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Posts by Alena Rehberger
Developing Sources
By Bernice Yeung There are many lessons about journalism to be learned from “Spotlight,” the film that chronicles The Boston Globe’s investigation into the Boston Archdiocese’s systemic cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. As the story behind the story, “Spotlight” highlights themes that are especially instructive to investigative reporters: That there’s the unspoken…
Read MoreFinding Errors in Texas Data
By Brian Collister “You were right, and we were wrong.” It was a stunning reversal by Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, who couldn’t deny what KXAN spent months documenting: His troopers wereinaccurately reporting the race of minority motorists, mostly Hispanic, as “white” and skewing crucial racial profiling data. For months,…
Read MoreMeetups: Los Angeles, Chicago journalists to gather this month
IRE-Chicago: Please join us at the Billy Goat Tavern on Wednesday, April 13, as we socialize and hear Darryl Holliday, Yana Kunichoff and Sam Steckler of City Bureau talk about their recent cover story for The Chicago Reader! The piece, which gained recognition from the Sidney Hillman Foundation, revealed that Chicago’s police union has long served as…
Read MoreAnnouncing the 2015 IRE Awards
IRE is proud to announce the winners and finalists of the 2015 IRE Awards contest. Journalists who helped free enslaved laborers, improved the safety net for injured workers and brought about reforms for failing schools serving mostly black youth, are being honored as winners of the 2015 Investigative Reporters & Editors awards. This year’s winners…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How Reuters investigated the preventable deaths of drug-addicted babies
Duff Wilson Any good reporter knows that keeping your eyes and ears open to the world can spark an idea for an original investigation. That was the case for Duff Wilson, an investigative reporter for Reuters. Wilson came up with the idea for the project “Helpless and Hooked” after reading an article in a Massachusetts…
Read MoreInvestigative Books of 2015: “Ghettoside” leaves lasting impression
By Steve Weinberg With so many superb investigative/ explanatory books published by U.S. journalists during 2015, singling out just a few to this year’s IRE investigative book list feels daunting. That is true every year, but for reasons I cannot decipher precisely, the year 2015 felt more that way. Certainly, the impressive quality and quantity…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Life and Death in Lowell
Approximately 2,700 women are serving time at Lowell Correctional Institution, the nation’s largest women’s prison. On this episode, Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown discusses her year-long investigation into Lowell. Documents, interviews and a Facebook page for former inmates helped her expose a world of sexual extortion, abuse and corruption inside the Florida prison. As always,…
Read MoreInvestigate safety trends around college and university campuses
The most recent reports on alleged campus crime, arrests, discipline and hate crimes reported for 2014 are now available in the NICAR data library. Buy it here. What’s in it? The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act is a federal law that requires colleges and universities to disclose certain timely and annual information about campus crime and security…
Read MoreNominate a secretive government agency for IRE’s Golden Padlock award
The 2015 Golden Padlock presentation Watch on YouTube Investigative Reporters and Editors is now welcoming nominations for its fourth annual Golden Padlock award recognizing the most secretive government agency in the United States. “Thwarting the public’s right to know has become a mission statement inside many government bureaucracies across the country,” said Robert Cribb, chair…
Read MoreSign up for one-on-one mentoring at the IRE Conference
This program is currently full for those looking for a mentor. You can sign-up for our waiting list. It’s time to sign up for the mentorship program at the IRE Conference in New Orleans. Mentors and mentees are encouraged to fill out this form to be matched and enjoy a continental breakfast Friday morning at the conference.…
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