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The Board of the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) strongly encourages the U.S. government to exercise great restraint when considering matters surrounding the documents released through Wikileaks or taking any actions that could undermine American traditions of a free press and open government. While controversy exists about the nature of Wikileaks’ activities and the disclosure…
Read MoreTo answer nagging questions about the foreclosure crisis, Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica and Sanjay Bhatt of The Seattle Times built a database based on a random sample of some 1,200 foreclosure filings from the central county of three metro areas — Seattle, Phoenix and Baltimore. Their findings challenge some of the conventional wisdom about the…
Read MoreHobbled by Congress, federal watchdogs rarely revoke the licenses of lawbreaking gun dealers. And when they do, stores can easily beat the system by having a relative, friend or employee pull a fresh license – something that routinely happens across the country, a Journal Sentinel investigation by reporters John Diedrich and Ben Poston has found.…
Read MoreJournalists for The Record of northern New Jersey have revisited the site of the paper’s “Toxic Legacy” series five years ago and found that the clean-up of a former Ford Motor Co. dump in environmentally sensitive woodlands remains incomplete. The original series prompted the EPA to take the unprecedented step of re-listing the tract as…
Read MoreSarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Paige St. John spent the past year investigating Florida’s property insurance crisis. Her work exposed companies that continued to sell policies when they had no way to pay claims and revealed company owners who demanded rate hikes while secretly siphoning profits from their struggling businesses. The series also revealed how insurers and…
Read MoreThe Washington Post‘s yearlong investigation documenting the way guns move through American society continues with an examination of the role U.S. gun dealers play in supplying Mexican drug cartels. The Post cracked the secrecy of the federal government’s gun-trace database and obtained the names of the top U.S. stores with the most guns traced back…
Read MoreAn investigation by Ellen Gabler of the Chicago Tribune has prompted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to review the safety of crib bumpers, which are popular baby products sold in stores throughout the country. The Tribune found that while the safety commission acknowledged it has gotten more than two dozen reports of infant deaths…
Read MoreMichael Berens, of The Seattle Times, uncovered the hidden cost of elder placement agencies that promise to match seniors to long-term care facilities – for free. Elder placement is a national multi-million dollar industry with no rules and zero oversight. Seniors are steered only to facilities that agree to pay hefty commissions. Most placement companies…
Read MoreA a four-part investigation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNSF) by the Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.) with ProPublica reveals a troubled railroad company. “Over the past decade, court records show, judges around the country have disciplined BNSF after finding that the company or its lawyers broke rules aimed at ensuring fair legal proceedings…
Read MoreBy Derek Willis IRE Member Hey there, journalism student! A bunch of your colleagues are having a get-together in February, and you should come. Actually, you need to be there. I’m talking about Investigative Reporters and Editors’ annual Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference, held in Raleigh, North Carolina. Several days of panels, hands-on training and talks with journalists from all kinds…
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