Investigative Journalist in Houston, Texas
After a tall retaining wall buckled in a San Antonio neighborhood, threatening dozens of homes, rancher Ernest Ruiz called us with a tip about another faulty retaining wall. Ruiz’s story had an interesting twist: The collapsed wall near his rural property hadn’t been constructed by Centex Homes or other homebuilders. This wall was owned by …
WOAI featured a unique, data-driven story last week about the high number of accidents caused by inattentive drivers talking on their cell phones. Journalists at the television station analyzed an accident database kept by the Texas Department of Transportation that tracks contributing factors for all vehicle crashes in Texas. To get the story, WOAI had …
The friendly folks at the Consumerist linked to my post about Caribbean Cruise Line, the telemarketing firm that offers “free” cruises on behalf of Celebration Cruise Line. As usual, the comments at the Consumerist were interesting. The blog looks out for consumers, and over the years it has fostered a savvy online community that discusses …
God, I love the Onion.
We sat down with Terry Gildea of Texas Public Radio for this week’s episode of The Source, Terry’s show about journalists who cover complicated issues in San Antonio. Terry is an oddity in the soundbite-world of broadcast media — he’s a radio reporter who values in-depth reporting. So we had an interesting talk about the …
If you’ve ever had to deal with a government agency that tried to withhold public documents from you, check out Steve Myers’ interview with one of the authors of a new book and blog, “The Art of Access.” Instead of focusing on the intricacies of open-records laws, David Cuillier and Charles Davis write about the …
Ever wonder what happens when you get a telemarketing offer that seems too good to be true, but instead of hanging up, you stay on the line to learn the catch? I did. And in the process, I got to to know a wonderfully clever woman named Caroline, who went all “Glengarry Glen Ross” on …
Somehow my unofficial beat during every election in San Antonio is to roam around and write about the problems and low-voter turnout that afflict our messy Democracy. While on “election snafu” patrol, I was relying on a list of voting sites put out by the Bexar County Elections Department. But the list of locations was …
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 …
Here’s a well-articulated explanation of why it’s important for journalists to seek out documents and data. Read more about public documents: How to research a property’s history using Bexar County’s free records search Brant Houston is the Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois, and the former executive director of Investigative Reporters …