Bruce Hooley joined Salem Media of Ohio in October 2020, following a three-decade career in newspaper, radio and television. At the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Hooley covered Ohio State University for 18 years, while also serving as the PD’s national college football and basketball reporter.
When he was 10 years old, like most boys, Hooley thought he wanted to be a professional athlete. At the point he realized that wasn’t going to happen he thought of being a play-by-play announcer, thought he might cover sports in some way.
“In high school, I played golf, basketball,” Hooley said. “I was a cross-country runner and our team was good, but I didn’t do anything beyond that.”
He didn’t go the play-by-play route, but he did pursue writing and journalism.
“Looking back I’m sure I’d cringe at the first things I wrote,” Hooley said. “But I wanted to get into journalism before I earned my college degree. A small town offered me the opportunity to write sports on the weekend. As time went on I hope I got better.”
A journalism professor told Hooley a good broadcaster needed to know how to write first. That’s when he fell into print.
“After a year at the first small paper, I was offered a job at a second small newspaper,” Hooley explained. “Three years later I was covering the Miami Dolphins for the now defunct Miami News from 1986-1987.”
Hooley had some familiarity with Florida as he’d spent time visiting friends, he knew about the heat. He interviewed for the Miami News job while on vacation.
“I knew what it’d be like down there in the late 80s, the whole Miami Vice vibe working,” Hooley said.
Hooley offers some advice to a young reporter thinking about covering news or sports.
“If you’re afraid of being around people acting mean, you’re never going to be any good as a reporter,” he said.
“My first experience with a difficult interview was with Hall of Fame Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula,” Hooley explained. “He was a man who didn’t suffer fools. Coaches like Jimmy Johnson, Bobby Knight, like all the tough coaches, you had to hold your own with them. Shula was a tough guy, but a fair guy. You can’t be afraid to ask a tough question as long as it’s a fair question.”
Hooley said it’s critical to be committed to your line of questioning. When Hooley was in Miami, the Dolphins had Dan Marino. They’d been to the Super Bowl. The Killer Bees were losing their effectiveness, the defense was injury-riddled. You can understand if Shula was a bit testy in those days.
“Shula didn’t like to answer questions about obvious and negative things,” Hooley said. “He would give you a stern look when you asked a tough questions. He wanted to challenge you, try to deflect and get away from your question. I’d stay with my line of questioning and eventually he would answer.”
Hooley was grateful he had experienced reporters around him to draw from. Guys like Andy Cohen of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Experienced reporters in Miami and West Palm Beach knew the game and asked solid questions. Hooley said he learned from those reporters.
“There are always good people in every medium, just as there are lazy reporters in every medium,” Hooley said. “I’ve always strived to be one of the good ones, but that doesn’t make you very popular at times. I never look to draw blood in a press conference. I always thought I was there to ask the questions the fans would ask if they could. You have to make coverage decisions, decide what you’re going to ask, even if it’s unpleasant.”
When a team would lose to an unranked team regularly, Hooley said that’s a fair opportunity to ask a coach about that. It’s fair and responsible.
“I remember a coach on the night he got fired who shook my hand. He told me while we always didn’t get along, he respected what I had to do.”
It’s one thing to cover a team for a season through good times and bad, and it’s quite another to come in and take the lazy shots.
“I was always suspicious of some of the TV guys who would come to just one press conference a year,” Hooley said. “They’d mic themselves up when a team wasn’t doing well so they could record their question, and use those often angry answers over and over. You wouldn’t see that reporter for the rest of the year. That’s not who I am, not who I’ve ever been. I’ll ask questions other reporters don’t ask.”
On The Bruce Hooley Show – Columbus – 98.9 FM The Answer, Hooley says it’s a news and talk format. He enjoys the forum after spending so much time in sports. “There were times working in sports where I wondered how much my work meant in the grand scheme of things. I embrace the opportunity to do news and talk. I think I can use my analytical skills that may awaken some people to the dangers that are out there.”
Hooley has covered 19 NCAA Final Fours, the 1988 Winter Olympics, the World Series, the Super Bowl and numerous professional golf majors. He’s worked with former NFL player Chris Spielman in several formats, including an iHeart sports startup that folded in 2019.
He’s concerned about the direction of the country. “In our current direction, I see the vilification of what America is,” Hooley said. “While we’ve never been a perfect country, we’re an awesome country that puts their dirty laundry out there. I want my daughters to live in a country where they can state their opinion and not be canceled for it. I want them to have the childhood I had. I’m seeing too many warning signs that won’t be the case.”
Hooley explained when he was growing up we didn’t have politicians lying so blatantly.
“I have a problem with presidents lying,” he said. “Trump said he’s going to build a wall and Mexico was going to pay for it. He didn’t build it and Mexico is not paying for what they have built. I don’t like it when Joe Biden says the pandemic is over so he’ll cancel student debt. I get tired of the cavalier nature of lying from our leaders. These are people we need to look up to in times of trouble. We need to be able to trust them.”
Hooley doesn’t think we should say our ability to trust is gone permanently.
“We get to vote for change and we can insist on honesty and trust,” he said. “Let’s do that. I am sick and tired of hearing how our Democracy is under threat. In the first place, we’re a constitutional federal republic. So right off the bat people don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Hooley explained we get the leaders we give ourselves. Like the old saying about insanity; doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
“We’ve got a generation of new leaders I have hope for. I believe in the American Dream. I’ve always wondered what I had in me. How far could I be tested? Just like the soldiers on the boats coming ashore at Normandy. Could I have withstood that fear and horror? The truth is not always pleasant. I will have vehement arguments when necessary.”
Hooley said our Founding Fathers were very wise. There’s a reason they made freedom of speech our First Amendment.
“I’m interested in conversation with the most ardent opponent of my position,” he said. “I’m not going to defend anyone who is interested in shutting down speech. Words are not violence. Violence is violence.”
Hooley has questions about a lot of things.
“We’re dealing with a lot of accusations about fake elections.”
He’s not going to swallow the concept of hook-line-sinker, but he does question some elements of the argument. “Things like the supposed flooding that slowed ballot counting in Atlanta. I’m looking for the truth, not just answers.”
The Pillow Man hasn’t escaped Hooley’s critical eye. If you’re wearing a Christian symbol around your neck, try to honor that.
“While I understand Mike Lindell’s passion for what he believes in, he’s compromised my ability to trust him with all his claims of evidence of election fraud by producing none. My sense of Mike Lindell is he seems like a nice guy. Does a lot to help others, people with addictions. Unless he shows me proof, I have to discount what he says on an election fraud issue.”
Hooley said some of our long-trusted news sources have gone Topsy-Turvey.
He said after John Fetterman recited talking points during his recent debate, Hooley said Time Magazine did nothing but repeat every single talking point.
“This isn’t the way things used to be,” Hooley explained. “Sometimes I’m embarrassed to be a journalist. I’m embarrassed by what I see on MSNBC. I’m embarrassed by the programming on Fox after 8 pm.”
Hooley cited writer Bernard Goldberg who wrote, “We’ve gotten to a point in our country where we’re ‘rooting for laundry.’”
I did some research on Goldberg’s quote and found it very germane to the fabric of our national conversation. Goldberg speaks to the zero-sum game of so many people in our country. For those reasons, I’ve culled a few of Goldberg’s thoughts.
“It’s not beliefs we’re hanging on to,” Goldberg writes.“It’s identity that we cling to; what matters most now is what team we play for.No one is watching the other side to learn something they hadn’t already thought of. Sports fans cheer for the star player who wears their team’s uniform until he decides to put on another uniform and play for a rival that’s offering him more money. Then they boo the very same guy. As Jerry Seinfeld said, fans are just cheering for clothes; they’re rooting for laundry.”
“I’ll get in trouble for saying this on my own show,” Hooley said, “but I think Republicans would be nuts to nominate Trump again for president. You have Desantis and a number of other people to pick from. There are a lot of people sitting on a big bench. I can name eight more right now. We need someone who awakens people and enlivens them.”
Hooley said he’s astounded he’s never heard a Republican talk about the demonization of MAGA. Hooley said it’s about making America great again, not making Trump great.
“Some are of the opinion America was never great. I don’t agree with that. It’s ridiculous that people would oppose the idea of America being great. Our only hope in the world is for America being great. I spoke at one of Trump’s rallies. It was a great experience, but I didn’t get up and extol his virtues.”
In 2012, Hooley co-wrote That’s Why I’m Here: The Chris and Stefanie Spielman Story with a friend and former NFL player Chris Spielman.
“Chris and I worked together in radio as a team on 97.1 The Fan, before it was 1460 AM in Columbus,” Hooley said. “I went there from The Plain Dealer in the summer of 2005. I hosted afternoons for a while. We were colleagues who became close friends. When his wife Stefanie had her final relapse with cancer we became even closer. I asked him what I could do. At various times we’d talked about writing a book. He told me that’s what I could do to help, and wanted to start the very next day.”
Hooley said during the writing process they’d meet for an hour before their show and talk about what they wanted to write about.
“I think it was very cathartic for him and it ultimately kept a very accurate record,” Hooley said. Spielman’s two daughters were too young to understand the breadth of everything their parents were going on at the time. Now they’re both out of high school.
“I don’t know whether they’ve read it,” Hooley said. “But at least there is an accurate record of all they went through. If they read it I hope they took some solace from the book. We chronicled the way they waged their battle. It was impactful. They were such courageous examples.”
