Investigative Journalist in Houston, Texas
Gotta love this letter to the editor by engineer Wendell Peters published today in the San Antonio Express-News: After an explosion at one of our power plants, CPS Energy urged us to conserve power. I was curious to see how much power is used by the digital billboards gracing our highways. The CPS meter is … Read more
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: Related: How to contact a news reporter in Texas Outside Looking Back: Interesting interview with Karen Dorn Steele, a longtime investigative reporter from my hometown of Spokane, Wash. Karen took a buyout from the Spokesman-Review. She looks back at conflicts she had with the family that owned the … Read more
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: Nieman Watchdog: Alex Byers blogs about DocumentCloud, a joint project by the New York Times and ProPublica. Users will be able to upload a treasure trove of documents that can be searched in creative ways by the public. “We want to take all these documents that all these … Read more
I learned two things from my yard sale this weekend:
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: Nieman Journalism Lab: More on the Pocantico summit and the Nonprofit Investigative News Network. Members are optimistic but also bring different priorities to the table. “Establishing that network may require navigating tensions between established groups seeking to expand their reach and a new crop of local outfits still … Read more
Laura Frank, a former investigative reporter for the shuttered Rocky Mountain News in Denver, focused her sights on the newspaper industry in this PBS Exposé package, “The Withering Watchdog: What Really Happened to Investigative Reporting in America.” The story features a former colleague of mine, Mc Nelly Torres, an investigative reporter who used to work … Read more
The witty banter between two journalists played by Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell makes “His Girl Friday” a gem of a romantic comedy. But to me, the best part is at the 45 minute mark of the movie. Up to that point, Russell’s wisecracking character had been telling everyone how she’s getting out of the … Read more
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: Poynter: An interview with ProPublica‘s Amanda Michel about an ambitious investigative-reporting project by citizen journalists. Tony Rogers: Seven things the Iranian uprising showed us about citizen journalism. Read more: How to contact an investigative reporter TechTerminal: How the statistics-rich iPhone app for Major League Baseball could be a … Read more
Awesome video by the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, who offers some sound reporting advice for all journalists and bloggers. True, most of us will never need fake wallets or interpreters or blow darts. But doing everything you can do verify someone’s story — no matter how sympathetic they are — is important whether you’re … Read more
Vianna Davila had a good story and video about a nonprofit horse sanctuary in Nixon, Texas. Darla Cherry, who has multiple sclerosis, cares for the horses more for love than money: Her most recent castoff was Star, an 11-year-old Quarter mare acquired in June. A woman paid Cherry the requested $200 donation and handed over … Read more