George Hale is currently working as a multi-media journalist who works for Radio and TV Services at WFIU/WTIU News, located at Inidiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Prior to his current position, Mr. Hale was a radio reporter for KETR in Texas and the host of its investigative podcast Buried. Hale’s reporting there focused on law enforcement accountability in rural areas in northeast Texas. For instance, in 2017, Hale started a year-long investigation into a sheriff’s offie’s mishandling of missing persons cases.
George Hale joined KETR in 2016 after spending nearly eight years reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has reported from Israel and the West Bank, Egypt and Jordan.
Mr. Hale has received three First Place awards for investigative reporting, environmental journalism and production work from the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters in the Radio II division.
Mr. Hale earned a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University in Washington, where he concentrated on Middle East security policy and Semitic languages. He also holds graduate certificate in Media Management from The New School in New York.
In September, 2020 George Hale was asked to begin covering the federal executions for local and NPR coverage. Over the months that Mr. Hale covered the federal executions that took place in Terre Haute, Indiana, he witnessed five executions. In spite of his vigilant adherence to following COVID precautions, Mr. Hale was among the many people who contracted COVID from the death chamber and witness rooms. There were a significant number of people working for the prison at the execution who were not wearing masks, deeming the executions super spreader events. George Hale wrote about the inadequate response of the federal prison officials to respond to the COVID crisis that had arisen from the executions. Go to the link below to read an article that George Hale wrote about the COVID crisis that had arisen during the execution spree that Trump pushed through the final months of his presidency. The video link provided above contains a videotaped interview with George as he describes how he and other contracted COVID in the death house during the federal executions that occurred in Indiana, as well as the inadequate response of the prison bureau to the COVID cases that arose during these executions.
On December 4, 2022, I sat down with George Hale at the NPR studio at Inidiana University to discuss his experiences as a witness for five federal executions while serving the role of a journalist.