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By Liz Essley Whyte
When New York Times reporter Eric Lipton got a tip that powerful political associations were asking lobbyists for $125,000 contributions in exchange for phone calls with states’ attorneys general, he knew he had to find out more. So he got on a plane to California to attend a conference, uninvited. He didn’t talk to anyone. Instead, he observed lobbyists schmooze “the people’s lawyers,” the states’ top attorneys supposedly dedicated to defending individual consumers. What he saw became the attention-grabbing anecdotes in a series of stories that won a Pulitzer Prize and an IRE award.
Lipton detailed how he found that story and backed it up with opens records requests at an IRE Conference panel on how to track lobbyists. The session, led by Wall Street Journal reporter James Grimaldi, also featured New Mexico in Depth reporter Sandra Fish.
“People often get frustrated and angry about why a bill can’t get passed, or something can’t be repealed, and I think looking at the lobbying industry offers the public some insight into that,” said Grimaldi, who won a Pulitzer in 2006 for reports on lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Grimaldi outlined his recent stories on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and donors to her family’s foundation. He first scraped the foundation website for the names of donors, ran those names through Open Secrets (published by the Center for Responsive Politics) to find times the donors lobbied the State Department, then read Clinton’s book, “Hard Choices,” for evidence of the help Clinton gave donors while she was secretary of state.
Here are a few of the panel’s top tips for following lobbyists:
Liz Essley Whyte is the American University fellow at the Center for Public Integrity, where she covers money in state politics. She previously worked at Philanthropy magazine and the Washington Examiner, where her award-winning coverage of a regional airports authority spurred the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to reform the agency. Follow her on Twitter: @l_e_whyte.
By Katie Le Dain
If you go to your iPhone and head to the privacy settings, you’ll find a switch that asks you whether you want your location services “on” or “off.”
At Friday morning’s geolocation session at the annual IRE Conference, panelists talked about how cell phones can track when this button is turned on and users openly share their location. Reporters can now use geolocation application tools, such as Banjo, Creepy and Instagram’s API to help find sources faster during investigations.
For example, Banjo collects public social media posts by location and stores them in a database. Banjo representative Stacey Epstein shared how reporters were able to use the tool during the recent Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. When the Amtrak derailment happened, the app was able to find all of the public posts from inside the train and make that information available to users. Epstein says this is useful to reporters who can then try to contact those sources directly and talk to people on the scene to understand what happened.
Another way reporters can use geolocation information is by examining the information directly from posts. When users agree to share their location on specific apps such as Twitter and Instagram, they also share their location in the data of every photograph or tweet they post.
Investigative reporters Jack Gillum of the Associated Press and Jan Gunnar Furuly of Aftenposten in Norway said they were able to use geolocation information linked to Twitter and Instagram posts during investigations.
As an example, Gillum explained that if he posted a photo of his dog from his home, he could then go into the Instagram data and find the latitude and longitude of the location where the photo was posted. Then, if he searched for those coordinates, his house would appear on Google maps.
Gillum used this tool during an investigation on Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock’s spending habits, mapping his Instagram posts and flight records as one part of his data set. He also reminded everyone that while this information can be useful, reporters must analyze multiple data sets and always go back to other sourcing to complete thorough investigations.
Katie Le Dain is pursuing her master's degree in journalism and public affairs at American University. She currently works as a Graduate Researcher at the Investigative Reporting Workshop.
By Miranda A. Strong
The abuses of power and labor that followed the industrial boom of the 1900s inspired journalists to investigate corruption and expose its consequences to the masses. The work of reform-oriented journalists, such as Ida Tarbell who went toe-to-toe with Rockefeller’s big oil, and Upton Sinclair, who took on industry’s treatment of immigrant laborers, was recognized and described as "muckraking" by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Today, journalists continue the muckraking tradition, innovating in an effort to remain as relevant as ever.
Reaching a younger audience
“It’s not by design,” VICE News Editor-In-Chief Jason Mojica said when asked how VICE has managed to captivate young readers and viewers. Although Mojica said VICE did not intentionally lay the framework to gain its millennial following, he does recognize the elements of their stories that interest this audience.
“The approach that we brought to current events, such as the crisis in Ukraine, Ebola coverage, Islamic State, is this kind of more documentary-based approach to storytelling,” Mojica said.
BuzzFeed News has a young but vast and loyal audience. The site announced in late 2013 that it would expand into investigative reporting by hiring Pulitzer winner Mark Schoofs of ProPublica.
BuzzFeed owes much of its success to its partnership with Facebook. Although its prevalence in social media is evident, BuzzFeed’s executive editor for news, Shani Hilton, said that BuzzFeed focuses on creating content that can be shared rather than creating strategies that encourage it.
“Facebook is one way in, but, really, it is the person-to-person sharing,” Hilton said.
Reflecting the community
With the expansion of communities consuming the news, outlets often struggle to keep up with an increasingly diverse readership.
Mojica, a Mexican-American from a working class background, said that he has never made a hiring decision based on race but understands why diversity in the newsroom is important.
“I certainly see, just from a purely pragmatic approach, the value in people from different walks of life and different experiences being able to bring different types of stories and storytelling to the table,” Mojica said.
Betsy Reed, The Intercept’s newly hired editor-in-chief, said that she has seen improvement in newsroom diversity with the push for organizations to pay interns.
“A lot of people coming from working-class backgrounds can’t afford to take an unpaid internship,” Reed said.
Partnership is key
Bill Keller, editor in chief of the Marshall Project and former executive editor of The New York Times, recognized the merits of partnership to expand both reach and platform. Keller said that partnering with “old-fashioned newspapers” encourages impact while partnering with multimedia outlets fosters opportunities to create stories on a variety of platforms.
“We learned some things about how to do audio by working with people over at NPR,” Keller said. “NPR for example, because they are doing radio journalism, and we are doing mostly word journalism, the online equivalent of print, they have different needs when it comes to telling stories. And once you get over the initial adjustment, you learn from each other.”
Miranda Strong is an American University Graduate student and intern at the Washington Post. She contributed to stories with American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop and the Washington Post's Investigative team.
By Christina Animashaun
In the late 1800s, the invention of Kodak’s Brownie changed the landscape of photography. The cardboard box camera was simple to use, inexpensive and gave ordinary people the ability to document their surroundings outside of a photographer’s studio.
The laws that protected those who took snapshots with their Brownie cameras more than a century ago are the same laws that protect photographers and videographers today. At the recent Investigative Reporters and Editors annual conference in Philadelphia, media lawyer Mickey Osterreicher discussed ways for journalists to protect themselves when photographing and recording public spaces.
Freedom of speech is not absolute
Photography and recording in public spaces is protected under the First Amendment, which guarantees individuals freedom of speech. Those freedoms can be restricted on the time, place and manner of how photographs and videos are taken.
Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, explained that restrictions can be as simple as a police officer asking a photographer to move if they are in the way of an arrest for their safety. However, telling a civilian to turn off his or her camera is not enough.
"There is no legal basis for that," Osterreicher said. "The presence of a camera is not a case where law enforcement can curb and infringe upon someone’s First Amendment rights.”
Can I see what’s on your camera?
Osterreicher spoke about the common practice of law enforcement officials who attempt to confiscate or destroy photographs or video. Although an individual can refuse to give consent to showing the contents of his camera if asked by law enforcement, citizens have been put into custody for disorderly conduct.
Last year, the Baltimore Police Department settled a lawsuit after a man was unlawfully detained by police officers after he recorded an arrest on his cell phone in 2012. Officers seized Christopher Sharp’s phone and deleted more than 20 recordings before returning it to him. Sharp pursued legal action against the Baltimore Police Department, which resulted in a settlement to Sharp last year. It also caught the eye of the U.S. Department of Justice.
During the review of the case, the agency issued a statement reminding the court that, “under the First Amendment, there are no circumstances under which the contents of a camera or recording device should be deleted or destroyed.”
Keep rolling
Although Osterreicher believes more municipalities and police departments will become aware of media laws pertaining to public spaces, unlawful arrests continue to be a reality for photographers and videographers.
As municipalities move toward the use of police body cameras, Osterreicher believes this will cut down on officer misconduct and help law enforcement officials understand why it’s important to keep a visual record.
“Officers see cameras as a challenge to their authority.” Osterreicher said. “But the right they have to record on the street is the same right that citizens and journalists have.”
In the event of an arrest or detainment when recording or taking pictures in public spaces, Osterreicher offers one cardinal piece of advice:
“Keep rolling.” Osterreicher said. "Unless you have something to refute that, such as [your] video, you will most likely get charged with something and have those charges stick.”
For more information, visit the National Press Photographers Association website.
Christina Animashaun is completing her master's degree in Journalism and Public Affairs at American University. With an emphasis in broadcast news production, Animashaun uses visual and audio media tools to document events and tell stories. In her spare time, she shoots film photography, plays rugby and wears hats.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2015 Pop-up Panels! These sessions will take place today at 4:50 pm. Locations and descriptions are listed below.
Franklin 1&2: From Ferguson to Freddie Gray: Launching investigations amid breaking news
As racially charged riots broke out in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, reporters aggressively chased breaking news. But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Baltimore Sun balanced that coverage with deeper investigations. The Sun broke stories on “rough rides” in police vans that left residents paralyzed, and on thousands of detainees who are denied medical care by police. The Post-Dispatch revealed racial imbalances in local police forces, and a municipal court system that often operates in secret. Suggested panelists: Mark Puente, investigative reporter at The Baltimore Sun; Doug Donovan, investigative reporter at The Baltimore Sun; Jeremy Kohler, investigative reporter at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch; moderator, Dave Rosenthal, Senior Editor for Investigations and Enterprise at The Baltimore Sun.
Franklin 3&4: The Worst Day Of My Life
What do you do when everything goes wrong and you have a bona fide disaster on your hands? A big, expensive project goes belly up; or worse, it airs with imperfections that bring shame and perhaps other severe repercussions down you and your organization. Investigative veterans share some of their horror stories and -- more importantly -- how they recovered; made things right, picked up the pieces and moved on.
Franklin 5&6: Getting your money's worth from census data
Digging into census data can provide the depth needed in reporting on social trends such as persistent poverty, growing income inequality and neighborhood gentrification. Using published reports as a springboard, we'll see how working with spreadsheets, Google fusion tables and sites such as CensusReporter can expose the stories hidden beneath the census numbers. This session is a sequel to the Wednesday workshop, "Finding money stories in census data," sponsored by the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism." The Saturday IRE session includes new material, but is accessible to all. Evan Wyloge, senior reporter at Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, will provide tips and analysis. In his current assignment and prior work as new media specialist at Arizona Capitol Times, he has specialized in data analysis. He holds college degrees in journalism and political science.
Salon G: Periscope for Journalism
The sudden popularity of live-streaming mobile video applications has been creating new possibilities for journalists. But once again, the emerging platforms present a new set of ethical and legal complications.
We will have a quick presentation of recent developments, a Periscope demonstration and then move quickly to audience questions. Expect lively conversation about the challenges and responsibilities of real-time mobile broadcasts.
Jim MacMillan manages the Center for Public Interest Journalism at Temple University. He’s a former photojournalist and journalism professor.
Investigative Reporters and Editors has named the Massachusetts State Police as the winner of its third-annual Golden Padlock Award recognizing the most secretive U.S. agency or individual.
The Massachusetts State Police habitually go to extraordinary lengths to thwart public records requests, protect law enforcement officers and public officials who violate the law and block efforts to scrutinize how the department performs its duties. It normally takes months or longer to respond to news media FOI requests. Requests for basic documents routinely produce refusals, large portions of blacked out documents or demands for tens of thousands of dollars in unjustified fees. Among them, a $42,750 fee for the log of its public records requests and a $62,220 fee for records of crashes involving police cruisers sought by the Boston Globe. A Bay State Examiner reporter was told to pay a $710.50 "non-refundable research fee" to get an estimate of the fee he would have to pay to obtain copies of internal affairs reports. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette concluded: "The Massachusetts State Police is a habitual offender – verging on a career criminal – when it comes to breaking a state law intended to ensure government is accountable to the people it serves."
"True commitment, no matter how offensive to the public interest, must be begrudgingly recognized," said Robert Cribb, chair of IRE’s Golden Padlock committee. "The Massachusetts State Police has distinguished itself as a agency unwavering in its willingness to ensure citizens are protected from the truth."
IRE invited a representative from the winning agency to attend and receive the honor. No response was received.
To learn about the 2015 finalists, click here.
By Fauzeya Rahman
Data-driven reporting must rely on people-driven narratives to evoke the detail, emotion and human element that will make readers care, according to panelists Thursday at the annual IRE conference.
The session, featuring award-winning journalists from the Miami Herald and Washington Post, highlighted two key projects that combined massive amounts of data with personal stories: the Miami Herald’s "Innocents Lost" and the Washington Post’s "Stop and seize."
In "Innocents Lost," the Herald wrote profiles of 477 children in Florida who died of abuse or neglect after falling through Florida’s child welfare safety net, finding some never-before-documented instances of death. "Stop and seize" looked at thousands of cases where police seized money from people without any warrant or charges, totaling millions of dollars across the country.
"We wanted our readers to understand the scale of this problem," the Miami Herald’s Audra Burch said. "We committed to writing profiles of all of these children. We crisscrossed the state, went to cemeteries, read autopsy reports and spent a lot of time with family members."
Burch stressed the importance of detail in these stories.
"Joshua wore Superman pajamas. Jewel wanted to be a princess," Burch said. "We included these kinds of things because we wanted our readers to remember not just their deaths, but to remember their lives. We wanted stories to represent the flaws in Florida’s system."
The Miami Herald created a database from scratch after analyzing thousands of death reviews filed with the Florida Department of Children and Families. They divided cases into various buckets, some matching multiple categories. The Post examined a Department of Justice database with hundreds of thousands of seizure records, federal court cases and internal memos. While data played a key role in illustrating the story’s narrative arc, it didn’t replace the need for verification with real people.
"Data is scary, and you can get burned on it," Michael Sallah said. "You have to bulletproof it by going to the experts."
Steven Rich echoed this thought.
"The best tool in a journalist’s toolbox is a phone," Rich said. "Call people. Make sure you’re doing things right."
Key takeaways:
For more information, check out their read the tip sheet.
Fauzeya is a reporter, researcher and recent graduate from The University of Texas Graduate School of Journalism. She's interested in combining data, investigative reporting and research methods in her work.
IRE members elected six new directors to the IRE board on Saturday evening at the organization's annual conference in Philadelphia.
The newly elected members are: Cheryl W. Thompson, The Washington Post/George Washington University; Ziva Branstetter, The Frontier; Matt Goldberg, KNBC; Josh Meyer, Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, Northwestern University; T. Christian Miller, ProPublica; and Steven Rich, The Washington Post.
The board then selected members of the executive committee. They are: Sarah Cohen, president; Matt Goldberg, vice president; Ellen Gabler, secretary; Andrew Donohue, treasurer, and Josh Meyer.
The membership also elected two members to the Contest Committee. They are: Jim Polk, formerly of CNN, and Michael Lindenberger, The Dallas Morning News.
By Mariam Baksh
Michael Beckel reports on money and politics for the Center for Public Integrity, Julie Bykowicz covers money and politics for the Associated Press and Robert Faturechi covers campaign finance for ProPublica. Among them, there’s almost three decades of experience reporting on political campaigns.
Here are their tips for navigating the worlds of political ads and campaign cash.
In addition to their tips, members of the panel acknowledged one unfortunate reality: Getting information from IRS applications for tax-exempt status can take up to a year or more.
"By that time, it’s kind of too late," Bykowiscz said.
Mariam Baksh is an alumna of American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop and is finishing her master's in journalism and public affairs with a Capstone project in partnership with The Washington Post. Before enrolling at American, Baksh spent five years doing citizen outreach and communications for the Fund for the Public Interest and Environment America, and is primarily interested in identifying and exposing root causes in the public interest, especially as it relates to freedom and democracy. She also has her bachelor's in photojournalism from the University of Florida and is currently reporting on the Colorado delegation in Congress and other relevant news from DC as an intern for The Durango Herald.
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