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If memory serves me correctly, Jeff Haight of Jeff News fame was elected class clown for the graduating class of 1992.  We were classmates at Youngsville High School, which is now closed.  The closing was a result of the mass exodus of youth from the “biggest little town” on the map in northwestern Pennsylvania, but not all packed up their stuff and left.  Jeff, it seems, hung around.  While others fled to the four corners, the class funny man remained. 

Everybody loved Jeff in school.  He was the very personification of affable, and unlike others from surrounding high schools who were awarded the same moniker, Jeff’s humor was dry and subtle.  He was no loudmouth.  The jokes were clean, and they always landed well, causing many to experience the priceless bellylaugh. 

Our tiny class did what classes big and small do – disperse into the world, each member doing or trying to do what was meant for them to do – but recently, I came across something on social media that gave some perspective to how one might respond to the ever-increasing pace of our world. 

We are living at a time when print media is all but dead.  Newspapers across the land are putting their content behind pay walls, and most of us learn about current events either through the massive news agencies that are, themselves, in some existential trouble or social media feeds.  Both, I would argue, alienate the population, exacerbating the gulf between self-proclaimed “important” news and the humdrum events of individuals who are just trying to make ends meet, make sense of the world they inhabit, and get a good laugh from time to time.  It seems like a simple order, but we do not have to look very far to see how that is not being fulfilled. 

Enter Jeff News.  I happened upon this one-man organization on social media, and after perusing a few reports, it occurred to me that this might be an answer to the fragmentation we are all experiencing.  You see, dear listeners, Jeff Haight, my old high school classmate, was not done tickling everyone’s funny bone.  Indeed, he took his efforts on the road, so to speak, never leaving our common stomping grounds, Warren County – the very same place so many abandoned for so-called greener pastures. 

Jeff News returns the very local to the spotlight.  Warren County eateries.  Warren County issues.  Trout season.  Potholes.  The people.  The culture.  I guffawed when I saw Jeff News spoof Punxsatawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog who predicts the coming of spring.  Jeff News showcased another groundhog: Conewango Chuck.  Jeff stands outside on a snow-covered day next to an animal crate, sitting on a small table.  He tells us that some city councilmen are there to witness the festivities and members of PETA to make sure Conewango Chuck is well-treated.  The build-up is genius.  The icing on the cake is when Jeff reaches into the crate to remove Phil’s fellow prognosticator.  Suffice it to say, dear listeners, that the accolades and applause in the comments section were many. 

Beyond being able to laugh at more of Jeff’s antics all these years later, I am impressed by how his efforts as a local newsman have clearly filled a need, and I wonder if this is what our nation is currently leaning toward.  The pendulum has swung far, far to one direction – unwieldy news agencies that pound us with “breaking news,” faceless institutions that claim they know best for the populace, distant and powerful entities that pull levers at the expense of ordinary folks.  Small communities across America need Jeff News or, more to the point, their own version of Jeff News.  He gives Warren County what it wants.  Let others, class clowns or not, discover what their communities want.  It may not be Conewango Chuck but, for them, I bet it is something better, a perspective that hits the spot.