Investigative Journalist in Houston, Texas
Texas Monthly’s Evan Smith, who is leaving the “national magazine of Texas” to launch the nonprofit Texas Tribune, is swiftly staking a claim for watchdog journalism by hiring reporters with a strong track record of digging up important stories. The Tribune, a fledgling Web publication, is going to cover state government and politics. It announced … Read more
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: Betty Martin: Are you experienced? Too bad. Fresh Air: Terry Gross interviews David Kaplan, who oversaw an investigation of the highly profitable but little-known tobacco black market. Temple Talk: John Temple profiles another Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who left newspapers.
Angela Grant, the video guru at the San Antonio Express-News, shared an excellent post about video projects published on YouTube by a class of Texas State University journalism students taught by David Nolan. Angela taught me everything I knew about shooting and editing video. One of her lessons is promising: Anyone can do this. Most … Read more
To reveal how cutbacks are damaging the newspaper industry, John Temple is profiling talented, Pulitzer-prize winning reporters who are no longer in the business: How best to get at the cost for society, for journalism and for journalists of the loss of thousands of jobs at American newspapers? This series tries to do it by … Read more
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: Glenn Greenwald: Celebrating Cronkite while ignoring what he did. The Changing Newsroom: Cronkite’s spirit still lives. Tony Rogers: Talking Points Memo: An influential politics blog that also does investigative reporting. Jonathon Narvey: Breaking News! New Media depends on Old Media.
Jen and I received an invite on Facebook to help out Marissa Villa, a former reporter for the Express-News’ Hispanic publication Conexion who was laid off earlier this year. The guy who organized the fundraiser for Marissa was former Express-News Business Writer Travis Poling, who also left the paper. Travis is a beer connoisseur. When … Read more
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: The New York Times: Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith is stepping down to edit a nonprofit news site, the Texas Tribune. NPR: What investigative reporters are doing after they leave journalism. Related: Contact an investigative reporter confidentially Mashable: “Crowdfunding” might be the future of journalism. Center for American … Read more
Interesting video from the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. Among those interviewed was Trent Seibert, an editor with Texas Watchdog.
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: Huffington Post: Richard Sine asks, what’s the point of going to journalism school? “Journalism is not a profession like engineering, medicine or even law. You can pick up most media skills on the job, or with a few hours of instruction. If you screw up, nobody dies.” One … Read more
Reporters Todd Bensman and Guillermo Contreras, my colleagues on the special projects team at the San Antonio Express-News, won an award from the National Press Club for their series of stories about gunrunning to Mexico called Texas’ Deadliest Export. According to the press club: Related: Call an investigative reporter in Houston, Texas “Reporters Todd Bensman … Read more