www.ire.org

N.Y. Preliminary Program Schedule
Return to N.Y. IRE National Conference


Thursday, June 1 - Optional Day, Computer-Assisted Reporting
(Note: These are panel sessions, not hands-on classes
9 a.m.
  • The Best of Computer-assisted Reporting: An overview of the past year's work
           Shawn McIntosh, The Clarion-Ledger

  • Housing scams: Land flips and slumlords
           Steve Brandt, Star Tribune; Jody Calendar, The Record of Hackensack; Rick Linsk, The St. Paul Pioneer Press

  • Training the Newsroom
            Tom McGinty, IRE; Jennifer LaFleur, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Brant Houston, IRE; Frank Bass, AP

  • Responding to Disasters: Databases to have on hand, Web sites to know
           Bob Williams, The News & Observer; Richard O'Reilly, Los Angeles Times

  • Confirming the results: Techniques for checking your methodology and your findings
           Jo Craven McGinty, NICAR and Missouri School of Journalism
  • 10:30 a.m.
  • Census 101: Getting ready for the data
           Dwight L. Johnson, Census Bureau; Steve Doig, Arizona State University; Paul Overberg, USA Today

  • Who's Behind the Web Site? Ferreting out what's authentic, what's not
           Alice Crites, The Washington Post; Nora Paul, The Poynter Institute; Dan Gillmor, San Jose Mercury News

  • Building a newsroom pipeline: Using intranets to supply data to everyone
           George Landau, NewsEngin, Inc.; Richard Mullins, NICAR Advisor; Tom Torok, The New York Times

  • Hidden Treasures: Little known databases with great information
           Drew Sullivan, The Tennessean

  • Uncovering Disparity: Databases that reveal racial profiling and redlining
            Joe Neff, The News & Observer; Tom Curran, The Star-Ledger; Elizabeth Marchak, The Plain Dealer
  • Noon Lunch on your own
    1:30 p.m.
  • Census 202: The best stories to do first
           Steve Doig, Arizona State University; Paul Overberg, USA Today; Neill Borowski, The Philadelphia Inquirer

  • Putting Data Online
           Alletta Emeno, The Philadelphia Inquirer; Jim Krane, APBnews.com

  • Making Sense of Federal Campaign Finance Data
           Tony Raymond, FECInfo; Shelia Krumholz, Center for Responsive Politics; Bob Biersack, The Federal Elections Commission; Cindy Eberting, IRE & NICAR

  • Community Change: Unraveling sprawl and migration
           John Voskuhl, Lexington Herald-Leader; Cheryl Phillips, USA Today; Jan Schaffer, The Pew Center for Civic Journalism; Diane Mastrull, The Philadelphia Inquirer

  • The Nuts and Bolts of Aviation Saftey Data
           Alan Levin, USA Today; Jason Grotto, IRE & NICAR
  • 3 p.m.
  • Mapping Data 1: The latest and greatest uses
           Jennifer LaFleur, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Andy Lehren, Dateline NBC

  • Making Sense of Environmental Databases
           David Armstrong, The Boston Globe; Mary Jo Sylwester, IRE & NICAR; Dawn Fallik, IRE & NICAR; Charles Lussier, The (Houma, La.) Courier

  • Campaign Finance: Working with state and local data
           Cindy Eberting, IRE & NICAR; Cliff Levy, The New York Times; Jeff South, Virginia Commonwealth University; Bob Warner, Philadelphia Daily News

  • CAR on the Local Beat
           Jack Dolan, The Hartford Courant; Russ Buettner, The New York Daily News; Neil Reisner, The Miami Herald

  • 4:30 p.m.
  • Mapping Data 2: Advanced newsroom uses
           Dan Keating, The Washington Post and Andy Lehren, Dateline NBC

  • Using CAR to Track the Illegal Drug Trade and Deaths
           Rose Ciotta, The Philadelphia Inquirer; Wayne Woolley, The Star-Ledger; Geoff Dougherty, The Miami Herald

  • Getting it Accurate and Getting it Right: The ethical uses of data
           Rich Galant, Newsday; Ford Fessenden, The New York Times; Sarah Cohen, The Washington Post

  • The Quick Turnaround: Databases and Web sites to always have nearby
           David Milliron, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Paul Adrian, The News of Texas; Heather Newman, Detroit Free Press
  • 5:30 p.m.
     
  • Reception for Criminal Justice Journalists
    Center on Crime, Communities & Culture, 400 West 59th Street
  • 7 p.m.
     
  • An Evening with Seymour Hersh: Telling the Truth in a Season of Spin
    Talk will mark kickoff for joint summer journalism program
    Missouri School of Journalism and New School University
    Room 510, New School, 66 West 12th Street
    Admission: $5, or free with IRE conference name tag
  • 7:30 p.m.
     
  • Blues Bash
    A traditional unofficial IRE party, hosted by the IRE Broadcast Committee
    Tribeca Blues, 16 Warren Street
    Advance tickets: $15 near registration tables, $20 at door

  • Friday
    9 a.m.
  • Probing the Pharmaceutical Industry
            Gina Kolata, The New York Times; Glenn Bunting, Los Angeles Times; Dennis Cauchon, USA Today; David Willman, Los Angeles Times

  • The best Investigative Projects of 1999
            Shawn McIntosh, The Clarion-Ledger

  • Finding Abuses in the Inner City: Housing to workfare
            Jim Haner, The Baltimore Sun; Janet Roberts, St. Paul Pioneer Press

  • Broadcast - Tricks of the Trade: Going undercover and doing surveillance the right way
           Bob Read, Inside Edition; Mitch Wagenberg, StreetVision; Pam Zekman, WBBM

  • Fast Track - Backgrounding Individuals
           Don Ray, Exclusive News Groups

  • Investigating Immigration
            Steve Chambers, The Star-ledger; Lisa Getter, Los Angeles Times; Judy Miller, The Miami Herald

  • Fast Track - Teaching Investigative Reporting
           Tom Goldstein, Columbia University; Bob Greene, Hofstra University
  • 10 a.m.
  • Fast Track - Turning Your Investigation Into a Book
           James Neff, author; Esther Newberg, International Creative Management

  • Fast Track - Environmental Reporting
           David Armstrong, The Boston Globe; Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News
  • 10:30 a.m.
  • Doing the Story No One Wants to Hear: Uncovering U.S. atrocities abroad and getting the stories published
           Robert Port, APBnews.com; Sydney Schanberg, APBnews.com; Martha Mendoza, AP; Seymour Hersh, author

  • Investigating Medical Research and the Stories We're Missing
           Kurt Eichenwald, The New York Times; Delores Kong, The Boston Globe; Deborah Nelson, The Washington Post

  • Online Special: Making the transition from traditional journalism to online investigative journalism
           Merrill Brown, MSNBC; Jonathan Krim, TheStreet.com; Karl Idsvoog, APBNews.com; Mark Sauter, APBNews.com

  • Broadcast Track - Hot New Stories
           Chuck Goudie, WLS-TV; Chris Heinbaugh, KOMO-TV; Julie Kramer, WCCO

  • The Ills of Juvenile Crime and Punishment
           Frank Green, Richmond Times Dispatch; Mary Hargrove, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Todd Richissin, The Baltimore Sun; Mark Soler, Youth Law Center
  • 11 a.m.
  • Fast Track - The Military Beat
           Russell Carollo, Dayton Daily News; Randy Herschaft, AP

  • Fast Track - Turning Your Investigation Into a Book
           James Neff, author; Esther Newberg, International Creative Management
  • Noon
  • Lunch on your own
  • Financial journalists are invited to an informal lunch/workshop at Bloomberg headquarters, 499 Park Ave.
    Call David Evans at 310-910-8811 or e-mail him at davidevans@bloomberg.net to reserve a spot.
  • 1:30 p.m.
  • Beyond the Sopranos: The new organized crime beat
           Ray Kelly, U.S. Customs; Joe Pistone, former FBI agent; Anthony DeStefano, Newsday; John Miller, ABC News; Lewis Schiliro, former head of FBI-N.Y.

  • Great Tips from Great Writers: Taking your stories the next step and turning them into magazine pieces and books
           Susan Orlean, The New Yorker; Mike Winerip, The New York Times; Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker; Lisa Getter, Los Angeles Times;

  • Policing the Police
           Kathy Barrett Carter, The Star Ledger; Joe Calderone, New York Daily News; Len Levitt, Newsday; John Marzulli, New York Daily News; Craig McCoy, The Philadelphia Inquirer

  • Gotcha Journalism: How to fight the lowering of standards
           Neal Shapiro, Dateline NBC; Dean Baquet, The New York Times; Robert Rosenthal, Philadelphia Inquirer; Robert Snyder, Media Studies Center; Mike McGraw, The Kansas City Star; Christopher Pyle, Mount Holyoke College; Pam Zekman, WBBM

  • Broadcast Special Edition - An hour with 60 minutes
           Rich Greenberg, 60 Minutes CBS; Rich Bonin, 60 Minutes CBS; Walt Bogdanich, 60 Minutes CBS
  • 2 p.m.
  • Fast Track - Doing the Education Investigation
           Bob Frahm, The Hartford Courant; Tim Simmons, The News & Observer

  • Fast Track - Census Bits and Bytes
           Dwight L. Johnson, Census Bureau; Steve Doig, Arizona State University
  • 2:30 p.m.
  • Broadcast Special Edition - An Hour with ABC's 20/20
           Victor Neufeld, ABC News; Ira Rosen, ABC News; Brian Ross, ABC News
  • 3 p.m.
  • Latest Tips on FOIA
           Mike Ravnitsky, APBnews.com

  • Caregivers Gone Wrong: Exposing the abuses
           David Gulliver, Dayton Daily News; Kate Boo, The Washington Post; Brian Donovan, Newsday; Robert Gebeloff, The Record of Hackensack; Mark Rochester, Newsday

  • Finding Investigative Reporting's Place in History: Looking at a century of muckraking
           Andie Tucher, Columbia University; Robert Miraldi, Suny-New Paltz; Bruce Shapiro, Yale University and The Nation; Steve Weinberg, University of Missouri

  • The Online Special: The challenge of doing investigative work on the Web
            David Weir, Salon.com; Elliot Zaret, MSNBC.com; Geraldine Sealey, ABCnews.com; Dan Colarusso, TheSteet.com; Nora Paul, Poynter Institute

  • Covering Terrorists and Fringe Groups
            Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times; James Risen, The New York Times; Olive Talley, Dateline NBC; Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times

  • Fast Track - Transportation safety
           Elizabeth Marchak, The Plain Dealer; Don Phillips, The Washington Post

  • Fast Track - IRS Primer
           David Burnham, TRAC/Syracuse University; David Cay Johnston, The New York Times
  • 3:30 p.m.
  • Broadcast Special Edition - An hour with Dateline
           Neal Shapiro , NBC - Dateline; Alan Mayraness, NBC-Dateline; Pat Weiland, NBC-Dateline
  • 4 p.m.
  • Fast Track - Backgrounding Businesses
           David Evans, Bloomberg News Service; Susan Harrigan, Newsday

  • Fast Track - Covering Courts
            Loren Steffy, Bloomberg; John Sullivan, The News and Observer
  • 4:30 p.m.
  • When Worlds Collide: Companies, government, politics and the law
           James Grimaldi, The Washington Post; David Cay Johnston, The New York Times; Trudy Lieberman, Consumer Reports

  • Investigations in Entertainment and the Arts
           Marty Gottlieb, The New York Times; David Zeman, Detroit Free Press; Hector Feliciano, author; John Horn, Premiere Magazine

  • Winning Strategies in Freelance
           Ana Arana, author; Russ Baker, Freelance; Karen Rothmeyer, The Nation; Steve Weinberg, University of Missouri

  • The Cross-Cultural Investigation
           Ying Chan, Hong Kong University; Paul Cuadros, Alicia Patterson fellow; Victor Merina, Poynter Institute

  • Editor's Roundtable: Why we do investigations and how to get your bosses to let you do them too
            Michael Fancher, The Seattle Times; Vivian Waixel, The Record; John Lansing, WEWS-TV; David Boardman, The Seattle Times; Mike Levine, The (Middletown, N.Y.) Times Herald-Record
  • 5 p.m.
  • Fast Track - Covering Cities/Counties
            Tom Robbins, Village Voice; Celeste Hadrick, Newsday

  • Fast Track - Military Beat
            Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg
  • 6:30 p.m.
  • IRE Showcase Panel - The new challenges for investigative reporting
            Featuring: Mike Wallace, CBS; Bill Keller, The New York Times; Diane Sawyer, ABC; Stone Phillips, NBC; Ted Koppel, ABC; Adam Clayton Powell III, Freedom Forum
  • 8 p.m.
     
  • IRE fundraising reception

  • 25th Anniversary Commemoration

  • Saturday
    9 a.m.
  • Online Special - Presenting the investigative story on The Web: Challenges in writing, data and visualizing
           Jason Fields, AP; David Zucchino, The Philadelphia Inquirer; Robert Tiernan, Newsday.com

  • The Death Sentence Stayed: Probing wrongful convictions
           Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger; Robert Blau, Chicago Tribune;Gary Craig, The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle; Ken Armstrong, Chicago Tribune

  • The Challenge of Investigations at Small News Organizations
            Tracy Sadeghian, WRDW-TV, Augusta, Ga.; Kathy L'Ecluse, Daily Republic; Steve Blank, Times-Ledger; Willy Stern, Nashville Scene; George Kennedy, Columbia Missourian; Len Bruzzese, IRE

  • Broadcast Track - Storytelling Strategies and Techniques
           Nancy Amons, WSMV; Tony Kovaleski, KPRC-TV; Mark Lagerkvist, News 12 Long Island; Duane Pohlman, KING5-TV

  • Blazing the People Trail: How to develop sources and get them to talk
           Pat Stith, The News & Observer; Eric Nalder, The Seattle Times

  • Fast Track - Useful International Online Databases: Health, crime, immigration
           Stephen Quinn, Deakin University; Noemi Ramirez, IRE & NICAR; Neil Reisner, The Miami Herald

  • Fast Track - Finding investigative riches on the insurance and banking beats
           Randy Diamond, The (Bergen) Record; Felix Kessler, Bloomberg
  • 10 a.m.
  • Fast Track - Census Bits and Bytes
           Paul Wyatt, Census Bureau; Steve Doig, Arizona State University

  • Fast Track - Covering Cities/Counties
            Celeste Hadrick, Newsday; Tom Robbins, Village Voice
  • 10:30 a.m.
  • International Track -- Investigating the Attackers: How journalists under fire fight back against threats, slurs and intimidation
           Pedro Armendares; Ricardo Trotti, IAPA's Project Impunity; Joel Simon, Committee to Protect Journalists

  • At What Price the Presidency? How to track the big sell-off
           Larry Makinson, Center for Responsive Politics; Donald Barlett, Time Magazine; Charles Lewis, Center for Public Integrity; James Steele, Time Magazine

  • Organizing and Editing the Project
            Marc Duvoisin, Philadelphia Inquirer; Arthur Browne, New York Daily News; Jody Calendar, The Record of Hackensack; Robert Blau, The Chicago Tribune; David Boardman, The Seattle Times

  • Broadcast - Power of documentaries
           Tom Bettag, Nightline; David Fanning, Frontline; Valerie Hyman

  • Maintaining Free Speech in a Panic About Privacy: Public records and the battle for access in the information age
           Eve Burton, Daily News; Roger Meyers, Esq., Steinhart & Falconer LLP; Florence Rivas, Rivas & Rivas; David Smallman, DocketWatch.com LLC; Hoag Levins, APBnews.com
  • 11 a.m.
  • Fast Track - Quick Hits on Community Beat: Contracts to nepotism
           Michael Diamond, Atlantic City Press; Sandra Peddie, Newsday

  • Fast Track - Backgrounding Businesses
           Alex Berenson, The New York Times; Susan Harrigan, Newsday
  • Noon
  • Luncheon - Keynote Speaker: Don Hewitt, 60 Minutes

  • Awards ceremony
  • 2:30 p.m.
  • International Track - International Roundtable
           Yevgenia Albets; Steve Engelberg, The New York Times; David Kaplan, U.S. News and World Report; Gustavo Gorritti; Sunday Dare, The News and Tempo Newsmagazines; Andreas Harsono; Gunther Latch, Der Spiegel

  • Investments and Finance: Working a money beat
           David Dietz, TheStreet.com; Marcy Gordon, AP; Adam Levy, Bloomberg; Herb Greenberg, TheStreet.com; Gary Weiss, Business Week

  • Great Tips From Great Writers, Part II: Crafting the story
            Anne Hull, St. Petersburg Times ; David Finkel, Washington Post; Scott Kraft, Los Angeles Times;

  • Broadcast - IRE Award Winners
           Byron Harris, WFAA - Dallas; Valeri Williams, WFAA - Dallas; Gerry Lanosga; G. Stu Watson, Jr., NBC - WCNC-TV

  • Newly discovered perils in the nuclear industry
           Mike McGraw, The Kansas City Star; Sam Roe, Toledo Blade; Joby Warrick, The Washington Post; Karl Grossman, author

  • Fast Track - Covering courts
            Tom Jackman, The Washington Post; Shirley Perlman, Newsday

  • Fast Track - Campus Investigations
           J.M. Brown, IUPUI; Bruce Shapiro, Yale; Matthew Davis, IUPUI
  • 3:00 p.m.
  • Latest Tips on FOIA
           Mike Ravnitsky, APBnews.com
  • 3:30 p.m.
  • Fast Track - Non-profits
           Frances Hill, University of Florida

  • Fast Track - Backgrounding Individuals
           Alan Schlein, Deadline Online
  • 4 p.m.
  • Digging into Multinational Corporations, Ferreting out International Trade Scams
           Maud Beelman, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; Jack Blum, Lobel, Novins and Lamont; Jock Ferguson, First Avenue Films; Jim Mulvaney, KPMG Forensic and Litigation Service

  • Newsgathering Under Attack: Premptive strikes and other matters
           Bill Kovach, Nieman Foundation; James Neff, author; Sam Roe, The Toledo Blade; Sandy Baron, Libel Defense Resource Center; Mary Ellen Roy, attorney

  • Broadcast Track - Test it Yourself: Investigations on the consumer beat
           Roberta Baskin, ABC News 20/20; Allison Gilbert, WWOR-TV, New York; Hillary Martin, Consumer Reports

  • Busted Play: Investigating college sports
            Tom Farrey, ESPN.com; George Dohrmann, St. Paul Pioneer Press; Liz Chandler, The Charlotte Observer; David Boardman, The Seattle Times

  • Diagnosing the sick health system: From bad doctors to HMO abuses
           Fred Schulte, The Sun-Sentinel; Russ Buettner, New York Daily News; Tom Maier, Newsday
  • 4:30 p.m.
  • Fast Track - Environmental Reporting
           David Armstrong, The Boston Globe; Duff Wilson, The Seattle Times

  • Fast Track - Doing the Education Investigation
           Bob Frahm, Hartford Courant; Tim Simmons, Raleigh News & Observer
  • 5:30 p.m.
  • Membership meeting - Board elections
  • 7 p.m.
  • Bob Greene bus tour of New York

  • Sunday, June 4
    9 a.m.
  • Workshop - Training your newsroom

  • Workshop - Editors: Strategies for success

  • Workshop - News Directors: Strategies for success
  • 10:30 a.m.
  • IRE-Poynter report on online investigations: Strategies for success when you return

  • Poynter presentation and ethics of broadcast investigations

  • A Poynter course in writing
  • Noon
  • Conference ends