DOCSLIB.ORG

The Role of Financial Journalists in Corporate Governance

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Role of Financial Journalists in Corporate Governance Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU Law Faculty Articles and Essays Faculty Scholarship 2007 The Role of Financial Journalists in Corporate Governance Michael J. Borden Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/fac_articles Part of the Business Organizations Law Commons, and the Securities Law Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Original Citation Michael Borden, The Role of Financial Journalists in Corporate Governance, 12 Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law 311 (2007) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Faculty Articles and Essays by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law Volume 12, Issue 2 2007 Article 3 The Role of Financial Journalists in Corporate Governance Michael J. Borden∗ ∗ Copyright c 2007 by the authors. Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law is produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress). http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/jcfl THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL JOURNALISTS IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Michael J. Borden∗ ∗ Assistant Professor of Law, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University. I wish to thank David Barnhizer, Veronica Dougherty, Patti Falk, David Forte, Chris Sagers, and Eric Tucker for their input during the early stages of this project. This Article benefited from the able research assistance of Meghann Proie and Carl Schatz and from the financial support of the Cleveland-Marshall Fund. I am profoundly indebted to Joel Topcik and Miranda Borden. 311 312 FORDHAM JOURNAL OF Vol. XII CORPORATE & FINANCIAL LAW TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...................................................................................... 313 I. FILLING A GAP IN CORPORATE LAW: WHERE DO JOURNALISTS FIT INTO OUR SCHEME OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE? .............. 316 A. How Corporate Law Works.................................................. 316 B. Reputational Constraints....................................................... 320 C. Gatekeepers As a Constraint on Management. ..................... 321 II. WHAT CAN WE EXPECT OF JOURNALISTS AND WHY? ................ 323 A. Journalists Are Best Suited to Uncovering Affirmative Wrongdoing. ....................................................................... 323 B. Journalism Or Shaming?....................................................... 324 C. Careerist Self-Interest as an Incentive for Energetic Reporting ............................................................................ 326 D. Contrast with Political Journalists ........................................ 327 E. How Do Financial Journalists Get Their Information?......... 329 III. ROLES JOURNALISTS PLAY. ........................................................ 332 A. Investigative Journalists Can Uncover a Deep Fraud and Initiate a Market-Based Response: The Case of Enron. ..... 335 B. Financial Journalists as Catalysts of Judicial and Regulatory Process: The Recent Annuities Litigation........ 339 C. Journalists Can Influence Standards of Review in Compliance Litigation ........................................................ 343 D. Financial Journalists Can Impact the Legislative Process. ... 350 IV. JOURNALISTS AND ANALYSTS..................................................... 357 A. Weaknesses of Journalists .................................................... 357 B. The Role and Conflicts of Securities Analysts. .................... 361 C. The Intersection of Journalists and Analysts. ....................... 364 D. Regulation FD: Preliminary Thoughts for Future Research. 366 CONCLUSION......................................................................................... 369 2007 THE ROLE OF FINANCIAL JOURNALISTS 313 INTRODUCTION Recent corporate scandals have caused many corporate law scholars to re-evaluate a great deal of corporate law orthodoxy. In a recent essay, Michael Klausner highlighted the limits of corporate law in promoting good corporate governance and called for scholars to devote greater attention to extralegal enforcement mechanisms.1 A great many scholars have already taken up that effort. Some have pursued the insights offered by behavioral economics to aid their rethinking of the last quarter century’s corporate law jurisprudence and commentary.2 Many have focused their attention on the functioning of the securities markets and the various players who comprise it.3 Jill Fisch, Hillary Sale, and John Coffee, among others, have emphasized the role of gatekeepers such as securities analysts, securities lawyers, and auditors.4 A great deal of this work has focused on the conflicts of interest afflicting various actors and ways to deal with these conflicts.5 An article by Bernard Black emphasizes the importance of accurate, honest 1. Michael Klausner, The Limits of Corporate Law in Promoting Good Corporate Governance, in RESTORING TRUST IN AMERICAN BUSINESS 91, 97-8 (Jay W. Lorsch, Leslie Berlowitz & Andy Zelleke eds., 2005). Klausner explains the shortcomings of corporate law and calls for attention to be paid to extra-legal influences on governance. He notes that professional norms are “fostered by the financial press every time they write a story that exposes bad board behavior . .” Id. 2. See generally Stephen J. Choi & A.C. Pritchard, Behavioral Economics and the SEC, 56 STAN. L. REV. 1, 14 (2003); Ronald J. Gilson & Reinier Kraakman, The Mechanisms of Market Efficiency Twenty Years Later: The Hindsight Bias, 28 J. CORP. L. 715 (2003); Donald C. Langevoort, Taming the Animal Spirits of the Stock Markets: A Behavioral Approach to Securities Regulation, 97 NW. U. L. REV. 135 (2002); Robert Prentice, Whither Securities Regulation? Some Behavioral Observations Regarding Proposals for its Future, 51 Duke L.J. 1397 (2002); A. Michelle Dickerson, A Behavioral Approach to Analyzing Corporate Failures, 38 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 1 (2003). 3. See generally Robert J. Thompson & Hillary A. Sale, Securities Regulation as Corporate Governance: Reflections upon Federalism, 56 VAND. L. REV. 859 (2003). 4. See Jill. E. Fisch & Hillary A. Sale, The Securities Analyst As Agent: Rethinking the Regulation of Analysts, 88 IOWA L. REV. 1035, 1040-56 (2003); see generally John C. Coffee, Jr., Gatekeeper Failure and Reform: The Challenge of Fashioning Relevant Reforms, 84 B.U. L. REV. 301 (hereinafter Coffee, Gatekeeper Failure); John C. Coffee, Jr., Understanding Enron: “It’s About the Gatekeepers, Stupid,” 57 Bus. L.J. 1403 (2002) (hereinafter Coffee, Understanding Enron). 5. See Coffee, Gatekeeper Failure, supra note 4, at 301; Coffee, Understanding Enron, supra note 4, at 1403; Fisch & Sale, supra note 4, at 1035. 314 FORDHAM JOURNAL OF Vol. XII CORPORATE & FINANCIAL LAW disclosure and how to ensure its quality.6 Indeed, disclosure goes to the very heart of any market-based extralegal enforcement apparatus in corporate governance. This Article pursues the important theme of disclosure, but focuses on a feature that has remained almost entirely overlooked by corporate and securities law scholars: the role of financial journalists in corporate governance.7 This omission is perhaps due to the fact that journalists do not fit easily into a legal discussion because they are largely unregulated. They are, in a sense, not legal actors, and, therefore do not comfortably become the subject of a legal prescription. Nevertheless, journalists contribute in many ways to the legal system at large and the system of corporate governance in particular. This Article uses case studies to highlight the importance of financial journalists in our scheme of corporate law by identifying and illustrating several distinct ways that journalists contribute to our system of corporate governance. It is beyond the scope of this Article to fully explain the mechanisms whereby journalistic reporting affects attitudes and actions, whether on the part of the public at large, legislators, judges, prosecutors or corporate directors and officers.8 Nonetheless, the case studies suggest causal links between the reporting described and the consequences for corporate governance that follow. Rather than attempting to undertake a thoroughgoing empirical exploration of the 6. See Bernard S. Black, The Legal and Institutional Preconditions for Strong Securities Markets, 48 UCLA L. REV. 781 (2001). 7. Despite ubiquitous references to media reports throughout corporate law scholarship, no one has written a thorough account of the role of the media in corporate law. Scholars have, however, paid some attention to the media in other areas of law. See, e.g., Melissa B. Jacoby, Negotiating Bankruptcy Legislation Through the Media, 41 HOUS. L. REV. 1091 (2004) (discussing the media’s role in the legislative process that ultimately led to the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005); M. ETHAN KATSH, LAW IN A DIGITAL WORLD 9 (1995) “Scholars seem to view the powerful realms of law and media as distinct and independent, each having an impact on behavior and attitudes, but having little influence on each other.” (pointing out that books about communication and society rarely focus on law, while books about law focus on speech regulation and free expression, but little else); KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON & PAUL WALDMAN, THE PRESS EFFECT:
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Lessons from the Financial Crisis What Have We
    LESSONS FROM THE FINANCIAL CRISIS WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? BUSINESS JOURNALISTS SPEAK OUT. Tatiana Darie Randall Smith, Project Chair PROFESSIONAL ANALYSIS ARTICLE This research project aims to explore what lessons have business journalists learned from covering the biggest story of the decade: the financial crisis. Through a series of in-depth interviews with top editors and reporters who were setting the agenda seven years ago and are leaders in the newsroom today, this study wants to investigate the following research question: How has the financial crisis changed the way business journalists do their jobs today? Seven years on, what lessons have been learned? More importantly, this study wants to assess to what extent has that knowledge translated into real changes in the industry? An answer to this question would identify what tools and indicators are journalists watching now to be able to see and avert the next financial or economic collapse. Probing theories of gatekeeping and social responsibility, this paper sets out to determine how the recession has changed the roles, duties, and constraints of business journalism. RQ: How has the financial crisis changed the way business journalists do their jobs today? Theoretical Framework Gatekeeping One of the oldest and most applicable theories in mass communication research relevant to this study is gatekeeping – a concept that describes how media organizations filter information for publication (Shoemaker & Vos, 2009). Mass audiences rely and trust journalists to scan the world’s most important events and stories into digestible snippets of information. Gatekeeping explains how and why certain stories make it out in the public while others don’t (5).
    [Show full text]
  • A Single Organization Controls Almost Everything You See, Hear, and Read in the Media and They've Been Handpicking Your Leaders for Decades
    by Matt Agorist January 29, 2018 from TheFreeThoughtProject Website A single organization controls almost everything you see, hear, and read in the media and they've been handpicking your leaders for decades. It is no secret that over the last 4 decades, mainstream media has been consolidated from dozens of competing companies to only six. Hundreds of channels, websites, news outlets, newspapers, and magazines, making up ninety percent of all media is controlled by very few people, giving Americans the illusion of choice. While six companies controlling most everything the Western world consumes in regard to media may sound like a sinister arrangement, the Swiss Propaganda Research center (SPR) has just released information that is even worse. The research group was able to tie all these media companies to a single organization: the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). For those who may be unaware, the CFR is a primary member of the circle of Washington think-tanks promoting endless war. As former Army Major Todd Pierce describes, this group acts as "primary provocateurs" using, "'psychological suggestiveness' to create a false narrative of danger from some foreign entity with the objective being to create paranoia within the U.S. population that it is under imminent threat of attack or takeover." A senior member of the CFR and outspoken neocon warmonger, Robert Kagan has even publicly proclaimed that the U.S. should create an empire. The narrative created by CFR and its cohorts is picked up by their secondary communicators, also known the mainstream media, who push it on the populace with no analysis or questioning.
    [Show full text]
  • Top of Page Interview Information--Different Title
    Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley Oral History Center University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Paul Steiger Paul Steiger: Business Reporting and the Creation of ProPublica The Marion and Herbert Sandler Oral History Project Interviews conducted by Martin Meeker in 2017 Copyright © 2019 by The Regents of the University of California Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley ii Since 1954 the Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Paul Steiger dated November 29, 2017.
    [Show full text]
  • The Trump Administration and the Media: Attacks on Press Credibility Endanger US Democracy and Global Press Freedom
    The Trump Administration and the Media: Attacks on press credibility endanger US democracy and global press freedom By Leonard Downie Jr. with research by Stephanie Sugars A special report of the Committee to Protect Journalists The Trump Administration and the Media: Attacks on press credibility endanger US democracy and global press freedom By Leonard Downie Jr. with research by Stephanie Sugars A special report of the Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal. In order to preserve our independence, CPJ does not accept any government grants or support of any kind; our work is funded entirely by contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations. CHAIR VICE CHAIR HONORARY CHAIRMAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Kathleen Carroll Jacob Weisberg Terry Anderson Joel Simon DIRECTORS Jonathan Klein Norman Pearlstine getty images los angeles times Stephen J. Adler reuters Jane Kramer Lydia Polgreen the new yorker gimlet media Andrew Alexander Mhamed Krichen Ahmed Rashid al-jazeera Amanda Bennett David Remnick Isaac Lee Krishna Bharat the new yorker google Rebecca MacKinnon Maria Teresa Ronderos Diane Brayton Kati Marton Alan Rusbridger new york times company lady margaret hall, oxford Michael Massing Susan Chira Karen Amanda Toulon Geraldine Fabrikant Metz the marshall project bloomberg news the new york times Sheila Coronel Darren Walker columbia university Matt Murray ford foundation school of journalism the wall street journal and dow jones newswires Roger Widmann Anne Garrels Victor Navasky Jon Williams Cheryl Gould the nation rté Lester Holt Clarence Page Matthew Winkler nbc chicago tribune bloomberg news SENIOR ADVISERS David Marash Sandra Mims Rowe Christiane Amanpour Charles L.
    [Show full text]
  • Penelope Abernathy Joaquin Alvarado
    How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age? bios Penelope Abernathy Joaquin Alvarado Penelope Abernathy is Knight Chair in Journalism Joaquin Alvarado is Senior Vice President, Digital and Digital Media Economics at the University Innovation at American Public Media. Alvarado of North Carolina School of Journalism and leads strategic development of APM’s Public Mass Communication. Abernathy, a journalism Insight initiatives, as well as developing models for professional with more than 30 years experience deepening audience engagement, widening digital as a reporter, editor and media executive, became reach and increasing digital revenue growth across all the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media operating divisions. Economics at the school July 1, 2008. Abernathy, a Laurinburg, N.C., native and former executive Alvarado comes to APM/MPR from the Corporation at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, for Public Broadcasting, where he led successful specializes in preserving quality journalism by initiatives in broadening the reach and diversity helping the news business succeed economically in within public media as Senior Vice President for the digital media environment. Before joining the Diversity and Innovation. Prior to joining the school, she was vice president and executive director CPB, Alvarado spearheaded many key projects and of industry programs at the Paley Center for Media companies furthering new frameworks for public in New York City. As an executive, Abernathy media, education and community leadership in the launched new enterprises and helped increase Internet age. In 2008, he initiated CoCo Studios, revenue at some of the nation’s most prominent news promoting media collaboration and information organizations and publishing companies, including sharing for fiber and mobile networks.
    [Show full text]
  • [IRE Journal Issue Irejspring09; Tue Jun 23 13:49:45 2009]
    Please Help IRE Obtain a $50,000 Challenge Fund for Journalism Grant t this crucial time for our industry and a challenging financial time for IRE, support for IRE’s mission becomes more important than ever. IRE gives journalists the skills and tools that enable them to fulfill their watchdog role, and your contribution will assist in continuing these efforts. Year after year, IRE works hard to raise the standards for reporting and editing, and to stay on the cutting edge of the best journalism techniques. Year after year, we help print, broadcast and online journalists throughout the world become better watchdogs for society. And year after year, IRE helps journalists keep governments, businesses and individuals accountable for their actions. The $50,000 grant will help IRE improve our Web site, with a focus on developing online training initiatives, and modernize our database systems to better deliver resources and services to our members. What donations qualify for the program? • If you’ve never given to IRE – or haven’t made a donation in the past three years – anything you give will count toward our goal. • If you are a recent donor, then we can still count anything you give if it’s more than you’ve given in any of the past three years. • Although the focus of the program is on individual donors, your contribution will qualify if you give through your family foundation or business. In addition, if your employer has a matching-gifts program, the corporate match will also count toward the challenge. • Donations may be directed toward the IRE Endowment Fund, general operations and/or targeted programming.
    [Show full text]
  • 2019 ANNUAL REPORT in the Lives of Americans
    2019 ANNUAL REPORT In the Lives of Americans ProPublica is an unusual news organization. Nearly all of our stories are investigative, which for most newsrooms is a small part of their work. We also have a clear mission: We seek through our journalism to spur real-world change, and we judge our own success by how often and to what extent we achieve this objective. And these are unusual times. All 2019, we want to spotlight some of interest and dividends — which of us are confronted with news those stories. describes most people. we never imagined possible, with We have been reporting about But the online services lobbied a level of polarization in our so- online tax filing services since against the idea of government-as- ciety not seen in a century and a 2013. But it was not until 2019 sisted tax prep and prevailed in ex- half, with norms being smashed that we understood the extent to change for the companies offering seemingly every week, with news which their lobbying efforts, with free services to most taxpayers. cycles shortening and attention Congress and especially the IRS, In fact, however, few taxpayers spans with them, with barriers to were resulting in higher profits used the free services. Why? Our speech dramatically lowered and for the companies. We revealed stories revealed that the free of- a resultant cacophony of speakers. that TurboTax especially, but also ferings were confusingly named How does our unusual orga- H&R Block, were selling millions (paid services were labeled “free”) nization make its way through of taxpayers a service they could and even hidden from Google and these unusual times? Sometimes, have received for free.
    [Show full text]
  • Board of Directors Vote
    IRE Board vote 9/16/2020 Following an Executive Committee recommendation, the IRE Board voted unanimously to sign on to a letter (attached) from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department concerning the violent arrest of KPCC reporter Josie Huang over the weekend. The letter urges that the charges against Ms. Huang be dropped, that the Department offer a public explanation of the arrest and subsequent false statements about it, and that the Department take further steps to protect reporters engaged in lawful newsgathering in Los Angeles County. By email 1156 15th St. NW, Suite 1020 Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 795-9300 September 16, 2020 www.rcfp.org Bruce D. Brown Executive Director Sheriff Alex Villanueva [email protected] (202) 795-9301 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department STEERING COMMITTEE 211 W. Temple St. STEPHEN J. ADLER Los Angeles, CA 90012 Reuters J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE The Associated Press WOLF BLITZER Lt. John Satterfield CNN Sheriff’s Information Bureau DAVID BOARDMAN Temple University Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department THEODORE J. BOUTROUS, JR. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP 211 W. Temple St. MASSIMO CALABRESI Time Magazine Los Angeles, CA 90012 MANNY GARCIA Pro Publica EMILIO GARCIA-RUIZ Re: Arrest of journalist Josie Huang The Washington Post JOSH GERSTEIN POLITICO Dear Sheriff Villanueva: ALEX GIBNEY Jigsaw Productions SUSAN GOLDBERG National Geographic The undersigned are members of state and local news media, national JAMES GRIMALDI The Wall Street Journal news organizations with properties in California, wire services, and nonprofit LAURA HANDMAN groups that protect the rights of journalists to gather and report news.
    [Show full text]
  • The American Empire and Its Media
    edia COUNCILon., FOREIGN Est. 1954 Est.1921 Est.1973 RELATIONS THE TRllATERAl COMMISSION . ....�"!"'. & 1 4 n5 146 17 18 158 FOREIGN AFFAIRS FT 0 NY � • PBS. DAILY•NEWS NEWS 250 135 11/C CH c ,I;. fill You 19/C 20/C 100/C 117/B/D/T 118/C 160/C 171/C 172/C [iJ 136 149r7!il ID 26 c c c � ,� -- 2/C '''.it- Ill clHJ ·�D 188/C 189/T 101/C 102/C 119/C 120/C/T PIXt\R 161/C 162/C 181/D 182/C II 72 � 183/C 184/C 13/C 14/C 21/C c 173/C 174/C 36 [9] a -.� ���.a. c .. ts/c 49/C ii. 85/C 86/B/C 104/B/C 121/M 122/C 163/C � 138 - 151 El !Al 60/D 61/B/C • ,. • c T 28 [al ' " c 37 �j llf8'Jil ....... Ji..i. ... ./ 87/C 88/C 124/C a c 50/C 51/C 165/C 166/C 29 3/C � c U..N...l.· ""'..•..•..s...A. L. v �· THE TII\IES 38n -r.: 126/C B/C�,- 75� 175/C 176/C '• " 190/D/T - 127/C 39r7""" 76 154 Sl(Y c c (3N c 'l'heNewVorlr. iA Review of Books' AP i!limcs 64/C 65/C 93/T 111/8/C 112/C/T 129/C Journalists and media executives: New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report 1: Mortimer B. Zuckerman, publisher [ Slate 2: Jacob Weisberg, group editor I The Nation 3: Katrina VandenHeuvel, publisher [ Foreign Affairs 4: James F.
    [Show full text]
  • Messing with the Magic PART TWO - the Google Story
    Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication PREFACE PART ONE - Different Planets CHAPTER ONE - Messing with the Magic PART TWO - The Google Story CHAPTER TWO - Starting in a Garage CHAPTER THREE - Buzz but Few Dollars CHAPTER FOUR - Prepping the Google Rocket CHAPTER FIVE - Innocence or Arrogance? CHAPTER SIX - Google Goes Public CHAPTER SEVEN - The New Evil Empire? PART THREE - Google Versus the Bears CHAPTER EIGHT - Chasing the Fox CHAPTER NINE - War on Multiple Fronts CHAPTER TEN - Waking the Government Bear CHAPTER ELEVEN - Google Enters Adolescence CHAPTER TWELVE - Is "Old" Media Drowning? CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Compete or Collaborate? CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Happy Birthday PART FOUR - Googled CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Googled CHAPTER SIXTEEN - Where Is the Wave Taking Old Media? CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - Where Is the Wave Taking Google? Acknowledgements NOTES INDEX ALSO BY KEN AULETTA Media Man: Ted Turner's Improbable Empire Backstory: Inside the Business of News World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies The Higbwaymen: Warriors of the Information Superhighway Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman The Art of Corporate Success: The Story of Schlumberger The Underclass Hard Feelings The Streets Were Paved with Gold THE PENGUIN PRESS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.). Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England. Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd).
    [Show full text]
  • Propublica Editor Steiger to Deliver Mcgill Lecture
    ProPublica Editor Steiger to Deliver McGill Lecture Athens, GA - An editor who is transforming investigative journalism will deliver this year’s McGill Lecture at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Oct. 20, in Room 171 of the Miller Learning Center. Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief of ProPublica, will speak on “Making Journalism Work in the Digital Age.” The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception follows. Steiger’s ProPublica is a non-profit, nonpartisan investigative-reporting team, based in New York. He also serves as chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit that advocates for press freedom around the globe. From 1999 to 2007, Steiger was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, serving as its chairman in his final year. He is a trustee of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation which funds efforts to enhance journalism and the functioning of American communities. Steiger served as the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal from 1991 to 2007. During his tenure, members of the Journal’s newsroom staff were awarded 16 Pulitzer Prizes. In addition, a ProPublica reporter received a Pulitzer Prize in 2010. Steiger worked for 15 years as a reporter, the Washington economics correspondent and the business editor for the Los Angeles Times, and for 26 years as a reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University in 1964. His many awards include the Columbia Journalism Award, the University of Missouri Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism, the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center, the Gerald Loeb Award for Lifetime Achievement from the John E.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report, 2018
    2018 ANNUAL REPORT Ten Years On Highlights of the Year at ProPublica Impact Our journalism spurred a host of real-world changes, including the reversal of President Donald Trump’s migrant family separation policy; the first federal leg- islation in decades addressing maternal deaths; the end of a Facebook practice that facilitated discrimi- nation; and the resignation of leaders from a troubled children’s charity operating in Liberia. Many of these changes came at a local level, including a politician losing his bid for reelection in Chicago, a police chief’s resignation in Indiana after revelations about police brutality and the arrests of white supremacists re- sponsible for violence in Charlottesville. Important Stories Our work revealed how a trio of Mar-a-Lago business- men are quietly shaping policies at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it explained how a bud- get-deprived IRS is unable to pursue tax cheats. We Claudio Papapietro for ProPublica unmasked side deals and hidden incentives in the health insurance industry; traced how junk forensic Cover: Months after the Trump administration was ordered science has become entrenched in the criminal jus- to stop separating children from their parents at the border, tice system; exposed Chicago’s aggressive and un- ProPublica was the first to reveal that the separations equal ticketing practices and revealed apparent age continued. In one case, a four-year-old Salvadoran boy, discrimination at IBM. named Brayan, had been taken from his father and sent to a foster home in New York. After our story, authorities reversed course and reunited the boy with his father.
    [Show full text]