The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "ethical issues" ...
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iLied: Exposing Mike Daisey’s Fabrications of Apple’s Supply Chain in China
This two-part investigation exposed fabrications in American monologuist Mike Daisey’s narrative about the Chinese factory workers who make Apple products, and also gave a voice to the Chinese men and women who were at the center of the international debate about factory conditions. Daisey had gained a worldwide platform as Apple’s most prominent critic; Reporter Rob Schmitz’s investigation proved that the details on which Daisey had built his compelling story were fabricated. Schmitz’s investigation aired on Marketplace and This American Life on March 16, 2012 and made international headlines, sparking a debate about journalistic truth. Schmitz’s April 2012 follow-up stories broadcast the points-of-view of actual Chinese factory workers and their employers, and helped re-shape the narrative about working conditions at Apple suppliers. Schmitz’s investigation became the most downloaded story in each program’s history. Hundreds of media organizations covered the work, sparking thousands of news articles and commentaries about the findings and the issues it raised. Online components of the work – which included podcasts, photo, and video – demonstrated the reach and longevity of multimedia storytelling; a video Schmitz shot of an iPad assembly line went viral with more than 2 million views on Youtube. The work continues to be discussed in case study format at journalism schools around the U.S., including an ethics class at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Tags: journalism; journalism education; multimedia storytelling
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"First, Do No Harm/Behind The Curtain"
Two women have come forward to say they were sexual assaulted by a male ER nurse while in the care of North Kansas City Hospital. The women were heavily drugged while the assaults occurred. KCTV reporters found that sexual assault on hospital patients is not as rare a problem as most might think. However, when asked about the issue, local advocacy groups, state nursing boards and even the senior V.P. of the Joint Commission were unaware it even existed.
Tags: MOCSA; Joint Commission; Federal Department of Health and Human Services; North Kansas City Hospital; William Price; Center for Health Ethics; Sarah Breier; Missouri State Board of Nursing; Paul Schyve
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Disposable Heroes
The original story focused on Iraqi war veteran James Elliott, who suffered a psychotic breakdown and was stun gunned by police while taking the drug Chantix in a smoking cessation study by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The series examined the use of military veterans as guinea pigs in drug experiments conducted by the federal government and exposed numerous ethical lapses, including a system-wide failure to notify participants when the Food and Drug Administration issues new drug warnings.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs; veteran; drug trials; Food and Drug Administration; Soldiers for the Truth; human research studies; Pfizer; PTSD; smoking
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Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce and Culture
"Starbucked explores the phenomenal rise of the Starbucks Corporation and the coffee-crazy culture that fueled its success. It combines a narrative of how the coffeehouse phenomenon took hold with an investigation into the ethical issues that swirl around the company."
Tags: coffee; culture; society; Starbucks; corporation; coffeehouses; ethical issues
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The Mark Foley Investigation
Almost a year after the media received the first emails Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) sent to underage Congressional pages, ABCNews.com's investigative team went online with the story. Using the interactive function of their website, former pages forwarded to ABC more email exchanges they’d had with Foley, some of which were sexually explicit. After the first posting, Foley staffers claimed the pages "misunderstood", and that political opponents were smearing Foley. When the more explicit emails were read back to Foley, he tried to bargain with the investigative team: he would resign if the site didn't post the emails. ABC said no deal, and Foley resigned the next day. The issue morphed into "who knew" and why Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert had done nothing before to stop Foley's behavior. The story sparked an investigation by the FBI's Cyber Division, and criminal charges were filed against Foley in Florida. This series includes interviews with Brian Ross on breaking the story, and other media stories about the ABCNews.com coverage.
Tags: Capitol Hill Page; Congressional Pages; Page Alumni Association; House Ethics Committee; sexually explicit messages to minors; Congressman Mark Foley; email messages; AOL Instant Messenger; Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert; FBI investigation; FBI's Cyber Division; House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children; Department of Justice; pedophile; Wired Safety
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Lake Kahola: A City Manager's ethical abyss
This investigative piece examines a series of "no bid" consulting contracts "authorized by Wichita's City Manager and issued to his close personal friend and seller of precious lakefront property.
Tags: TAPE TRANSCRIPT
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A question of access
An investigation into a private, non-profit foundation run by the governor of Wisconsin's wife to furnish, decorate and maintain the governor's mansion gets its largest donations from people who lobby on issues that come before the governor and the agencies he oversees.
Tags: Wisconsin Governor Scott McCallum; Wisconsin first lady Laurie McCallum; Wisconsin Executive Residence Foundation; nonprofits; Wisconsin Executive Residence; Madison; Wisconsin; ethics; lobbyists; governor's mansion
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If This Ain't Libel
Brill's Content looks at a libel case involving the Drudge Report, "the popular website of conservative cybergossip Matt Drudge." The story describes how Drudge has reported that Sidney Blumenthal, a former journalist and an assistant to the president in the Clinton's administration, "has spousal abuse past that has been effectively covered up..." The article focuses on the negative emotions that Jacqueline Blumenthal, Sidney's wife, has experienced because of the defamatory report. "It should not be acceptable for an Internet publisher - or any other publisher - to fact-check reputaion-damaging gossip by disseminating it, then issue a retraction only if and when it becomes apparent that the victim is going to sue," the Brill's Content concludes.
Tags: politics; Matt Drudge; defamation; reputation; public figures; AOL; spousal abuse; White House; journalistic standards; ethics; litigation; courts
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As Good As Dead
How does one reslove the paradox of needing living bodies and dead patients to perform organ donation? Gary Greenberg explores the complex skein of issues around the subject of "brain death," focusing on 14-year-old Nicholas Breach, who is dying of brain tumor and want to donate his organs. "The concept is just the medical profession's way of dodging ethical questions about a practice that saves more than fifteen thousand lives a year," Greenberg writes.
Tags: brain death; bioethicis; organ donation; respirators
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"Your genetic destiny for sale"
Several ventures have been launched over recent years to "sift through the DNA of specific populations, in hope of identifying the underlying genetic causes of those diseases most likely to kill us. The researchers, pharmaceutical companies executives and venture capitalists involved are all betting that recent advances in biotech and computing have made it possible to take a few hundred or thousand victims of a disease, analyze their DNA, compare it to the DNA of healthy individuals, and identify the salient differences -- those genetic variations that result in illness on the one hand and health on the other...If these efforts succeed, they could revolutionize the nature of drug discovery and medical treatment." However, this type of research, called population genomics, brings up a host of ethical issues. For instance, some past studies use a standard of "presumed consent" for subject's participation in the study, as opposed to the "informed consent" required for most research.
Tags: population genomics; Gemini Genomics; Newfound Genomics; DNA; genetics; deCODE genetics; Iceland; UmanGenomics; medical ethics