering the civil war in Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
and the early days of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, before joining Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
as a correspondent in 1996.
In 1995, Hockenberry published his memoir Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence. In 1996 he appeared off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
in his one-man autobiographical play, Spoke Man. From 1996 to 1997 he hosted Edgewise
Edgewise
Edgewise was an hour-long television news magazine program that aired on MSNBC from 1996 to 1997. The show was hosted by John Hockenberry....
, an eclectic news magazine program that aired on MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
.
In 1999, he hosted Hockenberry
Hockenberry (television show)
Hockenberry is an American television talk-show style current affairs program that aired on MSNBC in 1998 and 1999. It was hosted by and named after journalist John Hockenberry and aired each weeknight....
, a show which aired on MSNBC for 6 months. He also reported on the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
in 1999. His weekly radio commentaries aired on the nationally broadcast public radio program The Infinite Mind
The Infinite Mind
-The Infinite Mind public radio series:The Infinite Mind was a one-hour, national, weekly public radio series that aired from 1998 to 2008. It was independently produced and distributed by the Peabody Award-winning Lichtenstein Creative Media. The program was hosted by Dr...
from 1998 to 2008. He also served as host on The DNA Files for the series airing in 1998, 2001, and 2007. He began developing The Takeaway
The Takeaway
The Takeaway is a morning radio news program co-created and co-produced by Public Radio International and WNYC-New York Public Radio with editorial partners the BBC World Service of the United Kingdom, The New York Times, and WGBH Radio Boston of the United States...
in 2007 and has hosted since its 2008 premiere.
Hockenberry has narrated several nonfiction projects on healthcare, including Nova
NOVA (TV series)
Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...
series Survivor M.D.: Hearts & Minds, Who Cares: Chronic Illness in America, Remaking American Medicine. He also narrated the eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
documentary War Against the Weak.
He has written for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, I.D.
I.D. (magazine)
I.D. was a magazine covering the art, business and culture of design. It was published eight times a year by F+W Media....
, Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, The Columbia Journalism Review, Details
Details (magazine)
Details is an American monthly men's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, founded in 1982. Though primarily a magazine devoted to fashion and lifestyle, Details also features reports on relevant social and political issues.-History:...
, and The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
. He published his first novel, A River Out of Eden, in 2002, and he has written about "The Blogs of War" in Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
magazine. In May 2006, he began writing his own blog, "The Blogenberry". On April 2, 2008, he hosted the premiere of the series Nanotechnology: The Power of Small, discussing the impact of nanotechnology as concerns the general public.
Hockenberry has appeared as presenter and moderator at numerous design and idea conferences around the nation including the Aspen Design Summit, The TED conference, the World Science Festival
World Science Festival
The World Science Festival is a science festival held in New York City that is held annually in the summer. The 2008 inaugural festival was held May 28 – June 1 and consisted mainly of panel discussions and on-stage conversations, accompanied by multimedia presentations.The festival was the...
, and the Aspen Comedy Festival. He also regularly speaks on media, journalism, and disability issues. He was one of the founding inductees to the Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame in 2005.
Media criticism
In 2005 he wrote a scathing review of the Academy Award-winning film Million Dollar BabyMillion Dollar Baby
Million Dollar Baby is a 2004 American sports drama film directed, co-produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman...
called "And the Loser Is..." The review was submitted to a disability website with the title "Million Dollar Bigot" as an exclusive feature. The essay was discussed in news articles globally, and Hockenberry was interviewed about it on FAIR
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting is a progressive media criticism organization based in New York City, founded in 1986.FAIR describes itself on its website as "the national media watch group" and defines its mission as working to "invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity...
's weekly news show Counterspin
CounterSpin
CounterSpin is a weekly, half-hour radio program produced by the progressive media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting . It is hosted by Janine Jackson, Steve Rendall, and Peter Hart, and describes itself as offering "a critical examination of the major stories every week exposes what...
. A short documentary film was made, also called Million Dollar Bigot, completed on July 13, 2005, featuring Hockenberry as well as many other disability activists.
Hockenberry wrote in the January 2008 Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
magazine that on the Sunday after the September 11 attacks he was pitching stories on the origins of al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
. He wrote that then-NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker
Jeff Zucker
Jeffrey "Jeff" Zucker is an American television executive and former President and CEO of NBCUniversal.-Personal life:Zucker was born to Jewish-American parents in Homestead, Florida, near Miami. His father was a cardiologist, and his mother, Arlene, was a school teacher...
, who came into a meeting Hockenberry was having with Dateline executive producer David Corvo, said Dateline should instead focus on the firefighters and perhaps ride along with them à la COPS
COPS (TV series)
Cops is an American documentary/reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities...
, a Fox reality series. According to Hockenberry, Zucker said "that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine." Hockenberry has further claimed that General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, NBC's parent company, discouraged him from talking to the Bin Laden family about their estranged family member. Hockenberry says that he asked GE, which does business with the Bin Laden family company, to help him get in contact with them. Instead, a PR executive called Hockenberry's hotel room in Saudi Arabia and read him a statement about how GE didn't see its "valuable business relationship" with the Bin Laden Group as having anything to do with Dateline. In another instance, Hockenberry claimed a story he did about a Weather Underground member would not appear on the Sunday edition of Dateline unless its lead-out, the 1960s family drama American Dreams
American Dreams
American Dreams is an American television comedy-drama program broadcast on the NBC television network, produced by Once A Frog and Dick Clark Productions in association with Universal Network Television and NBC Studios...
, did a show about "protesters or something."
Personal life
Hockenberry currently lives in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
with his wife, Alison Craiglow Hockenberry, whom he married in 1995. They have five children, including two sets of twins: Zoe, Olivia, Regan, Zachary, and Ajax.