John Tedesco

What others are saying about watchdog journalism:

JimmyCsays: How the Kansas City Star is relying on in-depth stories: “The plan hinges on developing a lineup of reporters who can consistently deliver front-page, “enterprise” stories — articles that spring primarily from recent news developments. Where breaking news is the engine of a paper, enterprise stories — in combination with graphics, photos and packaging — flesh out the machine and make it whole.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: Why Brian Tierney loved the news business: “No disrespect to TastyKake, but we aren’t delivering krimpets. We are delivering investigative journalism. We are giving voice to the little guy getting picked on. That is the part that is exhilarating.”

Media Matters: Conservative think tanks and free-market groups, such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation, are hiring investigative reporters.

Columbia Journalism review posted an interesting feature story about nonprofit investigative news organizations, and how they take different approaches to funding and sharing their content. The CJR story opens with a telling anecdote about a meeting at California Watch. At the meeting, the editors agree that one of their reporters, after months of digging, has uncovered a big story:

But then the conversation veered in a direction unfamiliar to traditional newsrooms. Instead of planning how to get the story published before word of it leaked, the excited editors started throwing out ideas for how they could share Johnson’s reporting with a large array of competitive news outlets across the state and around the country. No one would get a scoop; rather, every outlet would run the story at around the same time, customized to resonate with its audience, be they newspaper subscribers, Web readers, television viewers, or radio listeners. California Watch’s donors—at this point, a handful of high-powered foundations—expect it to publish high-impact investigative journalism about California as widely as possible.

My favorite line: How journalists are a persistent bunch and continue to push for ways to do watchdog journalism. “I do have a need to investigate the bastards,” said Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity.

My only quibble with this story is that it has a Texas-sized hole: There’s no mention of the Texas Tribune or Texas Watchdog. Wuh?

What others are saying about watchdog journalism:

Jane Podesta: Lou Grant-style editor J. Todd Foster didn’t cut back on investigative journalism at his small newspaper, which won a Pulitzer Prize.

Nieman Journalism Lab: High-quality investigative journalism can’t rely on just one or two sources of cash. Texas Tribune Founder John Thornton says news ventures must rely on “revenue promiscuity.”

David Eaves: Debunking five myths about old and new media.

Bronstein at Large: Phil Bronstein interviews Bill Gates about social media, the future of investigative journalism, and how he likes the iPad.

Rosland Gammon had an interesting Q&A with investigative reporter Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who uncovered rampant fraud in a $350 million, taxpayer-subsidized child-care program. Her series of stories, Cashing in on Kids, led to criminal charges against the scammers.

A video profiling Rutledge offers a glimpse at the tedious grunt work required to get the story. Rutledge relied on insiders with access to key documents, and she staked out people who were abusing the system.

After months of work, here was the lede for her first story:

On paper Angela Hale is a child-care provider.

She reported taking care of the same five kids seven days a week while their mom supposedly worked at a lawn-care service, even in the winter months.

The government paid Hale more than $30,000 last year for her child-care business.

It appears the government got duped. Hale didn’t care for the kids at times she said she did, nor did the mom legitimately work, the Journal Sentinel found.

The newspaper spent four months investigating the $340 million taxpayer-financed child-care system known as Wisconsin Shares and uncovered a trail of phony companies, fake reports and shoddy oversight.

Maybe investigative journalists — whether they work in newspapers, broadcast, or online — need to produce more of these “How We Did It” videos. They might help bridge the disconnect between the public perception of what reporters do, and the reality of what they do. “Investigative reporting requires a lot of shoe leather work — knocking on doors, tracking people down, and a lot of research,” Rutledge said in the video.

That kind of work takes time — and money.

What others are saying about watchdog journalism:

Nieman Journalism Lab: Former Washington Post Editor Len Downie says for-profit news orgs won’t create enough journalism.

The Guardian: How investigative reporting makes use of the internet.

Now the Details: Jeffrey Dvorkin argues there’s a downside to nonprofit investigative reporting.

What others are saying about watchdog journalism:

True/Slant: Matt Stroud interviews investigative journalist Steve Weinberg about his decision to work with journalists paid by the Church of Scientology to investigate the St. Petersburg Times. “Is it OK for veteran investigative reporters to write for the Scientologists? Or is working for an organization ‘so hostile to outside journalists’ just not right?”

Nieman Journalism Lab: Conservative nonprofit groups are hiring investigative reporters, which could muddle the landscape for other nonprofits that try to hew closely to news operations.

Here’s a well-articulated explanation of why it’s important for journalists to seek out documents and data. Brant Houston is the Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois, and the former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

It’s great to see IRE set up a YouTube channel where hopefully we’ll see videos with more tips and advice for journalists and bloggers who want to learn how to dig for information.

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What exactly is an investigative journalist?

Is a journalist someone who does the tedious work of digging through records, analyzing data, and finding good human sources to ferret out the truth?

Or is a journalist someone who dresses up like a pimp, straps on a hidden camera, and tricks workers at ACORN to say really dumb things?

Filmmaker James O’Keefe went the easy pimp route. Last summer, O’Keefe shamed ACORN workers in an undercover video, and O’Keefe’s conservative supporters praised his tactics as real shoe-leather reporting that has been neglected by the mainstream media.

But investigative journalism is not a publicity stunt. It’s not a gimmick. It’s actually tedious, time-consuming work. And more people are beginning to understand that — thanks to one of O’Keefe’s recent stunts.

O’Keefe and his pals were recently arrested for dressing like phone repairmen and infiltrating the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu in a federal building. After the arrest, even conservatives started raising questions about O’Keefe’s methods. John Hood at National Review Online put it this way:

Whatever you think of these kinds of publicity stunts, they do not constitute investigative journalism. The earlier ACORN videos weren’t pieces of investigative journalism, either. It does the growing ranks of investigative journalists at conservative organizations a great disservice to invite a comparison of such publicity stunts with the hard, meticulous, and often boring work of exposing government waste and corruption.

The New York Times published a Sunday story pointing out O’Keefe “is just one of a group of young conservatives who use political pranks and embarrassing recordings to upend what they view as overwhelming liberal biases on college campuses and in the culture at large.” Jon Stewart at the Daily Show said it seems like O’Keefe gets all his story ideas from porn movies.

Instead of dressing up like a pimp to make a splash, why not dig up records to find out what’s really going on? That kind of work might seem boring to people like O’Keefe. But to the reporters who actually do this kind of work, sifting through documents, putting together the pieces of a puzzle, and discovering something no one else knows is rewarding and worthwhile.

Give it a try, James. You might be surprised at the real stories that are out there.

Update: It turns out O’Keefe wasn’t even wearing pimp threads when he went undercover at ACORN offices.

What others are saying about watchdog journalism:

California Watch: Mark Katches put out a call for the most memorable investigative stories of 2009. “Despite our industry woes, strong watchdog reporting is thriving at news organizations large and small — including nonprofit newsrooms.”

The Associated Press: Can newspaper muckraking carry on in nonprofits?

Nieman Journalism Lab: What qualifies as a Spotlight story on Google News? Here are a few clues.

What others are saying about watchdog journalism:

PolitiFact Texas: New watchdog site checks the truthiness of claims by Texas political candidates.

California Watch: Yet another watchdog site goes live, this one in California.

The Daily Caller: Tucker Carlson launches his own watchdog site with the help of $3 million.