6,835,000 pageviews


Friday, August 2, 2013

Investigative Journalism: A Dying Profession

     With the weak economy, and competition from cable TV, news bloggers and other forms of online reporting, only a handful of newspapers can afford the costly services of highly trained and experienced investigative reporters. Investigative journalism has been in decline since the Watergate days of Woodward and Bernstein. Today, some of the biggest news scoops (EG John Edward's love child) are scored by reporters with the grocery store tabloids. In terms of political reporting, the fourth estate, as a journalistic check on governmental power, is not holding up its end of the bargain. This is particularly true with regard to the print media. In the world of cable TV investigative reporting, the U. S. Department of Justice recently charged Fox News reporter James Rosen with being an accomplice to espionage for merely talking to a government leaker.

     Today, what passes for investigative reporting is often hack journalism that reflects the reality that just because a story is based on facts doesn't make it true. For example, it may be a fact that some drunken yahoo filed a police report claiming that space aliens gave him a saucer ride from Parkersburg, West Virginia to Washington, D. C. But just because the story involves a first-hand account backed up by a police document, doesn't make it true.

     The following are quotes by investigative reporters on the stature and nature of this fading profession:

We really didn't define reporting as investigative until 1964. That's when the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting went to the old Philadelphia Bulletin for an expose on how police officers were running a numbers racket out of the station house. Before then, that category had been called "Local Reporting."

Mike McQueen

General reporters [as opposed to investigative reporters] usually lack detailed knowledge of the subject they are reporting on. They are in a hurry. They work on stories chosen by their news desks from an agenda set by major news sources and media (local or national). They seek quotes from spokesmen: managing directors, police superintendents, public relations officers, secretaries of organizations and pressure groups.

David Spark

One good reason many good reporters stay away from [investigative reporting] is they don't like hassling people nor do they want to be hassled. That's part of the job I don't like either, but I'm willing to put up with it because I believe such work is important. I don't like confronting government figures with the fact they have lied about something or that they have done something irregular or illegal. It's an unpleasant experience. I don't particularly like the sneers I get back from such people.

Jack Nelson


An investigative reporter must have brass, for once it is discovered what he is up to, he is bound to be confronted with solid opposition. Furthermore, even after having developed a substantial product, he must be willing to fight to have it published....Then he's got to defend it when it's attacked by those who may suffer by the exposures contained in the story or series.

Peter Bridge


I think investigative journalism has become a lot rarer because it takes time and it takes a lot of resources and it's just harder to do. It's a lot easier to do these quick easy stories.

Russ Kirk


Investigative reporting is a money-loser for journalistic corporations. It's expensive, stories my not pan out, and you make a lot of enemies.

Burt Glass


You might start a story thinking you are going to look at how the city health department administers vaccines but...find that the story's really about the city's mismanagement in general.

Bob Woodward


I tell them [story sources] how I work. I tell them they have to go on record. I tell them I am going to be asking other people about them, that even though I find them really nice people, I am going to have to check them out....I say to them, "Once you agree to talk to me, that's it. You don't really have control, but you do have control to the degree you want to participate. And once you are on the record, if there's something you don't want me to know, then don't tell me because its going to be on the record."

Susan Kelleher

Secondary sources are most useful when they lead to primary documents. The legislative hearing transcript would be a primary document, as would be a real estate deed, political candidate's campaign finance report, lawsuit, insurance policy, discharge certificate from the military. Documents can be just like human sources can be, because, after all, documents are prepared by humans. However, unlike humans, documents do not talk back, do not claim to have been misquoted.

Steve Weinberg

No comments:

Post a Comment