Nieman Reports

THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 64 NO. 4 WINTER 2010

The !"#$%Goes On

Its &'($') Changes

ENERGY • SPORTS • GOVERNMENT • FAMILY • SCIENCE • ARTS • POLITICS + MORE BEATS ‘to promote and elevate the standards of journalism’

Agnes Wahl Nieman the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation

Vol. 64 No. 4 Winter 2010 Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University

Bob Giles | Publisher Melissa Ludtke | Editor Jan Gardner | Assistant Editor Jonathan Seitz | Editorial Assistant Diane Novetsky | Design Editor

Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Editorial in March, June, September and December Telephone: 617-496-6308 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, E-mail Address: One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. [email protected]

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THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL. 64 NO. 4 WINTER 2010

4 The Beat Goes On—Its Rhythm Changes

The Beat: The Building Block 5 The Capriciousness of Beats | By Kate Galbraith 7 It’s Scary Out There in Reporting Land | By David Cay Johnston 9 The Blog as Beat | By Juanita León 11 A Journalistic Vanishing Act | By Elizabeth Maupin 13 From Newsroom to Nursery—The Beat Goes On | By Diana K. Sugg 15 Family Beat: Stories We Tell Around the Kitchen Table | By Beth Macy

The Beat: The Watchful Eye 17 It’s Expertise That Matters | By Michael Riley 19 When Local Eyes Were Watching Their Lawmakers | By George E. Condon, Jr. 22 Statehouse Beat Woes Portend Bad News for Good Government | By Gene Gibbons 26 Investigative Reporting About Secrecy | By Ted Gup

The Beat: The Science Angle 28 There’s Something to Be Said for Longevity | By Craig Welch 31 The Science Beat: Riding a Wave, Going Somewhere | By Charles Petit 35 Eclectic, Entertaining and Educational—The 21st Century Science Beat | By Paul Rogers

The Beat: The Topic as Target 38 Modern-Day Slavery: A Necessary Beat—With Different Challenges | By E. Benjamin Skinner 41 Visual Stories of Human Trafficking’s Victims | An Essay in Words and Photographs by Melanie Hamman 46 Geographic Fortunes—and Misfortunes—Define This New Midwest Beat | By Micheline Maynard 48 Community Host: An Emerging Newsroom ‘Beat’ Without a Guide | By TBD’s Community Engagement Team

Cover: Music from “Summer Days,” words and music by Gabrielle Goodman, from her book “Vocal Improvisation: Techniques in Jazz, R&B, and Gospel Improvisation.” Goodman is a singer, songwriter and professor of voice at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Design: Diane Novetsky | Nova Design The Beat: The Sports Reporter 51 The Sports Beat: A Digital Reporting Mix—With Exhaustion Built In | By Dave Kindred 54 Frank Deford: Sports Writing in the Internet Age | Excerpt from a speech by Frank Deford 56 The Sports Tweet: New Routines on an Old Beat | By Lindsay Jones 58 The Sportswriter as Fan: Me and My Blog | By Jason Fry 60 It’s a Brand-New Ballgame—For Sports Reporters | By Malcolm Moran 63 A Shrinking Sports Beat: Women’s Teams, Athletes | By Marie Hardin

Words & Reflections

65 From Journalism to Self-Publishing Books | By Fons Tuinstra 67 Figuring Out What a 21st Century Book Can Be | By Dan Gillmor 69 Creating a Navigational Guide to New Media | Excerpt from a book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel 71 Measuring Progress: Women as Journalists | By Kay Mills

3 Curator’s Corner: Expanding the Vision of the Nieman Foundation | By Bob Giles

73 Nieman Notes | Compiled by Jan Gardner 73 Returning Home to Sri Lanka to Face Difficult and Delicate Questions in Perilous Times | By Suvendrini Kakuchi 75 Class Notes 86 Letters to the Editor 88 End Note: Unforgettable Characters Encountered in Covering the Civil Rights Movement | By Wayne Greenhaw

Teaching Journalism?

Turn to Professor’s Corner—Nieman Reports’s companion website. Here we combine stories from our pages with fresh articles and useful links. We bundle these resources in ways that provide ease of access to ideas for planning curriculum with content that works well for classroom teaching. Here are two highlights:

• J-School Partnerships: Engaging Students in Producing News: This is a collection of resources and stories about universities that are partnering with media outlets; stu- dents’ coverage of news is published and broadcast to an audience far beyond the campus. • Visual Journalism:!Here we offer a valuable combination of insights from photographers, multimedia producers, and professors about ways to teach photojournalism and the production of multimedia reports.!

2 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Curator’s Corner

Expanding the Vision of the Nieman Foundation ‘Ten years later, as I prepare to retire in June, the foundation has a respected voice in the vibrant conversations about the future of journalism.’

BY BOB GILES

hen I arrived at Lippmann House in early August presence in the world of narrative. 2000 to begin my tenure as curator, I had only In 2004, Barry Sussman, who edited coverage of Watergate an inkling of the sweeping changes that would at The Washington Post, joined us to create the Nieman Wwash over journalism and mainstream news organizations Watchdog Project (niemanwatchdog.org). It strengthens during the coming decade. reporters’ ability to ask insightful questions by publish- My predecessor, Bill Kovach, in announcing his retire- ing essays by experts with a deep knowledge of pertinent ment, had a clearer picture of what the Nieman Founda- issues—a process similar to the learning experience of tion needed: a leader who was closer to the technological Nieman Fellows in Harvard’s classrooms. revolution sweeping the profession because of the Internet. In the fall of 2007, I told the Nieman Foundation Advisory Instead of a curator with a Web 1.0 grasp of the new Board that it was important for the foundation to find its digital world at that moment, Harvard hired a man who place in the critical discussions about how technology was was, at best, a Web 0.0. Ten years later, as I prepare to changing journalism. We spent a year investigating the retire in June, the foundation has a respected voice in the idea before deciding to launch a project that became the vibrant conversations about the future of journalism. Its Nieman Journalism Lab (niemanlab.org). Joshua Benton, online presence has built a large and growing audience who was just completing his Nieman year, was hired as while enriching the experience of Nieman Fellows. director. Through a mixture of original reporting and In my last years as a newspaper editor, I understood research, analysis and commentary, and the input of a that an emerging culture of innovation and experimenta- vibrant community of innovators and thinkers, the lab has tion would reshape journalism. I pushed my staff at The become a core resource for those who are trying to figure Detroit News to launch detnews.com in 1995. I couldn’t out how quality journalism can thrive and survive in the tell you how they did it, but I loved what my role as Internet age. By its second anniversary this October, the editor empowered me to do: Hire talented people, give lab had generated 2.4 million page views. them freedom to carry out their responsibilities, encourage The expansion of Walter Lippmann House in 2003 creativity, and enable them to bring the best ideas to life. enabled the foundation to introduce an era of Nieman Meeting with the Nieman staff on that first day, I conferences. Fellows meet for seminars with policymakers, recognized that change wouldn’t come quickly but that scholars and other journalists in this enlarged space, which new thinking had to begin. Nieman Reports (nieman is where we host dinners, soundings, workshops and con- reports.org) existed on the foundation’s website, though ferences. In her role as special projects manager, Stefanie in rudimentary form. Through the years, the magazine’s Friedhoff, NF ’01, organizes a range of events for fellows, digital footprint has grown considerably—with slideshows, the Harvard community, and targeted audiences where audio and curated links supplementing its content—and reporters and potential sources meet in an environment its global audience continues to expand via social media. that lessens tensions and misunderstandings and where Editor Melissa Ludtke, NF ’92, and her staff serve journal- they are exposed to authoritative knowledge and fresh ideas. ism educators through Professor’s Corner, where original The Nieman Foundation’s capacity for change and growth content is paired online with stories from the magazine has been supported by a solid financial base built on an for use by faculty and students. endowment that has grown substantially as part of the The first major innovation was establishing the Nieman university’s investment portfolio. Over the past decade, the Narrative Journalism Program. Mark Kramer came from foundation itself has raised $9 million from grant givers Boston University in 2001 to build an annual conference to underwrite fellowships and programs and from friends that drew many hundreds and associated the Nieman and alumni whose gifts helped pay off the investment in Foundation with the best in journalistic storytelling. His enlarging and renovating Lippmann House. successor, Constance Hale, brought the narrative experience I have come to deeply appreciate two of the Nieman onto the foundation’s website, and when financial cutbacks Foundation’s many blessings: its special role as an indepen- in 2009 forced us to suspend the conference, Andrea Pitzer, dent part of a university community that is welcoming to an ’08 affiliate, stepped in to create Nieman Storyboard its fellows and a universe of journalists around the world (niemanstoryboard.us), which sustains the foundation’s proud to say they are Nieman Fellows. 

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 3 The Beat Goes On—Its Rhythm Changes

Beats are the newsroom’s skeletal structure. Assigned to cover specific topics, reporters employ laser-like attention to deliver depth, dimension and context in their stories. Time translates into expertise—and after a while, the reporter is able to offer the level of judg- ment that an editor needs to rely on. Now, as newsrooms shrink and blogs multiply, news and information gets absorbed in different ways by a more fragmented audience. For bloggers, the backbone of what they publish resembles the beats of older media with regular digging into a topic or tapping into what makes a locale click—creating a gaggle of expertise within an interactive community. Economic circumstances and digital opportunities now dictate the demise of some familiar beats: Foreign bureaus have shut down, as have some bureaus in Washington, D.C. and other U.S. cities, leaving some reporters who covered federal agen- cies, statehouses and city halls without a beat; longtime arts critics TS „ ENERG who see their job descriptions change decide to move on, some AR Y „ to the Web; and as the space for science reporting shrinks „ E S N in traditional media outlets, digital venues feature subdi- C V I RECY „ FA IR vided beats. IT EC M O S IL N At this time, too, new beats emerge. At “Changing L „ Y E „ M O S H Gears,” a public media project, the future of the U GTON U E P IN , O D N H M industrial Midwest is a collaborative beat; at the S . „ H C T A

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S S Even so, the pace of the sports reporters’ daily grind could be the canary in journalism’s coal mine given their care and feeding of a hungry audience empowered by social media. Lindsay Jones, who covers the NFL Broncos for The Denver Post, writes that: “I don’t get much sleep. My thumbs get tired. And I’ve figured out that if I am going to half-walk, half-run to tweet breaking news, I need to wear sneakers.” Sneakers keep her moving until exhaustion sets in. On top of regular reporting duties, the beat reporter tracks innumerable team-related blogs and Twitter feeds, tweets constantly, writes blog posts, live-blogs the game, and then files and updates stories at a pace unimagined even a few years ago. “From the time I get to the ballpark, four hours before a game, until I’m done two hours or so after, I’m writing constantly,” says Wallace Matthews, a veteran reporter who covered the New York Yankees as a beat reporter for the first time this past season with ESPNNewYork.com. In this Winter 2010 issue of Nieman Reports, our gaze stretches from what was the beat to what it is becoming. —Melissa Ludtke

4 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 THE BEAT | The Building Block

The Capriciousness of Beats ‘Sometimes the overlooked topics may be more important than the ones that dominate the headlines.’

BY KATE GALBRAITH

his may sound sacrilegious, but I have always found the concept of beat reporting rather odd. Don’t get Tme wrong: I can’t think of a better way to divvy up the labor of getting out the daily news—or up-to-the-minute news, as the case may be. Beats help reporters define their roles and ensure minimal overlap. That’s efficient. But beats also strike me as potentially limiting. Imagine the news as a pie. There is a wedge for the automotive industry, a wedge for the airline industry, a wedge for energy, a wedge for Wall Street, one for personal finance, and so on. Actu- ally, that’s just for business news, but you get the idea. Add up all the wedges, and there’s plenty of unclaimed pie left over. When do news organizations ever shine a light on timber companies, for example—or private prison operators or railroads or plumbing conglomerates (if such things exist)? Chemical companies? Laundromats? Funeral parlors? Sometimes the overlooked topics may be more important than the ones that dominate the headlines. Take the industry I cover: energy. From the amount of television, newspaper and new media coverage—and I’m as guilty as anyone—you would think the world is flooded with solar panels and wind turbines. Not true: Combined, those two sources of energy provide only 2 percent of our electricity in this country. Coal—which generates close to half of our electricity—gets scant coverage, except of course when there is an accident. (Ken Ward, Jr.’s terrific Coal Tattoo blog for the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette is an honorable exception.) There’s a reason for this, of course. Wind power consumes a lot of space on the energy beat, yet coal—powering close to Reporters by definition like to cover half of our nation’s electricity—gets scant coverage. Image courtesy of SeaEnergy PLC. “new” stuff. A century ago, the oil

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 5 The Beat Goes On

beat was a plum assignment, with Who knew that industry regulators for The Economist from 2005 to 2007, wildcatters converging on Texas. But sometimes waived big environmental I became fascinated by alternative nowadays who wants to dwell on the reviews for deepwater projects? Who energy so I wrote about the wind tur- coal, oil and gas industries when there had ever heard of Transocean—a bines proliferating in West Texas and are new problems in new industries company that even after the spill has the green initiatives of Wal-Mart. My to be discovered. Will wind power a market capital of $21 billion, far successor has done more immigration companies get stymied by complaints more than a recent guess at Twit- stories. The balance is probably good over noise and ruined views? When will ter’s valuation ($1.6 billion). Frankly, for readers. solar panels get cheaper? How do you it terrifies me to think about what Local media has less discretion store the energy produced by sources industries—nuclear waste storage, because its coverage has stricter like the wind or sun, which work only anyone?—we’re neglecting, especially geographical bounds. These days, I in accordance with nature’s whim? given current financial pressures on cover energy and the environment for These are some of the cutting-edge media outlets. The Texas Tribune, an online start-up questions of the modern day. and a job I truly love. There Similarly, I’m struck by the are certain subjects I can’t amount of coverage devoted skip—battles between Texas to the proliferation of social and the Environmental Pro- media. I like Twitter as much Take the industry I cover, energy. From tection Agency over air pol- as the next person, but it the amount of television, newspaper and lution permits, for example, accounts for a total of about and controversy over a natural 10 minutes of my day (well, new media coverage—and I’m as guilty gas drilling technique known maybe 20). And I’m far from as hydraulic fracturing. And fluent in FourSquare, reddit, as anyone—you would think the world I have pages of ideas, many and some of the other Very is flooded with solar panels and wind of which will never see the Important Inventions that, light of day because I just judging from the coverage turbines. Not true: Combined, those two don’t have time. they get, are about to revo- The proliferation of new lutionize the world. Privately, sources of energy provide only 2 percent media is actually helping I enjoy the irony that daily of our electricity in this country. to solve the problem of too newspapers—the dinosaur much news. The nonprofit print type—devote columns Texas Tribune sees itself as a of space to these trends, when complement to other media, their pre-Baby Boomer read- not a competitor. So if I see a ers probably have less of a clue about There is so much more to story from a Texas paper that touches this stuff than I do. I also am tickled cover. I sometimes feel that if only on an area I haven’t covered, I tweet by the fact that the one old-industry time, money and talent allowed, it out to my followers and put a link beat that the media never neglect is there could be five New York on TribWire—our homepage feed for ... newspapers. Times’s worth of news every day, with interesting stories about Texas from Coverage of new technologies is (in theory) no sacrifice of quality. There around the Web. Unless I have some- natural and important. Times and would be room to cover the wedges thing meaningful to add, I happily habits are changing, and I don’t mean that fall outside of traditional beats cross the topic off my list. to suggest otherwise. News must and room to delve into the neglected Twitter and Google, in other words, be forward-looking. But there’s also corners of existing beats. help knock off more wedges from the a danger of neglecting traditional collective news pie, by bringing readers industries. The Randomness of News into contact with stories they might There’s no better illustration of this not have seen otherwise. Even still, than the BP oil spill. Day after day This leads me to my final theory, there is a lot to cover—and there’s this past summer, new and extraor- which is that the nature of news is less reason than ever to wall oneself dinary revelations tumbled out about essentially random. Sure, any media off into a silo. A beat functions best the offshore oil drilling business, as outlet has things it must cover—the as a starting point, not a boundary.  journalists and investigators turned economy, elections and so forth. But their full attention to the Gulf. Who because far more news exists than Kate Galbraith, a 2008 Nieman knew there was such a thing as blow- any single media outlet can handle, Fellow, covers energy and the envi- out preventers, and that the United it’s up to the reporters’ (and editors’) ronment for The Texas Tribune. States (unlike Norway or Brazil) didn’t discretion as to where their interests require remote-control switches that lie. For example, when I served as the could activate them if all else failed? Austin-based Southwest correspondent

6 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Building Block

It’s Scary Out There in Reporting Land ‘Beats are fundamental to journalism, but our foundation is crumbling.’

BY DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

o understand how badly we’re of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid this isn’t happening just with beat doing the most basic work of of the Wrong Things.” By my sights, reporters but with the assignment journalism in covering the law the problems Glassner described have and copy editors who are supposed Tenforcement beat, try sitting in a bar- gotten worse, much worse. to review stories before they get into bershop. When I was getting my last print or on the air. haircut, the noon news on the televi- Does Anybody Care? In the first 10 months of this year, a sion—positioned to be impossible to Nexis database search shows, newspa- avoid watching—began with a grisly Beats are fundamental to journalism, pers and wire services reported more murder. The well-educated man in the but our foundation is crumbling. Whole than 1,700 times that juries, grand chair next to me started ranting about huge agencies of the federal govern- or petite, handed down indictments how crime is out of control. ment and, for many news organizations, and verdicts. But it isn’t. I told Frank, a regular, the entirety of state government go Sometimes I pick up the phone and that crime isn’t running wild and his uncovered. There are school boards call reporters whose stories contain chance of being burglarized today is and city councils and planning com- this incredibly dumb mistake and less than one quarter what it was in missions that have not seen a reporter politely try to educate them. Perhaps 1980.1 The shop turned so quiet you in years. The outrageous salaries that it’s obnoxious, but somebody needs could have heard a hair fall to the were paid to Bell, California city to do it. Some reporters ask me floor had the scissors not stopped. The officials—close to $800,000 to the what difference it makes. A few have barbers and clients listened intently as city manager, for example—would not insisted that down is correct. Really, I next told them about how the number have happened if just one competent I ask. Even if people have never been of murders in America peaked back reporter had been covering that city in the courtroom, they would know in the early 1990’s at a bit south of hall in Southern California. But no from movies and television that the 25,000 and fell to fewer than 16,000 one was, and it took an accidental judge sits in the highest position in 2009. When we take population set of circumstances for two reporters and therefore juries hand up while growth into account, this means your from the Los Angeles Times to reveal judges hand down. When I’ve asked chance of being murdered has almost this scandal. [See box about the Bell, reporters and some editors how many been cut in half. California story on page 23.] votes are needed for a jury to convict, “So why is there so much crime on Four decades ago when I covered I’ve sometimes gotten back cautious, the news every day?” Diane, who was local government meetings in Silicon slow or wrong answers. And it’s not a cutting Frank’s hair, asked. Valley for the San Jose Mercury, I trick question. If any reporter doesn’t “Because it’s cheap,” I replied. “And always asked for copies of the agency instantly know this answer, then alarms with crime news you only have to get budget. In those days, before spread- should sound and training should the cops’ side of the story. There is no sheets or the first pocket calculator had promptly commence. ethical duty to ask the arrested for been invented, I did long division in Far too much of journalism consists their side of the story.” the margins to figure out trends and of quoting what police, prosecutors, Cheap news is a major reason that how the taxpayers’ money was being politicians and publicists say—and every day we are failing in our core spent. It not only relieved the tedium this is especially the case with beat mission of providing people with the of the meetings I sat through, but it reporters. It’s news on the cheap and knowledge they need for our democ- produced story after story after story most of it isn’t worth the time it takes racy to function. Barry Glassner, in that engaged readers and at times to read, hear or watch. Don’t take my an important book every journalist infuriated officials while protecting word for it. Instead look at declining should read, tells us how cheap news the public purse. circulation figures. People know value badly done spreads false beliefs and Increasingly what I see are news and they know when what they’re get- racial distrust. It’s been a decade reports evidencing a basic lack of ting is worth their time or worth the since he came out with “The Culture knowledge about government. And steadily rising cost of a subscription.

1 Upon further checking, I learned that the chance of getting burglarized today is actually 42.5 percent of what it was in 1980.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 7 The Beat Goes On

Books From the Beat: A More Complicated Equation

By Jan Gardner

Judy Pasternak, a former reporter same time that thin staffing and at the Los Angeles Times, drew on increased workloads make it more expertise she developed covering the difficult for reporters to transform environment, science and other beats daily assignments into books. to write her first book. “Yellow Dirt: Two years ago the journalism An American Story of a Poisoned Land department at Boston University’s and a People Betrayed,” published College of Communication convened this past fall by the Free Press, builds a conference called “The Nonfiction on her series in the Times which Book as the Last Best Home for focused on private companies that Journalism.” Ron Suskind, who had mined uranium on Navajo land for left his job as senior national affairs decades and failed to protect their writer for The Wall Street Journal workers or the environment. to pursue book-writing full time, At the time of the series, Paster- identified the challenge of building a nak was a member of the paper’s “strategic model” so that journalists Washington-based national investiga- who develop deep expertise on their tive team. The series and the book beats will have the resources to sustain represent what Pasternak called a themselves while they write books. “harmonic convergence” of subjects, “The audience is hungry for such including ethnic and race relations, stories,” Suskind said. “But who will she covered during her 24 years at be paid to tell them and by whom?” the Times. As book publishers in an era of In her book’s acknowledgements Times, there would have been no e-books face their own set of economic Pasternak credits the essential book,” she writes. Now, the Times, challenges—and smaller advances role that a newspaper can play in like so many other papers, has had are being paid to reporters-turned- enabling a reporter to become an to cut back on its ambitions to take authors—Suskind’s question takes on author. “Without the Los Angeles on sprawling, complex stories at the a new level of urgency. 

Less for More budget for Montgomery County, the find out that which is important but wealthiest and most important county that they did not know. We call this I also am board chairman and part for the newspaper’s financial success. information the news. owner of a very small business—we The story was mostly about the three Far too much of what we produce manage a small hotel—that follows a commissioners yelling at each other. today is already widely known. We different customer policy than news- The total budget was mentioned, fill so many pages with rehashed or papers do. Every year the three papers almost in passing, with no hint of known information that on many days I subscribe to cut quality and raise whether it meant property taxes would these publications could properly be prices. When we charge our guests go up or down, more money would be called oldspapers. It’s not like there more, we give them something more— spent on roads or less, or any of the isn’t important and revealing news nicer shampoo, fluffier towels—and we other basics that readers want to know. all around us. There is. It’s just that tell them about the new benefit. Why For this I paid money? I could only we seem swept up in a herd mentality should we think people would pay imagine the reaction of the residents with too narrow a focus and too much more for less and do so repeatedly? of Montgomery County. eagerness to rely on what sources One day a decade or so ago when This problem is not with the break- tell us rather than asking these same Amtrak said my Metroliner would down in the centuries-old economic people to address important facts that be delayed at 30th Street Station in model, a simple model that many lie in plain sight in the public record. Philadelphia, I ran upstairs and bought journalists do not really understand. Much of what passes for reporting The Philadelphia Inquirer, where I Connecting buyers and sellers who about government these days is not worked for seven years. Buried inside are in search of one another pays the only information that is useless, it is I found a half column about the new bills. What draws them is a desire to laughable nonsense, and I have the

8 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Building Block coffee stains on my robe to prove it. During the past 15 years as I focused and sniffing out news, then a firm Every morning I read “Beat the Press” my reporting on how the American foundation of knowledge about the on the Center for Economic and Policy economy works and the role of gov- topic is essential, though not sufficient. Research website, which is liberal ernment in shaping how the benefits Combine this with a curiosity to dig economist Dean Baker’s critique of the and burdens of the economy are deeply into the myriad of documents economic theory, policy and “facts” he distributed, I’ve grown increasingly that are in the public record—and then finds on the front pages of The New dismayed at the superficial and often ask sources about what the documents York Times, The Washington Post, and dead wrong assumptions permeating show.  other media outlets. Baker routinely the news. Every day in highly respected picks apart articles that are as far newspapers I read well-crafted stories David Cay Johnston, while from reality as a weather story that with information that in years past I working at The New York Times, says the sun rose in the West. would have embraced but now know won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Sometimes I send these criticisms is nonsense, displaying a lack of Beat Reporting for his coverage on to the ombudsman or top editors understanding of economic theory and of loopholes and inequities in the of the offending publications. I have the regulation of business. The stories U.S. tax code. He is a columnist for even put together packages showing even lack readily available official data Tax Analysts and teaches the law from the newspaper’s own clips that on the economy and knowledge of the of the ancient world at Syracuse what was printed is utterly false. But I language and principles in the law, University’s law and graduate busi- rarely see any corrections made nor any including the Constitution. ness schools. “The Fine Print,” the insistence that writers actually know What these stories have in common third book in his series about the what they are writing about when it is a reliance on what sources say rather American economy, is scheduled to be comes to government policy, economic than what the official record shows. If published in 2011 by Penguin. policy, taxes or treaties. covering a beat means finding sources

The Blog as Beat ‘… "#$!%&"$'&$"!(#)&*$+!"#$!(,&($-"!,.!"#$!/$)"0!1!/2,*!+3(#!)+!,3'+!/$(,4$+!) 5)23$6!-)'"&$'!,.!-,27"7()2!'$-,'"$'+!,..$'7&*!"#$4!)667"7,&)2!+,3'($+!)&6!.'$+#! )&*2$+!.,'!+",'7$+89

BY JUANITA LEÓN

am convinced that the Internet is being told. They are the stories that not an easy task. Fewer than 40 percent changing journalism in ways we lie behind the news media’s typical of the people who live in Colombia never could have imagined only a daily political reporting. have Internet access. And although the Ifew years ago. The idea of the reported In the United States, political blogs Internet enables a multitude of voices story as being the basic unit of jour- are too numerous to count. But in to be heard, it doesn’t guarantee that nalism is being shaken by the Web’s Colombia, La Silla Vacía is the first everyone will be heard. way of sharing information, and along such experiment with sustainable with this change comes a rethinking independent journalism. Here, news The Digital Political Beat about the concept of the beat itself. organizations are concentrated among A year and a half ago I set up an a few business conglomerates and As happens with any new enter- investigative political blog called La families with political backgrounds prise—digital or otherwise—it takes Silla Vacía (“The Empty Seat”). It is so a news reporting outlet set up by time to truly know what the audience a website dedicated to covering how journalists is truly innovative. has made of it. It also takes time for power is exercised in Colombia and, as Although blogs are usually con- those directing it to understand what such, it serves as a discussion platform sidered alternative media, I wanted it is really about. Since launching the about public issues in my country. With La Silla Vacía to be regarded as a website in March 2009, one thing I a staff of seven—and about 60 unpaid mainstream publication—to reside in have observed is that La Silla Vacía contributors—La Silla Vacía publishes the center of the political debate in has been converted into a new—and stories that before we existed were not Colombia, not on the fringes. It was influential—political beat. What we

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 9 The Beat Goes On

unlikely that the complexity of their circumstance would be told with any sense of completeness in the corre- spondent’s story. Unless you stay in a place for a long time, as Kapuscinski did, it is not possible to aggregate as many voices as you can when, as an editor, you curate what is being produced on the Web. That experience in New York changed my understanding of the concept of the “beat” in two ways that became apparent as I went about creating La Silla Vacía. We did not set out to cover traditional political beats. Instead we cover issues that emerge as political events occur, and we feed our site with content from social networks at the same time that we feed social networks with what we produce. Given the hypertextual nature of the Web, it is more important to offer context than it is to follow stories. As Internet guru Jean-François Fogel has observed, news is no longer what a powerful person wants people La Silla Vacía (“The Empty Seat”) is changing the political beat in Colombia. to be prevented from knowing but what can be salvaged from the sea of information. publish gets quoted each week by them additional sources and fresh mainstream media like the newspa- angles for stories. And we in turn Political News per El Espectador, Caracol radio, or increase their capacity to broaden and Semana magazine. improve their coverage. We have only four staff reporters so we I increasingly believe that the role This emerging role for specialized know we can’t possibly cover all of the of specialized blogs is to create beats blogs as beats became evident to me political news, especially in a country for journalists. Typically, newspaper when I was the editor of flypmedia. such as Colombia where big stories and TV reporters rely on tips from com in New York, a multimedia general break every day—and sometimes sources for their stories. Now blogs interest magazine that unfortunately twice a day. So we’ve compiled a list and journalistic websites like La Silla folded recently. The Iraq war was not of Colombia’s most pressing political Vacía are starting to be significant going well and I was discussing with matters—a transitional justice process, forces in our media ecosystem. With my boss whether we should send a the legal issues involving politicians an investigative blog like ours, we have reporter to cover it. The intern over- with links to the paramilitary, the four or five reporters covering one heard us talking and she suggested mining boom, land reform, and our topic in-depth while the traditional another approach: Follow the soldiers’ nation’s wiretapping scandal. Each beat reporter is expected to cover many and Iraq victims’ blogs instead of going of our reporters is assigned to cover issues at once. This means that the there. We did just that; soon, several two of these macro issues and writes reporting we do often becomes a first blogs were selected and we made them about them in a contextualized way. stop for many newspaper and broad- our Iraq beat. As our reporting is proceeding, we cast political reporters. By gathering I understand that is controversial supply our audience with information expert opinion, inside information, in the minds of some journalists—and about where the story is going. This and high-level analysis, we’ve created that there is nothing like being there, is something they’ve told us that they a hub from which can emerge new reporting with the five senses as the appreciate a lot. angles on news stories. legendary Polish reporter Ryszard To give thorough coverage and It’s in this way that the Internet Kapuscinski would say. But many provide context to these issues, we changes the concept of the beat: A bloggers reveal details that they could increasingly rely on social networks blog such as ours becomes a valued hardly begin to tell a journalist in a to supply information—at the same partner of political reporters offering brief interview. Even if they did, it is time we depend on our reporters.

10 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Building Block

For example, until four years ago we watch closely what these women’s the Web; we have set up a schedule abortion was illegal in Colombia in groups report; they give us tips and for our reporters to navigate the Web all circumstances. After an intense information that we investigate further, all day long and to tweet about what fight by women’s organizations, the and once we publish the story we post we see happening in the Colombian Constitutional Court ruled that abor- it in their Facebook groups to feed political blogosphere in real time. tion is permitted when the woman’s life them with information. We follow the This strategy for beat reporting pays or health, including mental health, is same process with advocacy networks off. Despite our tiny staff and small in danger, when the fetus has severe involved with other topics we cover. budget, La Silla Vacía has become a malformations, or when the woman So while the topic becomes our mandatory stop for political junkies in had been raped. beat, our stories are as much about this country. We are the beat reporters Although the ruling was a huge what our reporters find as what we they turn to when they are looking victory for women, its implementation curate from the Web. It’s our job to for news.  in a country that is still Catholic has select the best information produced by not been easy. But women’s groups the audience and make it more easily Juanita León, a 2007 Nieman are following the process closely, and available for other users. This means Fellow, is the founder and editor this means that they have a lot of that part of a reporter’s time spent of La Silla Vacía, a political news information about it. At La Silla Vacía, covering a beat is devoted to scanning website in Colombia.

A Journalistic Vanishing Act ‘As a refugee from daily newspapering, I’m one of thousands of arts journalists who in the past couple of years have found themselves footloose.’

BY ELIZABETH MAUPIN

ike most reporters, theater critics critic for the Seattle are not generally accused of being Post-Intelligencer) discreet. Granted, most of us don’t estimates that in Lactually use those notorious pens that 2005 there may light up in the dark. But we’re still have been about sitting there, scratching away on our 5,000 people cov- reporters’ notebooks, while audience ering various arts members all around us are trying to beats for American concentrate on the play. newspapers—crit- As a shy person, I used to cringe at ics, feature writ- intermission when people asked me, ers, cultural news “Why are you taking notes?” r e p o r t e r s , and Now I dislike it even more—because many who did all I don’t know what to say. three. In February I quit my job after Now, because of more than 26 years as the Orlando layoffs, cutbacks Sentinel’s theater critic. Used to be and the death of American newspapers have sharply reduced coverage of the arts I had an answer when people asked several major news- while the number of blogs covering this beat is on the rise. me what I did. Now I’m not so sure. papers, McLennan As a refugee from daily newspa- says, that number pering, I’m one of thousands of arts has been cut in half. And that’s a not specifically targeted—and the journalists who in the past couple of radical reduction, even in an industry nature of buyouts may mean that they years have found themselves footloose. that, according to the American Society weren’t—half of all arts staff positions Douglas McLennan, the founder of Newspaper Editors, has lost more is still a pretty big bite. and editor of ArtsJournal.com (and than one newsroom job in four since Arts journalists have watched in himself a former classical music 2001. Even if arts journalists were wonder as the carnage has taken

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 11 The Beat Goes On

place. In 2007 The Atlanta Journal- Over the past few years, though, We also live in a society in which Constitution eliminated many of its that situation changed. A couple “elite” and “intellectual” have become critics’ jobs; four more of its arts of new editors had less interest in dirty words. Many newspaper editors writers took buyouts in 2009. Earlier reviews. I was reassigned half-time to seem to have fallen for the idea that this year Variety laid off four arts write news stories about arts groups covering NASCAR is egalitarian but writers, including its chief film and as institutions; most of those stories covering a gallery opening is not. In theater critics. Movie critics have lost were about budgets, not about art. I its rush to embrace whatever sells, the their jobs in Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, was expected to count how many of newspaper industry has jumped on the Dallas and Denver, among other cit- my stories were about the so-called back of celebrity culture, and cover- ies, and their copy has been replaced “business of the arts” and how many ing Lindsay Lohan’s latest bust—or by wire. This summer the Orange about theater, and I had to make sure a sordid and perennial child-murder County Register eliminated its highly the latter never took the majority of case here in Orlando—has been judged regarded Arts Blog and reassigned its my time. to sell papers. classical music critic and reporter to A sympathetic arts editor shielded Newspapers no longer lead; they the celebrity beat. me. But when she quit (to take a less follow wherever a fickle public decides My own circle of theater-critic anxiety-producing job outside daily to go. And they follow the advertis- friends has been caught in the same newspapers), the stresses of what ing bucks, even if editors say that wave. In the past few years senior has happened to newspapering got advertising and editorial do not mix. theater critics have taken buyouts at the best of me. I was sad about the Sports sections get plenty of adver- the (Newark) Star-Ledger, the Milwau- failing state of journalism. I was sad tising money. Automobile sections kee Journal Sentinel, the Detroit Free about the direction of the Sentinel. I and travel sections still exist largely Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and was sad that I no longer was allowed because they are backed by the car The San Diego Union-Tribune. Others to do what I loved to do. and travel industries. Arts sections have left newspapers to take on more Others have written (a lot) about why suffer because many or most local secure jobs outside journalism. all this has happened. Many blame the arts groups are nonprofits, and they And my former colleagues at the Internet, and certainly the rise of the had little money for ads even before Orlando Sentinel have felt their share Internet has made new critical voices the economy turned sour. of the turbulence—the TV critic reas- easier to hear. In the old days of print signed to blog about media, celebrities supremacy, a medium-sized city like Filling the Void and crime; the pop music critic split Orlando, Florida would have had a between music and a Florida travel theater critic at the daily newspaper So does any of this matter, except to column; the movie critic reduced to and a couple of freelance critics at those of us who are no longer doing reviewing only the films that aren’t an alternative weekly. Nowadays the the jobs we loved? In the short term, covered by a sister paper, the Chicago same city might still have somebody yes—especially to arts groups and the Tribune. writing about theater at the daily audiences they are trying to reach. paper (although that person is much Older people, especially, often have Changing Notions more likely to be a freelancer), and no access to the Internet, and they the alternative paper still manages still make up a large percentage of the I was lucky, mostly. For most of my to pay a critic or two. But the rise of audience for the arts. Almost every 26 years, three months, two weeks, bloggers means that any performance time I go to a play, an art opening, or and six days at the Sentinel, I was I go to in Orlando is likely to have a cocktail party, an elderly arts lover privileged to do exactly what I wanted four or five reviewers sitting in the approaches me and talks about how to do—to write in depth about theater audience, and most of those people she misses what I used to do. both local and national, to review have been vetted for credentials by And arts organizations are scram- plays, and to build bridges between nobody but themselves. bling to figure out how to get the word theater companies and the audiences Many audience members don’t know out in cities where newspaper criticism they serve. I loved using the process or care about the difference, and that’s has all but died. Many groups have of writing to figure out what I thought a key point. Today, in America, we’re used mass e-mails to their advantage, and felt, and I loved being a conduit schooled to believe that one person’s jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, to readers for that feeling. I loved the opinion is just as good as another’s. and reveled in the fact that there’s fact that the more light I was able to That’s democracy in action, many now no gatekeeper between them and shed on theater in the Orlando area, people think, and they’re tone-deaf the ticket buyer. Others, especially the stronger it grew. to the differences between someone smaller, less sophisticated groups, My job felt like a partnership who’s dashing off a personal opinion have struggled to get their word out between me, the theaters, and the and someone who has spent years see- and to find people to fill their seats. audience, and all of us blossomed ing, listening to, studying and writing At the same time, though, intelligent along the way. about a particular form of art. Internet journalists are taking up the

12 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Building Block slack, at least in some cities. In south tive blogging has not sprung up to called me “Orlando’s critic of record,” Florida, Lawrence A. Johnson, the replace what has been lost. I was thrilled. former classical music critic for The As for me, after I quit the Sentinel I have no problem filling my time. Miami Herald, started South Florida I felt both grief and emancipation. But I still worry how to answer when Classical Review in 2008 after the Actually, I had been grieving for the somebody turns to me at intermission region’s three major dailies reduced state of journalism for a couple of years and asks why I’m taking notes. their coverage. Now it has a sister site, so deciding to leave mainly filled me “I have a blog,” I say. South Florida Theater Review, whose with relief. I sleep better. I eat better. Yeah, me and 96,000 other people— lead critic, Bill Hirschman, came from I write on the back porch and listen give or take a few million.  the (South Florida) Sun-Sentinel. to the squirrels taunt my cats. Other similar websites exist for I have scaled back some grand Elizabeth Maupin left her job earlier theater, books, art, dance and other plans to start an arts blog to cover this year after 26 years as the kinds of music, and more are spring- everything artistic that moves in central Orlando Sentinel’s theater critic. Her ing up all the time. Yet many of those Florida. Instead, I review plays and blog—Orlandotheater.com—is where sites don’t pay their writers, and most cover theater news for my own website she now writes about theater. struggle to make ends meet. In many and am gratified when theater people cities, especially smaller ones, substan- refer to me favorably. When somebody

From Newsroom to Nursery—The Beat Goes On ‘That is when I had the epiphany: These early years of motherhood were like being a rookie reporter on the beat.’

BY DIANA K. SUGG

couldn’t sleep that night. It was 3 a.m. The house was quiet and dark. I slipped out of bed and walked Iback through the house to the guest room, the room that would be the nursery. Sitting down on the rug, I hugged my knees to my chest and breathed in. I knew that from this night on, everything would be differ- ent. I was pregnant, and I was going to be a mother. For years, I’d been the career gal. As a young reporter, I was handed the police beat, and I quickly got addicted. In the buzzing newsroom, under fluorescent lights late into the night, I cranked out story after story. Then I took on the medical beat, and I found myself even more enthralled. I once described it as the journalistic equivalent of the emergency room, Diana K. Sugg finds new rhythms in her life as the mother of Oliver, left, and Sam. Photo with too many stories, too little time, by Monica Lopossay. but a lot of responsibility for getting it right. [See accompanying box for an of other newsroom beats. For any story of as many as 20 other ideas. excerpt from Sugg’s article about beat published, I’d be tracking five others, From newspaper to newspaper, I reporting.] Not too different from a lot fielding 10 wacky calls, and letting go kept up that pace. Many of my friends,

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 13 The Beat Goes On

Advice About Beats After Diana K. Sugg had been The many days will lead to burnout. At a health reporter in Sacramento, I (Baltimore) Sun’s medical reporter The Sacramento Bee, I remember honed in on the changes shaking for six years, she wrote an enduring feeling so busy that I couldn’t leave the country’s health care system, and article about beat reporting for the the newsroom to walk one floor up I let go of many of the stories that Poynter Institute. In “Turn the Beat to the well-stocked cafeteria. I was didn’t fit into that theme. Around,” Sugg brought her experiences living on Diet Cokes and Snickers So you must be decisive. Be orga- at the Sun and other newspapers to life bars. I toted the police scanner in nized, and be ruthless. You have to as a way of offering guidance to other the bathroom with me. I even landed learn to quickly sift through that voice reporters about ways to structure and in the cardiac unit twice. mail and all the potential stories on handle beat assignments. This was And if you stay at a frenetic, crank- your desk; otherwise, all your time to in 2001, and though technology has ing pace all the time, you’ll never do other stories will get swallowed up. brought changes in how beat reporters free yourself to do the great pieces It may go against every cell in your work—as Twitter and other social everyone will remember. You are a body, but you have to acknowledge media tools supplant those messages farmer, but one field should be left up front that you won’t get to many on voice mail—her advice stands the fallow. What an editor deletes from of the stories on your beat. This isn’t test of time. An excerpt follows: a story is sometimes as important as like college or other jobs you’ve had, what he or she leaves in. The same where you tackled and finished all When you are a beat reporter, the goes for you: What you choose to the work. This is a new country, kingdom of journalism is at your feet: let go of can be as important as the where the clock is ticking. Your time investigative pieces, features, profiles, stories you go after. These are among is limited. —D.K.S. news analyses. It’s all there for the your toughest decisions. It helps to taking. But working too hard for too articulate a vision for your beat. As

meanwhile, were getting married. One “Dancing Queen.” He laughed at me. stories like they were water. by one, they had a child, then a second. It turned out to be easier to write The work I cherished was slipping I cheered them on, and then I went about other people’s lives than to live away and so was the confidence I’d back to the newsroom I loved. Never my own. It seemed as though the had as a reporter. Things about my life had I felt more myself than when I was very qualities that had wired me for as a mother and my former life as a at my desk, finding my way through journalism made it tougher for me to journalist got even more complicated a story, or with a stranger, doing an be a mother. On crime and medical when we moved to Switzerland for interview. On the beat, I was at home. stories, being sensitive gave me a better my husband’s work, and our second feel for what people had endured. But son was born. Motherhood as a Beat now, when I tried to let Sam cry so Then one night as I emptied the he would supposedly fall asleep on his diaper genie, I had a flashback. I But for all of the ways it felt like own, all that empathy just didn’t help. saw myself in the wire room at The reporting came naturally, motherhood Seeking guidance from other parents, (Baltimore) Sun, grabbing the stack didn’t. I didn’t know how to change experts or studies—my instinct from of faxes. At first, I’d hated slogging a diaper. I couldn’t get the infant car the medical beat—also backfired. As in through those press releases. But as seat installed properly. I’d traded in so many child-rearing issues, there were I got more experienced, I could whip the messenger bag I had slung so eas- far too many conflicting opinions, and through them like a pro. Occasionally ily over my shoulder for a diaper bag little science to support any of them. my eye would land on one detail, the that wasn’t any bigger, but I carried What I didn’t know yet was that clue to a great story. it awkwardly. And when I tried to get much of motherhood turns out to rely That is when I had the epiphany: my son Sam to sleep, he stayed awake. on trial and error. I didn’t realize that These early years of motherhood were That first week my baby boy lay as long as Sam skipped naps and woke like being a rookie reporter on the beat. on a soft blanket on our big bed, his up at night, I wouldn’t be able to do I recalled how, early on, each beat felt fists clenched. He looked up at me any part-time work. I would need every like some big unbroken country—its with his serious, brown eyes. It sud- minute of babysitting time just to get territory too vast to embrace. But denly occurred to me that I couldn’t some sleep. But I missed reporting in time, some of the paths became remember any nursery rhymes or even and writing. I found myself crawling familiar. I discovered that there were a lullaby. On instinct, I began to sing into bed at night with a flashlight to diamonds buried in the routine faxes my own off-pitch version of Abba’s read newspapers. I gulped down the and briefs. Soon I was finding my way.

14 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Building Block

I thought about those early news- like smooth stones I could rub my floor, and the boys would climb all room experiences. I remembered how fingers on. Follow my instincts. Put over me like puppies. I’d kept up a furious pace on the in the time. Learn which sources to One winter night, when Sammy kept crime beat, finding too many stories listen to and which to tune out. Figure waking up, I walked back and forth and feeling compelled to pursue every out what really matters. And perhaps in the dark, his body sagging against one. Now without realizing it, I’d fallen the biggest of all: To get some things, mine. I began to sing “Shenandoah.” into that same trap as a mother. Just you must let go of others. My voice came out strong and clear, when Sam fell asleep, instead of getting I knew what I had to do. Just as I’d in a way it never had. The melody was some rest, I was like a cops reporter reluctantly set aside many stories, I had bitter and sweet, and the world was on deadline. I seized the time to try to ruthlessly pare down my life. I still hushed. Whatever had been, whatever to cram in laundry, e-mail, house carried a notebook everywhere I went. was to come, I could do it. I’d found repairs, and work. I still wrote ledes in my head. But for my lullaby.  On the beat and as a mother, I was now, my beat had changed, and I had so busy getting everything done that to make it my own. I became expert Diana K. Sugg worked for 18 years I had forgotten to stand up and look at hoisting my chubby toddlers into as a newspaper reporter and won around. Where was I? What track was their double stroller with one arm and national awards for her crime and I heading down? What was on the running with them through the hills medical stories, including the 2003 horizon? Being on a beat, it turned of a sprawling park. I regaled Sammy Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting at out, meant not only digging in every and Oliver with elaborate tales, told The (Baltimore) Sun. Now living day, but also having a command of by characters in funny accents. We in Baltimore, Sugg is raising two your territory, a sense of the bigger crawl-raced around the apartment young sons and plans to do freelance picture. until my knees were calloused. When writing. One by one, these lessons came back I was too tired, I didn’t need to do to me. They were solid and familiar, anything more than lie down on the

Family Beat: Stories We Tell Around the Kitchen Table ‘If we tell them well, it won’t matter what medium we use. They can be our saving grace.’

BY BETH MACY

otes from a recent week on the including the wife of the alleged a much younger colleague that the family beat at The Roanoke “coke-snorting ax murderer,” who video wasn’t good enough to post (Va.) Times, the 88,000-cir- is actually just an angry landowner but the story is running on the front Nculation paper where I’ve spent most sick to death of trespassing teens. page. of my career: (Favorite quote: “No, no. He does • Attended a mandatory training not threaten them with an ax. He session on libel where the takeaway • Made calls for a possible story on carries a shotgun.”) was don’t write anything bad about a truck driver who reunited with • Prepped for an upcoming trip to a source in a personal e-mail, ever. his daughter in Germany via Skype Haiti to report on a local mission after being apart for nine years. worker who’s been instrumental in Then I spent the rest of the week • Followed a story tip from my 16-year- post-earthquake recovery. worrying about the following: mean old who announced recently that he • Finished fact checking 300 inches of e-mails I’ve written about sources, wanted to go to the Seven Gates of copy for a three-part series I wrote the recent cholera outbreak in Haiti, Hell, an allegedly haunted farm that on the controversy engulfing Lyme and God-knows-how-many ticks I just turns out to be scary for reasons disease, which is newly endemic in picked up tromping around the Seven unrelated to the paranormal. our region. Gates of Hell. • Used a video camera and old- • Spent 12 hours editing the Seven Things on the family beat were fashioned note taking to interview Gates video (my first) and six hours infinitely easier back in the good old teens, police and farm owners, writing the story, only to learn from days, right?

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 15 The Beat Goes On

The Family Beat When I took over the family beat in the Motherlode, Michelle Slatalla on 2007, it finally stood on its own. Our what it was like to be a Wife/Mother/ When I came to The Roanoke Times staff size had shrunk considerably, like Worker/Spy, and Paula Span on the in 1989, I was a generalist. I gravitated everyone else’s, and remaining staff- challenges of caregiving in The New toward features about funny things— ers were challenged to juggle more Old Age. These are promising develop- Southerners’ enduring fixation with things than ever while also learning ments, according to this middle-aged tomato sandwiches, for instance. Or all things online. feminist who remembers when most teenage Dumpster divers. Or a 9-year- But my editor didn’t cut family newspapers rarely deigned to cover old boy who was obsessed with vacuum coverage at our paper; she gave it a family life—you know, that thing we cleaners. But most of the time I wrote promotion. Clearly, this wasn’t hap- spend 80 percent of our lives thinking, about serious stuff—teen pregnancy, pening everywhere. When I judged planning and fretting about. In a midsized market like ours, I’m privileged to be able to continue to tell in-depth and inti- mate stories about real people and their joys and struggles—from a 10-part series on caregiving to a feature on teen pranksters who set out chasing ghosts in a cow pasture, only to run up against a shotgun- wielding farmer. They are enterprising local stories that people won’t find anywhere else—except in living rooms and around kitchen tables. If we tell them well, it won’t matter what medium we use. They can be our saving grace. Covering families at a mid-sized newspaper is a lot like mothering. You Beth Macy documented the struggles of family members and paid helpers caring for the frail elderly in laugh. You cry. You never her 10-part series, “Age of Uncertainty.” Photo by Josh Meltzer/The Roanoke Times. know what will happen next. This week I found myself doing a dozen things race relations, a lawyer with stage the Casey Medals competition at the I never planned on doing—climbing four melanoma who bucked doctors’ Journalism Center on Children & over cattle gates (in a skirt), detaching advice to get her affairs in order and Families in 2008 and again in 2010, audio from a video clip, interviewing took up marathon running instead. I wasn’t the only person who noticed a Yale researcher about the mating When I moved from features to news a decrease in both the quantity and habits of ticks. Then I cashed another to become the family beat reporter, quality of the entries, especially from paycheck and wondered for the mil- editor Carole Tarrant said she wanted smaller markets like ours. lionth time: Really? They pay me for to elevate such stories to the front page. The family beat wasn’t just an this?  In the past the beat had lingered at our afterthought anymore; it seemed to paper, often tasked to reporters who be altogether estranged from the Beth Macy, a 2010 Nieman Fellow, were busy covering other things—this, newspaper. is the family beat reporter at The in a slow-news city that’s constantly Roanoke (Va.) Times. In 2007 and touted as a great place to raise kids. The Family Blog 2009 she won awards in the Casey In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the family Medals contest for her coverage of beat was lumped in with coverage of Meanwhile, “mom” blogs and columns children and families. social services—adoption issues, foster emerged to pick up some of this care, welfare and the like. Then it reporting slack. At The New York became part of our health care beat. Times, Lisa Belkin filled us in on

16 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 THE BEAT | The Watchful Eye It’s Expertise That Matters ‘The next wave of journalistic progress will channel its power from the underlying principle of the reporter’s beat …’

BY MICHAEL RILEY

ne of the enduring mysteries for an editor lies in trying to divine what readers really want. OThere are almost as many answers to that question as there are readers, and the more editors try to meet everyone’s needs, the less they are able to meet anyone’s. Breadth trumps depth and coverage loses its focus. The idea of a reporter covering any single beat— with anything approaching the level of expertise that gives readers a value- added dimension—becomes a quaint anachronism. In recent years, the beat has become the Rodney Dangerfield of journalism: It just doesn’t get the respect it deserves. That approach, however, is about to undergo a radical transformation as journalism, searching desperately for its future, begins to discover, once again, the profound value of expertise, exclusivity and depth. Those are the elements, it turns out, that imbue content with value, a process, I would argue, that holds the key to journal- ism’s future success. The next wave of journalistic prog- ress will channel its power from the underlying principle of the reporter’s beat: the creation by an expert of valuable content that readers need and can’t find anywhere else. This proper emphasis on expertise promises to give rise to a subscription-based business model in which people will pay for exclusive content they value. It’s a way to resolve the question dogging journalists as they search for resources to fund reporting. Unless readers recognize value in what they are getting, they are unwilling to pay for its production. Right now I’m fortunate to be Bloomberg Government’s beat is where industry and lawmaking intersect. involved in helping to build a venture

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 17 The Beat Goes On

founded upon that premise. It’s called Deep Niches: BGOV is designed to costs and retreating from beats, BGOV Bloomberg Government (BGOV), and target certain subject areas: health is embracing the expertise that comes it may hold some important lessons for care, energy, defense, technology, from them. Most of the journalists we’re the future of journalism. This online transportation, finance, trade, taxation, hiring arrive with years of experience service, launched as a private beta labor and government contracting. covering beats such as health care website in July 2010, focuses on the We understand what’s important to policy, technology and defense. Simi- business implications of government subscribers about those issues, and by larly, many of the analysts we’re signing actions, namely legislation, regulation diving deeply into those niches we’ll on—whether they are academics with and spending. When BGOV launches distinguish our content offering. PhDs or industry veterans—bring with in January 2011, it will offer exclusive them the deep knowledge that comes news, data and analysis targeted at Exclusivity: Our goal is to produce with study and direct experience. Of government and business leaders. exclusive content—i.e., high-value course, these experts will also act as Our goal: to give our subscribers—at reporting—that subscribers won’t find mentors to younger reporters as they a cost of $5,700 a year—the detailed elsewhere. We’ll zig while others zag. learn these beats. information they need to help them make timely and Online Innovation: BGOV effective decisions. will, of course, provide an A central premise of BGOV [Bloomberg array of online features to Expertise as a Bridge amplify our reporters’ and Government] is that there is a need in analysts’ expertise. There A central premise of BGOV will be data visualization, is that there is a need in Washington and across corporate America ranging from in-depth Washington and across for in-depth information about the graphics and charts to in- corporate America for in- teractive displays, and tools depth information about intersection of business and government. such as a report builder, the intersection of business online directories, and map- and government. The impact The impact government decisions have ping capabilities. government decisions have on business has increased dramatically in on business has increased Bloomberg Government, dramatically in recent years recent years and so has the desire to better a part of Bloomberg News, and so has the desire to bet- is a natural outgrowth of ter understand one another. understand one another. BGOV bridges that Bloomberg LP, created by BGOV bridges that gap, in gap, in large part, by building an editorial Michael Bloomberg, now large part, by building an the New York City mayor, editorial model that adopts model that adopts the best of a almost 30 years ago. He the best of a beat-reporting launched Bloomberg News approach. Here are thumb- beat-reporting approach. for financial professionals, nail descriptions of some and the company has been aspects of Bloomberg Gov- continuously enhancing the ernment that replicate the database-driven product. focus, expertise, exclusivity and depth A Unique Editorial Model: We are meld- Back then, Bloomberg identified a of a beat: ing teams of journalists and analysts market need, created a unique product to create a hybrid editorial model. based on deep expertise, and built an A Laser-Like Mission: BGOV is all about The analysts will include economists, immensely successful business. the business impact of government financial experts, former Congressional In the landscape of 21st century actions, which fosters a sharp focus and regulatory staffers, and industry journalism, it makes perfect sense and a reassuring clarity. We won’t try veterans, who will convey a different to take this model as our foundation to be all things to all people; we will blend of perspectives and enable us and build on it a reporting strategy— favor depth over breadth. to produce original research along designed around the 20th century with financial and economic models notion of expertise emerging from A Well-Defined Audience: It will be to quantify the impact of various dedicated beat reporting—to fit an decision-makers in Washington, from government actions. evident need.  Capitol Hill to K Street, and leaders of corporate America outside the Belt- Expertise: The value we place on experts Mike Riley, a 1995 Nieman Fellow, way. Knowing who is in your audience undergirds this effort—and aligns it is managing editor of Bloomberg makes it easier to know what they with the concept of journalistic beats. Government. need—and to give it to them. While other publications are cutting

18 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Watchful Eye

When Local Eyes Were Watching Their Lawmakers ‘As beat writers know, it’s in doing these routine stories that they sniff out situations worthy of deeper digging.’

BY GEORGE E. CONDON, JR.

opley News Service, bureaus do much more than my professional home that. These are stories that for 30 years, sadly has might not even make the front Cbecome the poster child for page and almost certainly the fate of regional news aren’t going to win journalism bureaus in Washington in the awards. But the little-noticed 21st century, having soared routine coverage that regional to the highest peaks of our bureaus provide is what has profession only to crash ig- stayed in my mind, and this nominiously less than two means that I think of roses years later. It was our D.C. and carnations and chrysan- bureau that uncovered the themums—cut flowers. worst Congressional corrup- tion ever documented that Following the Flowers sent a war hero congressman to prison—reporting that gar- Regional reporters on the nered a Pulitzer Prize for the federal government beat find bureau and The San Diego themselves becoming experts Union-Tribune, then a Copley on strange topics. I became an paper—only to be shut down expert on cut flowers because as a victim of the profession’s San Diego County is the cut new economic realities. flower capital of the United Those realities mean that States. In fact, the city of today only the biggest news Encinitas in northern San organizations can main- Diego County calls itself the tain anything resembling a “flower capital” and boasts of Washington, D.C. bureau. introducing the poinsettia to Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham spoke The victims in recent years this country. about his resignation in 2005 after pleading guilty to bribery all carried respected and For the almost 60,000 charges revealed by reporters from Copley News Service. Photo established names in journal- residents of Encinitas, we by Lenny Ignelzi/The Associated Press. ism—Copley, Cox, Newhouse, were their watchdog report- Media General. Others, like ers in Washington. So when Gannett, Hearst, Scripps and The Des is why when I think about the closing President George H.W. Bush went Moines Register survive, with good of the Copley bureau, my first thought to Cartagena, Colombia on February reporters fighting the good fight to keep is not of the Pulitzer Prize and the cor- 15, 1990, I went with him. (During alive bureaus that are mere shadows ruption of Randy “Duke” Cunningham, my tenure in D.C., I traveled with of what they once were. but of cut flowers and the border with presidents to 88 countries.) But I did But the real victims are the citizens Mexico, steel dumping and museum not write only about the drug summit of major cities like San Diego, who after earmarks, and Osprey testing and that drew Bush to Colombia. Rather, they lost Copley have had no reporters closures of Veterans Administration I covered my beat—which meant in D.C. watching out for them—journal- (VA) hospitals. the issues of concern to residents ists who know which issues they care Too many editors think all that is of Southern California. Unlike my about and will ask tough questions missed when a Washington bureau colleagues—and to the amusement for them. [See accompanying box shuts down is the absence of somebody of several of them—I wrote stories about the San Diego-based Watchdog to watch local members of Congress, about the president’s talks with his Institute’s recent hiring of a full-time tabulate their votes, and make sure Colombian counterpart about the trade Washington, D.C. correspondent.] This they explain their actions. But regional ramifications of Colombia’s effort to

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 19 The Beat Goes On

A Changing of the Guard in Washington, D.C. News Bureaus

By Jan Gardner

It was on a hunch that Marcus Stern, a reporter in the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Copley News Service, launched the investigation that brought down California Congress- man Randy “Duke” Cunningham. When Cunningham was asked why he had taken two trips to Saudi Arabia in 2004, the representative said he wanted to improve U.S. relations with the Saudis. Stern didn’t believe him. He wondered if Cunningham’s lifestyle had benefited from the trips. While searching property records, he learned that Cunningham had sold his house at an inflated price to the owner of a fast-growing defense company and had bought a rather expensive mansion. More reporters joined the inves- Margaret Wolf Freivogel, editor National Press Club on September tigation, which resulted in stories of the St. Louis Beacon, an online 7. Williams began her career at the published in the San Diego Union- regional news site, explained on the Center for Public Integrity in D.C. Tribune, then a Copley paper. Months site’s blog her rationale for hiring so she returns to the nation’s capital later Cunningham resigned from the a D.C.-based reporter: “Like it or with sophisticated database skills and House, pleaded guilty to taking $2.4 not, what happens in Washington years of experience in investigative million in bribes, and was sent to matters to us in St. Louis. … A good journalism. prison. The paper and news service Washington correspondent explains Hearn, a former senior editor shared a Pulitzer Prize in National what role St. Louis area officials at The San Diego Union-Tribune, Reporting. and interests play in creating and wants to establish D.C. coverage as Today Copley News Service no implementing that policy, how St. a signature of the institute. Williams longer exists. The Union-Tribune has Louisans are affected, who gains provides accountability reporting for no Washington bureau and neither do and loses and what problems remain the institute’s media partners. In addi- many other news organizations and unsolved.” tion, the institute’s website devotes a daily papers across the country. As Freivogel was one of eight reporters page to each U.S. representative for a result, fewer reporters are holding when she worked in the St. Louis the San Diego area so constituents Congressional delegations account- Post-Dispatch’s Washington bureau, have at their fingertips up-to-date able to voters back home. Now there which is now down to one reporter. information about the sponsorship are faint stirrings of a reversal. Among In October, the Beacon hired Robert of bills, lobbying activities, campaign the regional nonprofit online news Koenig, a St. Louis native and a contributions, and other financial organizations established in recent veteran of the Post-Dispatch bureau, disclosures. years, there is a growing sense that to report from D.C. “While essential, data alone cannot thorough coverage requires a pres- Lorie Hearn, executive director tell a story of how well local delega- ence in the nation’s capital. Two of the Watchdog Institute in San tions are doing their jobs,” Hearn sites, in particular, have committed Diego, is pleased to revive coverage said. “Even in today’s digital world, new resources to D.C.-based report- of the local Congressional delegation. nothing can replace a reporter on ing. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Brooke Williams, an investigative the scene who has sources, who can the leaders of both are veterans of reporter for the institute, a nonprofit connect dots, and who can literally newspapers that once had bureaus investigative center at San Diego State run down leads.”  in Washington. University, opened the bureau at the

20 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Watchful Eye seize a big part of the American cut Houston Post bureau. Gone as well is out situations worthy of deeper dig- flower market. the exhaustive coverage of border and ging. Stern only got the Congressional It’s probably safe to say I am the immigration issues by Copley. Marcus corruption story because he knew only reporter on that trip who wrote Stern is best remembered for breaking Cunningham well and because the as much about cut flowers as I did the Cunningham story, but he would Copley bureau was working on a routine about the drug summit. I admit that tell you he is proudest of the stories story about the congressman. Like I did not expect to find it fulfilling he broke on the border. In early 1995, the other regional bureaus, we were to research this trade dispute, but Stern was a lonely voice challenging following up on a study of privately doing so was a reminder of how the the Clinton administration’s claims of funded Congressional travel released element of surprise is one benefit of great success in Operation Gatekeeper, by Northwestern University’s Medill working this beat. It turned out to be its crackdown on illegal immigrants News Service, the Center for Public a fascinating story—in part because, crossing at the San Diego sector of the Integrity, and American Public Media. in its particulars, it wove its way into border. “The administration launched Cunningham was by no means the familiar political zones. a PR campaign to convince the public biggest traveler. He had taken only six The shorthand version is that that the crackdown was working,” trips. But two of the trips intrigued American growers were a little slow recalled Stern recently. “We were the Stern. Both were to Saudi Arabia, a in adapting to the marketplace. In only ones that didn’t bite and we country the congressman had previ- the 1980’s, they saw little reason to were right.” ously shown little interest in, and both sell flowers in grocery stores. This Andrew Alexander has similar were paid for by a Saudi native who provided an opening to growers in memories of the regional coverage he lived in his district. Colombia and Ecuador and they seized oversaw as chief of the Cox bureau. He In another reporter’s story, Cunning- it. And before domestic growers knew did what all bureau chiefs of regional ham said the trips were “to promote what had happened, a big chunk of papers did—made frequent trips to the discourse and better relations between the marketplace was gone. newspapers and returned with a long the two nations.” Because Stern knew So what did the U.S. growers do, list of Washington stories they could Cunningham so well—and knew his having misread the market? Demand not report on their own. “We frequently attitude toward Arab nations—his protection from the government. So on dug into the Washington bureaucracy reaction was: “I don’t believe it.” this presidential trip, flowers became to report on problems or plans involving Stern launched an exhaustive search a point of discussion between two local issues and projects,” he said. “We of records to try to find the real reason presidents with a real-life impact on did this often with stories about plans for the trips. He looked at everything hundreds of acres in San Diego County to close or cut VA centers in some of about the man who paid for the trips, and thousands of jobs, as Bush pushed our circulation areas. Or we uncovered everything that could shed light on policies to get Colombians to switch political roadblocks to highway funding connections between Cunningham from drug production to flower grow- projects. Whenever people from our and Saudi Arabia. He found nothing. ing despite the hardship this would local areas testified before Congress, Finally, in frustration, he launched impose on American growers. we were there. In many cases, these what he called a “lifestyle audit” of No national publication was writing were local officials from smaller Cox Cunningham. That meant checking this story. Ever since technology made communities. That’s a pretty big story all available databases to see whether it feasible for newspapers across the for a local paper.” the congressman was showing any country to open bureaus in Washing- Business coverage—like the cut upgrades in his lifestyle. It was dur- ton, though, it is exactly the kind of flower story—often gets overlooked ing that “audit” that he uncovered the story that these regional beat reporters as an important service of regional purchase of Cunningham’s house for a have specialized in. And such stories bureaus. Alexander remembers stories wildly inflated price by a Washington- are still being done; it’s just that there Cox reporters did about government based defense contractor. It was the are fewer of them. investigations or inquiries involving first—but certainly not the last—bribe big Atlanta employers like Coca-Cola, we found. Diminishing Coverage Delta Air Lines, or the Centers for He won a Pulitzer for that story Disease Control and Prevention. Cox along with his primary reporting The Des Moines Register still watches specialized in air industry issues involv- partner Jerry Kammer, who broadened the Department of Agriculture, but ing routes, mergers and investigations the coverage with a groundbreak- with only one reporter. Gone is the of Delta—critical stories in Atlanta ing look at how the earmark system larger bureau that won Pulitzers with one of the world’s busiest airports. worked as demonstrated by the role for its coverage of the intersection of lobbyist and former San Diego of government and farming. Gone, Deeper Digging Representative Bill Lowery. But even too, is intensive coverage of NASA on the day we stood on the stage at by Media General and the larger As beat writers know, it’s in doing Columbia University accepting that Houston Chronicle bureau or the old these routine stories that they sniff award, Stern told me only half in jest

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 21 The Beat Goes On

that his effort had been a failure. After and track votes and do lifestyle audits. George E. Condon, Jr. joined all, he said, he never did nail down There just aren’t enough of them, CongressDaily and National Journal just why Cunningham took those two and the ones still there are stretched as a White House correspondent trips to Saudi Arabia. very thin. So place some flowers—cut when Copley News Service closed its That is the kind of success—and ones, please—on the grave of the old, Washington, D.C. bureau in 2008. failure—that keeps this kind of beat big regional bureau—the ones that reporting at these regional bureaus carved out these vital beats and served going. A hardy few still look at agencies constituents well. 

Statehouse Beat Woes Portend Bad News for Good Government ‘There’s an analogy between statehouse beat reporters—well, beat reporters in general—and cops on the beat who know the neighborhood and everyone in it.’

BY GENE GIBBONS

lorida politician Rod Smith once tion delivery—a world increasingly the federal level. And the steadily described Lucy Morgan of the driven by rapid-fire tweeting and the dwindling number of statehouse beat St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times as inane cacophony of American televi- reporters is likely to give rise to far Fthe state’s “biggest pain in the ass.” sion—there seems to be less and less more political flimflammery than the But he added that his legislative col- room for people who want to make a stealing of silverware in Florida. leagues in Tallahassee were grateful career of covering the statehouse and for her because otherwise “we would earn a decent living doing it. There Filling the Gap probably steal the silverware.” Smith are now fewer than 500 professional was being facetious, of course; the sil- journalists covering state government Why do I think it’s important to have verware wouldn’t even begin to satisfy full time—and that includes those a flourishing statehouse press corps the kind of sticky-fingered politicians who work for The Associated Press, composed of beat reporters like the Morgan delights in exposing and the which still staffs this essential beat people I’ve mentioned? special interests with whom they’re in every state. Press rooms once filled Certainly, some will say, there usually in cahoots. with reporters are now quiet relics of are alternatives such as some of the As the digital revolution devastates a bygone era. online start-ups rising to fill the gap. and reshapes the news media, I fear A survey conducted by American And it’s true that there are dozens of what’s likely to be lost in the shuffle Journalism Review (AJR) found that news websites and hundreds of blogs is a next generation of statehouse in 44 states there were fewer state- devoted to covering state government, beat reporters who will follow in the house reporters in 2009 than there but there are few I’ve seen that can footsteps of people like the Pulitzer were six years earlier. The numbers really do the job. Outfits like The Prize-winning Morgan, the Chicago in four states were unchanged from Texas Tribune and The Connecticut Tribune’s Ray Long, Steve Walters of the 2003 AJR survey. In only two Mirror are making an admirable effort. the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and states—Rhode Island and Oregon—was But I think even they would admit it George Skelton of the Los Angeles there an increase. will take some doing to become as Times. With their institutional knowl- It’s a damn shame because what known, respected and, yes, as feared edge, gigantic Rolodexes, and unending happens at the state level affects our as someone like Morgan. Her mere determination to afflict the comfortable lives a whole lot more than what hap- presence in Tallahassee encouraged and hold the powerful to account, these pens in Washington, D.C. Health care, the politicians to try to do better. four outstanding journalists and others education, business regulation—just Smith put his finger on it. Why suc- like them have been an awesome force name it and chances are that state cumb to a moral or ethical lapse if for good government. regulations and policies have a lot your family, friends and supporters In the brave new world of informa- more impact than what happens on are probably going to read all about

22 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Watchful Eye

Uncovering an Un-Covered Story in Bell, California

By Jonathan Seitz

This past summer two reporters committees that never met. Salaries are a matter of public record. “All from the Los Angeles Times broke that high would raise concern in any anyone had to do was look at the a major story in a place that doesn’t big city (as the Times noted, Bell’s paperwork on file at city hall—and usually figure into its coverage—or any manager was making more than any halfway decent beat reporter other new organization’s. Imminent twice what the chief executive of Los assigned to the city would’ve known bankruptcy had forced the city of Angeles County makes), but in Bell, to do exactly that as a matter of Maywood to lay off all of its employ- nobody was keeping watch. Only course,” he concluded. ees and outsource its management after the Times started investigat- The only other coverage of the city to the neighboring city of Bell, an ing was this compensation scandal comes from a chain of community unprecedented move even in the brought to light, prompting enough newspapers, which covers Bell and cash-strapped state of California. community outrage to force the city 14 other communities with a single Facing budget cuts of its own, the officials’ resignations. reporter who hasn’t been to a Bell Times was no longer covering smaller As journalist Conor Friedersdorf City Council meeting in 17 years, cities on a day-to-day basis but when wrote in a column on Forbes.com according to Times media critic reporters Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben titled “Why Every City Needs a Beat James Rainey. Vives looked into the new arrange- Reporter,” “had its [Bell’s] residents As newsrooms slash their budgets ment, they found that things in Bell banded together five years ago to and limit their coverage, courthouses weren’t exactly financially sound. hire a top-notch beat reporter, even and city halls across the country The city manager of Bell (pop. paying him the handsome salary of left uncovered may fall prey to such 40,000), was making close to $200,000 per year, the return on unscrupulous behavior by officials. $800,000 a year while the police chief their value would’ve been immense.” What happened in Bell is a reminder was paid more than $400,000 and In fact, it would not have taken a that watchdog reporters, like their four of the city’s part-time council top-notch beat reporter to notice canine counterparts, are better to members made close to $100,000 that something was amiss—under have and not need than to need and each, largely for serving on boards and California law, government salaries not have. 

Bell’s public officials went from having no coverage to an onslaught of media attention after the Los Angeles Times uncovered officials’ outsized pay. Here, reporters interview the only City Council member who received the standard salary. Photo by Chris Pizzello/The Associated Press.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 23 The Beat Goes On

it in the St. Petersburg Times sooner public officials accountable, filling a Franklin Center cosponsored and rather than later? vacuum caused by the downsizing played an active role in a two-day There’s an analogy between state- of the news industry. Their mission conference organized by the Americans house beat reporters—well, beat statements actually say they’re rushing for Prosperity Foundation. The Right reporters in general—and cops on to fill the gap. Online Agenda conference included the beat who know the neighborhood Don’t believe it for a moment. Do such breakout sessions as “Intro to and everyone in it. They get a sixth what reporters should do: Check them Online Activism” and “Killing the Death sense when something’s out of order, out, as I have done. For the most part, Tax” and featured speakers such as con- something’s not right, and by sniffing the people in charge of these would- servative U.S. Representative Michele around they would find the story. be watchdog operations are political Bachmann of Minnesota and Tea Party Today, many of the would-be hacks out to subvert journalism in their activist Sharron Angle, a Republican replacements for statehouse beat quest to grab and keep power using who was then running against Harry reporters are interested first and whatever means they have to do so. Reid in the election for U.S. Senate foremost in investigative journalism. Good luck on finding out where they in Nevada. No Democratic legislators Investigative News Network (INN), a get their money; the IRS disclosure were included in the program. The consortium of small to midsize online forms required of organizations that finale of the Las Vegas conference was news organizations scattered through- claim nonprofit status are singularly a November is Coming Rally. out the country, is probably the outfit uninformative. Yet Franklin Center websites are that I’m most familiar with. I’m glad At the forefront of an effort to blur seeking legitimacy by demanding to be it and other investigative sites such as the distinction between statehouse accredited in the various statehouses ProPublica are out there, but I think reporting and political advocacy is where they have sprung up. They about their role as I do about the FBI’s. the Franklin Center for Government also are applying for membership in Only the worst miscreants are likely & Public Integrity, which finances a Capitolbeat, a professional association to come under their scrutiny, and the network of websites that focus on of statehouse reporters and editors, chances of that happening even for the state government. This center has ties according to Tiffany Shackelford, the really bad guys are roughly equivalent to a number of conservative organi- association’s former executive director. to being struck by lightning. zations, including the Americans for The Illinois Legislative Correspondents “The beat reporter is the backbone Prosperity Foundation, whose founder Association denied membership to of investigative journalism,” says Andy is billionaire David Koch. He is a reporters working for the Franklin Hall of WisconsinWatch.org, a member longtime financier of right-wing causes Center because the center declined to of INN. “You look across history, and whose shadowy political dealings were disclose information about its funding. most of the big stories didn’t start off highlighted this past summer in a New However, a number of government as projects. They started off with a Yorker article by Jane Mayer headlined offices have issued press credentials beat reporter asking a few questions “Covert Operations.” to those reporters. or checking a few records.” Jason Stverak, a former executive “Don’t complain about the media; There’s also another problem. Even director of the North Dakota Republi- become the media” appears to be their the best of the online organizations can Party, heads the Franklin Center. philosophy. It would be the ultimate have shoestring budgets and nowhere He contends that it is wrong to infer indignity if the empty chairs becoming near the editorial, legal and business from his partisan background and that more numerous in statehouse press acumen of most traditional news opera- of others who work with him that their rooms were to be filled by political tions, and by that I mean newspapers. reporting skews to the right. “I ran a tricksters.  Taking on powerful political interests is [state] Republican Party. We disclose not a job for the weak or fainthearted, that fully on our website,” Stverak told Gene Gibbons writes about state and as many journalists can attest. It often me in a March 2010 interview that national politics. During his 41 years requires an infrastructure that most appears as part of “Ants at the Picnic: in journalism, he was employed of the start-ups lack. A Status Report on News Coverage of by United Press International and State Government,” a paper I wrote for Reuters, and subsequently was a Partisan Reporting Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on founding editor of Stateline, a news the Press, Politics and Public Policy. website that focuses on state govern- The decline of the statehouse beat is “But at the end of the day it’s the same ment and is funded by the Pew bad enough. What I find even worse standard to which you would hold Fox Charitable Trusts. is the influx of agenda-driven state News, CNN, The New York Times, “news” organizations, some with a New York Post, Fargo Forum,from my leftist orientation but most of the home state of North Dakota—you will newer entries tilted far to the right. judge any news organization based They claim their sole reason for being upon the content that they produce.” is to inform the people and hold However, four months later the

24 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Watchful Eye

Argo Network: NPR’s New Group of Beat-Driven Blogs

By Jonathan Seitz

Local news initiatives are blossoming online—with the rapid expansion of AOL’s Patch, the launch of Allbritton Commu- nications’ Washington, D.C.-focused TBD, and the collaboration of The New York Times and New York University jour- nalism students on the neighborhood-level Local East Village, to name a few. One of the quieter debuts this year has been NPR’s Argo Network, a group of 12 staff-written blogs at some of the larger mem- ber stations in the public broadcaster’s national radio network. Each blog is pegged to a topic, and those who write for it cover the issues as a beat reporter might—by assembling information, tracking news, and telling stories, some of them quite personal. Even with this local touch, these blogs are intended to appeal as well to a national audience. CommonHealth, produced by WBUR in Boston and part of the Argo Network, focuses on health The project’s director care reform and other topics related to personal health and medicine. Joel Sucherman describes the content on the blogs as “high- The Key, WXPN’s blog about local of topics, then their combined effort quality, engaging, public-service underground music in Philadelphia, could provide fuller coverage across journalism” that mimics NPR’s usual DCentric in Washington, D.C., and more territory than any one of the mix of “wonk and whimsy.” At Boston’s The Empire in New York. stations could do on its own. WBUR, posts on CommonHealth Despite similar layouts and design, The Argo Network is funded by ranged from a discussion of workplace these blogs are independent of one $3 million from the Corporation for bullies to a “special report”—video another. But all carry a tiny “NPR Public Broadcasting and the John S. included—about a writer’s quest Argo Network” rectangle at the top and James L. Knight Foundation, for pain-free sex. In San Francisco, of each page, hinting at their shared which will keep it running through KQED’s blog, MindShift, features connection. Part of Argo’s strategy is the 2011 fiscal year. The Knight emerging digital tools for learning to use a small staff to cover beats that Foundation has stipulated that the with stories such as “Mashable’s 7 resonate locally and nationally instead technology developed for the sites Fantastic Free Social Media Tools.” of hiring a larger team to report on must be released to the general public Some Argo Network members are these various topics. If enough Argo by 2012, presumably so more online much more location specific, such as sites launch with a widening spectrum news initiatives can take root. 

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 25 The Beat Goes On

Investigative Reporting About Secrecy ‘… it would be a terrific investment of reportorial resources, not to mention a valuable public service, to dedicate an entire beat to secrecy.’

BY TED GUP

The real intent [of the First Amend- ment] was to prevent national suicide by making it difficult for the govern- ment to operate in secret, free from the scrutiny of a watchful press. —I.F. Stone’s Weekly, October 3, 1966

nvestigative reporters are all too familiar with secrecy. They know it as the obstacle that stands between Ithem and the object of their interest. Everything about investigative report- ing reinforces the notion that secrecy is but an impediment to be overcome. We celebrate our triumphs over secrecy with prizes, promotions and public accolades. But secrecy is more than a mere roadblock to successful report- ing, and the conventional treatment of secrecy may inadvertently play into the hands of those who seek to keep Indiscriminate secrecy is used by government “to impede scrutiny, obscure process, avoid the public in the dark. accountability, suppress dissent, and concentrate power.” I recognize that the economy has thinned the reportorial ranks, but overlook one of the more significant isolated settings—this official refused given the wild proliferation of secrets stories of our lifetime—an emerging to disclose, that official declined to in both the public and private spheres, “secretocracy” that threatens to trans- comment. it would be a terrific investment of form American society and democratic Our own reportorial frustrations reportorial resources, not to mention institutions. Systemic or indiscriminate have sometimes been allowed to color a valuable public service, to dedicate secrecy involves the calculated use of our judgment and blind us to the news; an entire beat to secrecy. If nothing secrecy as a principle instrument of we personalize secrecy. Because we are else, it would produce some remark- governance, a way to impede scrutiny, stymied in our quest for information, able stories, and it might just help the obscure process, avoid accountability, we view the story as a dry hole. There public grasp the wider implications of suppress dissent, and concentrate is a professional reluctance to write unchecked secrecy. power. The tendency to abuse secrecy about secrecy per se, in part because With some noteworthy exceptions, is as old as power itself, but prior to it is seen as self-serving or whining, secrecy is rarely tackled head-on 9/11 it was usually checked, and even an admission of our own shortcom- in the press. Rather, it crops up in its abuses were cyclical. ings as reporters. Writing about intact stories as an incidental—a fleeting Too often today this broader use secrets somehow smacks of defeatism. denial of access, a closed door, a of secrecy escapes our attention, or at Great reporters, we might imagine, call not returned, a stalled Freedom least our reporting—especially when as would not stoop to carping about of Information Act (FOIA) request. reporters we fail to prevail and obtain such conditions, equating secrecy with Secrecy itself gets short shrift. It is the information sought. On the rare professional adversity; they would rise endemic to the culture of investigative occasion that secrecy itself is granted above them, or so the argument goes. reporting to see it in terms that are center stage, it is often so closely tied Watergate and the Pentagon Papers defined by our own ability or inability to the particulars of a given story that remain the template, stories steeped to surmount the obstacles before us. the context is lost. Readers encounter in secrecy, but in which the reporters In so doing we have tended to the subject of secrecy almost always in emerged triumphant. The closest we

26 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Watchful Eye come to recognizing secrecy as an stories may have left readers/citizens it remains widely unknown to most integral element of the story is when with the dangerous misimpression Americans. it is cast as a cover-up. that few secrets can withstand our Secrecy is increasingly a problem in reportorial onslaught, that the republic the courts as well, as fewer cases are Obstacles to Reporting on still enjoys a robust albeit begrudging adjudicated in open court and more Secrecy transparency, and that the govern- and more cases go the way of alterna- ment’s or industry’s feeble attempts to tive dispute resolution and are sealed. There are other reasons why secrecy ward us off and conceal their actions In the federal courts, fewer than 2 is rarely taken on directly. To expose are ultimately to no avail. In short, we percent of cases go to a full and open broad patterns of secrecy requires have telegraphed to the electorate, the trial. This might sound like an arcane reporters to cooperate across beats consumer, the patient, and the litigant, subject, but it has very real public and to subordinate sensitivities over that they are in possession of all the implications as tort litigation over turf to news values. There is also the vital information they need to make potentially dangerous products—autos, fear that an examination of secrecy informed choices. tires, medications, machinery—medi- is for policy wonks and political sci- That does not comport with my cal malpractice, gender, age and race entists, not journalists, and that it is experience as a reporter. Nor does it, discrimination, and a slew of other too abstract to be of much interest to I believe, reflect the reality of America topics that directly affect the public’s readers. But it is no more so than a in 2010. Silly as it might sound, we safety and well-being, are increasingly host of other topics we routinely cover also do the nation a service when we settled out of sight. as beats, including economics, science, admit what important information In my book on secrecy, “Nation of health or politics (and secrecy involves we do not possess and cannot acquire Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and them all—and more). because it has been denied us. the American Way of Life,” I reported The key, here as elsewhere, is to that the software system used in all show who benefits and who suffers Secrets Not Shared federal courts is designed to spit out and how secrecy is the lubricant for “No Such Case Exists” when anyone all manner of chicanery. Nothing so In truth, secrecy has migrated well queries cases that have been sealed. discredits legitimate secrets as the beyond the historic reservoirs of But outside of lawyerly publications, profusion of counterfeit secrets. Most national security as the nation’s entire such matters rarely receive notice in importantly, we should be detailing infrastructure has been considered a any systemic context. how indiscriminate secrecy threatens potential terrorist target. All the state, When I began working on my to profoundly alter our entire system of county and metropolitan authorities secrecy book, I asked a ridiculously governance, neutering oversight efforts that intersect with those sites—as well simple question that produced some and marginalizing citizens. Secrecy as the private industries that operate extraordinary responses. The question: writ large can hijack democracy itself. them—have increasingly come under “May I have a list of everything I am Finally, while journalistic enter- the mantle of secrecy. Communica- not allowed to see?” At least it was a prises have targeted secrecy at the tions intercepts have brought the good start, and one that would work publishers’ and trade association level, telecommunications companies into well for anyone covering secrecy as individual papers are often squeamish the security fold. a beat.  about working in concert with one Formal secrecy, as all investigative another, eschewing campaigns out of reporters know firsthand, is only a Ted Gup is the author of “Nation of fear that they compromise objectivity. fragment of the problem. Hundreds of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy One week a year, a coalition takes up thousands of officials, senior and junior, and the American Way of Life” the subject and spotlights individual as well as contractors, possess the (Doubleday, 2007) and directs states’ compliance or lack of compli- ability—without any formal training the department of journalism at ance with sunshine provisions, but or authorization—to scribble “Sensitive Emerson College in Boston. This otherwise it is a topic left to ad hoc But Unclassified,” or “Official Use Only,” article appeared in our Spring 2008 efforts linked to specific reporting or any one of many other designations issue in a collection of stories about challenges. on documents, thereby removing them 21st century muckraking; its discus- Historically, reporters have indulged from public scrutiny even as they admit sion of secrecy as a beat convinced us themselves in reporting almost exclu- them to be unclassified. Those labels to reprint it in this issue with only a sively on those secrets that they have have brought about a sea change in few updates and word changes. penetrated. Everyone reports on a leak, the availability of materials and in but too few notice the dam looming our ability to track the policies and behind them. The sense of accomplish- practices of government and industry. ment that comes with cutting through It is a subject familiar to the coalition resistance and secrecy is undeniable. of interest groups and journalists who But cumulatively, such breakthrough care so deeply about such affairs, but

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 27 THE BEAT | The Science Angle There’s Something to Be Said for Longevity ‘… the hardest part of my job often isn’t getting people to talk. It’s sifting through the streaming fire hose of news to figure out which stories truly warrant more attention—and deciding how best to tell them.’

BY CRAIG WELCH

n a June morning in 2009, I the oysters in Washington state’s The Seattle Times. But I had recently stood in the mud on a Pacific Willapa Bay—the heart of the West returned to the paper after a book Ocean beach watching a work Coast’s wild oyster industry—had not leave and had been spending time on Ocrew gathering oysters. These shellfish reproduced in five years. I was here the phone catching up with sources. had been held in reserve by the state to understand why. And the scientists I spoke with who of Washington for those odd years That there were problems with had followed this issue suggested that when wild oyster production faltered. shellfish in the Pacific Northwest new evidence pointed to a disturb- But shellfish growers had now been wasn’t news. Many stories had been ing possibility. They suspected that forced to pluck these oysters for published about the phenomenon, the oysters were struggling in part several straight years. That’s because including a few in my own newspaper, because changes in ocean chemistry

As an environment beat reporter, Craig Welch recognized the potential significance of oysters being in trouble because of changes in ocean chemistry. Their failure to reproduce is resulting in more harvesting from state preserves. Photo by Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times.

28 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Science Angle were affecting oyster larvae. Instead I try to keep tabs on a daunt- Stories on the Beat As The Seattle Times’s beat reporter ing array of issues and institutions, for coverage of the environment, I from the Environmental Protection It’s tempting sometimes to narrow my recognized immediately how signifi- Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife focus, to drill down on only one or two cant that would be. Climate scientists Service to the National Marine Fish- issues. It would be so much easier to for years had talked about a major eries Service, the Forest Service, and become expert only on the ecological side effect of carbon dioxide emis- the National Park Service. And those implications of population growth or sions: ocean acidification. Unlike the are just a few of the federal agencies. efforts to clean up Puget Sound. But complex science of global warming, None of this is to complain. I love the diversity of environmental stories ocean acidification is simply basic my job and where I get to do it. My in the Pacific Northwest is astounding, chemistry: Carbon dioxide released editors believe that environmental and consequently the breadth of my into the atmosphere eventually gets reporting is important, and this means beat widens as the years go by. absorbed by the sea, and sooner or they don’t just pay lip service to it. There are ocean stories and moun- later that carbon dioxide was expected Even in today’s economic climate, they tain stories and international trade to begin making marine waters more will put me or one of my colleagues stories. One day I might write about acidic. That change, when it began, on a plane the moment we make the the world’s most expensive envi- would likely have a corrosive effect case that a story matters. And while ronmental remediation project—the on marine life—especially sea crea- reporters at other news organizations multibillion-dollar effort to clean up tures with calcium carbonate shells, are expected to update their blogs and radioactive waste produced by the like oysters. Most scientists had not Twitter feeds several times a day, at Manhattan Project at the Hanford expected to see such changes until the Times we operate under a different Nuclear Reservation. Another day I’ll sometime around the year 2100. But philosophy. report on an oil spill in Alaska or the now some of the world’s leading experts When it comes to writing about battle to clean up asbestos in a small on ocean chemistry suspected the West the environment, the editors agree farming community. There are fights Coast was already seeing signs of it. with the adage—most often attributed over freshwater, needed by both the It was hard to overstate how to the longtime and much respected Northwest’s largest industry—agri- important this story could be. But Philadelphia Inquirer editor Gene Rob- culture—and the region’s threatened telling it posed significant challenges. erts—that the most important stories runs of Pacific salmon. There are the It was complicated, for starters, and frequently don’t break, they ooze. In pollution issues—the lead and arsenic the scientists were frank about the other words, the very significance of a from mine tailings in communities fact that evidence was anecdotal. In complex story can sometimes get lost around the West, the mercury and other words, they knew they could be in the churning drumbeat of breaking long-lived PCBs (polychlorinated wrong. But the implications, if they news updates. For those stories it’s biphenyls) now found everywhere. were correct, were huge. The story often wiser to step back and put all (One former boss called these the had to be done right. the pieces together. “parts per billion” stories.) I could Not that we’re allergic to breaking write news about climate change—the The Gift of Time news. Far from it. The Times seems politics, the economic impacts, or its to have grown more nimble with age. ecological effects—every week. I’ve worked on this beat at the Times Earlier this year the newsroom won But I feel it’s important to give for a decade. In that time I’ve learned a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News readers a taste of it all, which means that the hardest part of my job often Reporting when editors blanketed the I have to try and keep abreast of isn’t getting people to talk. It’s sifting city with reporters and photographers everything. And, of course, it would through the streaming fire hose of during a manhunt for an ex-con who be a mistake to say I actually do. I news to figure out which stories truly had shot and killed four police officers. fail every day to keep on top of it all. warrant more attention—and deciding The staff posted video to the Web and But making the effort is what matters. how best to tell them. For that reason, tweeted updates into the wee hours Because that’s the only way that I will covering the environment as a beat for several days on end. hear an alarm bell in my head when can at times feel haphazard and a bit But the editors also recognize that I’m on the phone with a scientist who messy. Unlike traditional beats—city every story is different, and environ- is talking excitedly about the minutiae hall, say, or crime—there isn’t one or mental stories ooze more than others. of oyster larvae. even a handful of central sources of That means that I, more than some, That’s how I found myself in Willapa information. I don’t make morning cop often have the luxury of time. In Bay, talking to third-generation oyster calls or swing by for daily rounds at exchange, I feel a great responsibility growers about what was happening to the courthouse. I rarely visit with the to choose stories wisely and tell them their shellfish. I’d spent a few days there same people or office twice in the same fully. I want readers who might not with a photographer and rushed back week, let alone catch up with any of care about the environment to at least to the office to write a lengthy piece. them every day. There is no routine. understand why the story matters. Trusting my judgment, honed through

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 29 The Beat Goes On

the years of staying on this beat, my Shellfish hatcheries that use water from two issues than it ever was. There’s no editors didn’t try to downplay the story the sea improved production by install- telling where the next important story even as I made clear that there was a ing sophisticated water-chemistry will come from; often it will grow out lot that remained unknown. The story monitors that allowed them to draw of a casual conversation about a topic landed on the front page on Sunday. in seawater only when its acidity was I’m only beginning to understand. It’s This story—published in 2009— normal. (The chemistry of the marine by staying active on this beat—digging echoed around the world. I got calls waters entering northwest estuaries in, drilling down, widening out—that from radio stations in New York, and I shifts with wind and tidal events.) I will find these leads. That’s the only was interviewed by Korean television. New peer-reviewed research published way I will know which paths are the The story seemed to strike a chord. this fall by scientists with the National most worthwhile to travel down.  People grasped the implications even Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- as they understood that the science tion suggested that ocean acidification Craig Welch, a 2007 Nieman Fellow, was still in flux. Some raised questions was at least partially responsible for is the environment reporter at The about researchers’ findings. Some changes in the chemical balance of Seattle Times and a two-time winner questioned the way I told the story. Washington’s Puget Sound. of the Society of Environmental But in the year since the piece ran, I’ve written more stories about Journalists’ top prize for beat the link between ocean acidification changing ocean chemistry. But I’m also reporting, most recently in 2010. His and oyster trouble appears to have still writing about fights over water book “Shell Games: Rogues, Smug- just grown stronger. for salmon and about the Hanford glers, and the Hunt for Nature’s Wild oysters along Washington’s Nuclear Reservation. I find it no more Bounty” was published in April by coast failed again to reproduce in 2010. appropriate to focus on just one or HarperCollins.

Third-generation shellfish farmer Brian Sheldon has turned to oysters started in hatcheries because Pacific oysters haven’t successfully reproduced in the wild since 2004. Photo by Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times.

30 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Science Angle

The Science Beat: Riding a Wave, Going Somewhere ‘While I can’t figure out who is paying a lot of these science reporters, the quantity of what they produce does not seem to have fallen off nearly as much as the cratering of traditional U.S. news media would predict.’

BY CHARLES PETIT

s things change rapidly in mass Desperation motivates action, and The Science Gig media, the science beat keeps the newspaper science writer, once a on providing the purest news. mainstay of our tribe, is an endangered Stephen Leahy is an enterprising and AAt least that’s how I see things. It species. Pay rates at magazines have crusading Canadian environmental never has been the most prestigious or stagnated. A typical science journalist’s reporter, whose website rises to the glamorous beat in a newsroom, but no reporting day is fractured by demands top of a Google search with his name one can accuse us of merely plugging to exercise multiple skills—audio, and “science writing.” Climate change new names and places into familiar video, photography and text while policy and science energizes much of tales of crime, corrup- his writing. He has a tion, political maneuvers, regular gig with Inter celebrity canoodling, and Press Service and has had moments of catastrophe. pieces in New Scientist, When done well, Wired News, Audubon, our reporting is about Maclean’s and other things new to human sterling outlets. But experience: discoveries contracts are becoming about the nature of the harder to get. universe and of game- So Leahy is turning changing technologies, to crowdfunding tech- the unknown past, and niques to augment his potential treatments for erratic income through disease. And while there a one-man commu- is the occasional scandal nity-supported journal- or disaster to investigate ism shop, which was and report, what the launched when he asked science beat reporter followers of his website unearths tends to be a for donations to help him tonic to the bad tidings cover the Copenhagen that dominate daily climate conference in news. Besides, we get to 2009. He got enough talk to smart people who for airfare and a few do their jobs well. Most nights of lodging. At a of our stories are about subsequent conference achievement. They may he found himself in the include peril but not so Graphic by Diane Novetsky. company of a platoon of often failure or crime. freelancers, not a single Other than that almost one of whom had been nothing is as it was just a few years tweeting and blogging away. There able to get his or her usual outlets to ago. Nor were things quite as exciting is a dizzying array of opportunities to foot the bill. “No one had any money,” as they are on this beat today. Never publish online but few pay a handsome he recalled. “And I need to feed my have I observed colleagues who are rate. A few independent science writers family. My hope is that community- as collectively innovative, vital, mul- are doing fabulously. But as a group, supported journalism will fill this gap.” titalented—performing on multiple we’re running and scrapping along Now a large share of his articles— platforms—and aggressive as now. But as fast as we can with little idea of a the ones not written under standard the reason is not jolly. destination. freelance arrangement—go online at

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 31 The Beat Goes On

The Guardian Brings Scientists as Bloggers Into the Mix

By Jonathan Seitz

Early this fall The Guardian took an innovative approach to expanding its coverage of the science beat. The British newspaper debuted a slate of bloggers that includes experts in evo- lution and climate change, a former politician, and a physics professor, each of whom writes about their area of expertise. Dubbed “Guardian Science Blogs,” the lineup includes a dedicated group of four bloggers.1 It will also feature other science writers from around the Web in the Notes & Theories blog, moderated by two of The Guardian’s science reporters. The most adventurous part of The Guardian’s endeavor might be what it lacks: the pre-publication scrutiny of professional journalists. The postings on the blogs appear on The Guardian’s website without pass- ing by an editor’s eye—and as such, each carries the somewhat equivocal tagline “Hosted by the Guardian.” As Guardian science and environment correspondent, Alok Jha, who came up with this idea of adding bloggers to to bring some of the expertise and the science beat afloat financially; as the beat, explained to Megan Garber these discussions to our readers.” He compensation, the bloggers receive of the Nieman Journalism Lab, “It’s added that research in 2009 by the the exposure that The Guardian’s is a completely new model for us … Pew Research Center’s Project for prestige and global reach affords nothing here is unedited.” Excellence in Journalism revealed them and a 50/50 revenue share In a posting introducing this that science stories make up 10 from the advertisements displayed website feature, Jha described the percent of all blog posts, but only 1 on their blogs, Jha explained to the rationale for enlisting these bloggers. percent of mainstream news. Nieman Lab. “[T]housands of scientists, journal- The Guardian’s blogging corps As Garber noted, The Guardian ists, hobbyists and numerous other tends to rely more on humor and is not the first to debut a network interested folk write about and create their own experiences than on actual of amateur science bloggers; The lively discussions around paleontol- reporting, thereby injecting fresh Public Library of Science and Wired ogy, astronomy, viruses and other voices and a decidedly different tone magazine each has its own lineup. bugs, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, into the newspaper’s typical coverage But such collaboration is rarely seen evolutionary biology, extraterrestrial of science. In offering this alternative in major newspapers—and how well life or bad science. … The Guardian’s voice, The Guardian may have found this experiment will work remains science blogs network is an attempt a low-cost, high-value way to keep to be seen. 

1 “Life and Physics” by Jon Butterworth, a physics professor at University College; “Political Science” by former MP Dr. Evan Harris; “Punctuated Equilibrium” by the evolutionary biologist known as GrrlScientist; and “The Lay Scientist” by researcher Martin Robbins. [Read about Robbins’s spoof of science journalism on page 34.]

32 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Science Angle his site. He also sends them directly its entire, non-medical science writing Expanding Coverage to registered readers by e-mail. In group. Rensberger told me he wanted return, he asks but does not demand somebody to work for the program Now here’s the catch, the one I can’t of them: Please send money. His site part time, surveying the day’s science really explain. While I can’t figure out has no ads, just that plea. He suggests news online and blogging with links who is paying a lot of these science a $50 or $100 contribution. and commentary. “Sort of a Romenesko reporters, the quantity of what they I asked him this fall how the for science writing,” he said, alluding produce does not seem to have fallen arrangement is working. “Too soon to the Poynter Institute’s must-read off nearly as much as the cratering of to tell, less than a year in,” he replied. daily journalism blog. traditional U.S. news media would pre- Contributions come from all over but At first, I didn’t want to do it. I dict. (United Kingdom and Canadian mainly North America and Europe. “At felt as though I would be chained media have not suffered losses quite first it was people who sort of know to a desk at home. But the lure of as big as U.S. news organizations, me—met at some meeting—but more benefits was high since the anxiety of and in much of the developing world now come from out of the blue.” He a freelancer’s life did not suit me. In newspapers and science coverage seem also gets verbal support, ideas for news April 2006 we launched the Knight to be expanding rapidly.) In fact, what stories, and offers of assistance, which Science Journalism Tracker—known I’ve been witnessing is an explosive he appreciates, such as an offer of “a as KSJ Tracker online—and today increase in the number of websites bed if I am in their city,” he told me, we have an e-mail newsletter option. providing science news worldwide, then added that “I have availed myself I assembled a huge list of RSS feeds, and that includes those originating of that offer many times.” But at times heavily focused on traditional outlets in the United States. he feels like he’s panhandling and he including wires, a few online sites, and The diversity of this news report- has had less than $5,000 donated this nearly 200 North American and over- ing is illuminated by a post I did year, which is only about a third of what seas English-language newspapers and on September 29, when a team of he needs to make such direct-access broadcasters. I would churn through astronomers said they had discovered journalism worth his while. as many as possible and chase specific, another planet circling the small, Good luck, Mr. Leahy. popular news via search engines. I reddish star Gliese 581. The star is found I could get in 10 or so posts a 20 light-years away —close by astro- Tracking Science Journalism day, encompassing dozens of stories, nomical standards —and has several many of them covering the same news. offspring, but press releases dubbed I’ve been through my own career Since then, I have filed more than this latest one a “Goldilocks planet.” crisis. About four and a half years ago 6,000 posts, most of them linked to Not too close or too far from its star, I became a different kind of science several stories. In the past year or it is just right for liquid water. No one writer. My beat went from writing about so the site has added other contract, could know what its surface is like but science to writing about other science per-piece part-time trackers to fol- the orbital dimensions alone struck writers. Monday through Friday I’m up low medical science, as well as news a chord with reporters and editors. before dawn, blogging by about 7 a.m., media that publish in Spanish and (Two weeks after this story broke, and at around noon I send off from German, nearly all of which, like the reports began to surface that perhaps my home in California a compilation U.S. press, give their content away for this planet doesn’t exist. Maybe it’s of impressions of what I’ve found in free on the Web. a figment of data analysis—certainly breaking news and occasionally in Several times during the early years news for another day.) feature writing. In the afternoons I I posted about the departure of old My initial KSJ Tracker post (http:// do some freelance writing or chase standbys in the business as conven- tinyurl.com/23j3qcw) had a discussion grandchildren. tional media lost ad revenue. Such of the artist who did an impression of I am fortunate. It comes with a pay- attrition helped to force a change in the planet—catnip to art editors—and check and benefits. Former Washington the way I covered my beat. Within two links to 28 versions of the news, most Post reporter Boyce Rensberger made years the systematic searches yielded of them bylined stories. I could have me an offer. We ran into each other in less and less. I stopped going through listed many more. I had found stories early 2005 at a meeting of the American the original RSS food line every day, by searching the old standbys—outfits Association for the Advancement of and I took to writing fewer, longer, that would have covered similar news Science. He was then director of the more analytical items, which often 20 years ago, including The New York Knight Science Journalism Fellow- meant rounding up the dozen or (many) Times, USA Today, Reuters, The Asso- ships at the Massachusetts Institute more outlets that had jumped to cover ciated Press, Voice of America, Time of Technology (MIT). I was long ago the same basic news. Plus, more read- magazine, BBC, NPR, Maclean’s, The a fellow in the program. He knew I’d ers—many and probably most of whom Washington Post, plus a few regional been bought out at the end of 2004 by are science journalists—suggested a newspapers such as the San Jose U.S. News & World Report. Not long growing stream of articles to check, Mercury News in the United States, after that, the magazine closed down sometimes their own. and The Telegraph, The Guardian, The

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 33 The Beat Goes On

Register, Mirror, and The Independent with established news organizations. SeattlePI.com, a newspaper turned and Mail in the United Kingdom, as These digital destinations are now website. CNN had a story online, as well as outlets in Australia such as fixtures among science reporters, did the tech outlet CNET. I found The Age. regarded as places that still practice more at Discover magazine in the Then there were the links to what journalism. There were blogs posted form of the so-named Bad Astronomy I call the new old media—found by staff reporters on websites such site operated by prolix astronomer- online for the most part but affiliated as The Washington Post’s and on the bloggista Phil Plait and at Discovery News. The world’s foremost general science journals, Nature and Science, also covered the Goldilocks planet. Guardian Blogger Spoofs Science Journalism In addition, the story was covered by outlets such as Slate, PC Magazine, By Jonathan Seitz Wired News, National Geographic, Scientific American, the biweekly Sci- ence News magazine in Washington, Prompted by dismay at the dearth criticism. This one he headlined D.C., which had its story also published of evidence-based policymaking, “Why I spoofed science journalism, on the US News & World Report site, Martin Robbins, a researcher and and how to fix it.” and Popular Science. science writer, created a community One of his chief complaints is the I found one story from a sort of blog called The Lay Scientist. This fall tendency for science reporters to mashup called “The Takeaway,” which The Guardian hired him to be one ignore the many small, daily mile- describes itself as a national morning of its four science bloggers. It didn’t stones of scientific research while news program produced in partner- take long for a post he wrote—with they overemphasize—by the sheer ship with The New York Times, BBC the headline “This is a news website weight and force of the onslaught World Service, WNYC, Public Radio article about a scientific paper”—to of their reporting—the importance International, and WGBH Boston. go viral. of particular findings. His example What it is exactly, I am still not sure. In it, he satirized what he sees was the widespread coverage that Then there is a new category of as the too-frequently formulaic followed the discovery announced online news outlets that I can’t begin to approach to reporting on scientific earlier this year of “the most massive classify; it’s an inchoate sea of outlets discoveries in which journalists fail star ever found.” that I seldom track simply because to provide informed guidance as Again, Robbins’s words: there are too many of them. Presum- part of their coverage. Robbins used ably these writers are receiving some the BBC as his example of science The result was a self-propelling sort of pay, and some of them might coverage being done with “robotic explosion of journalistic effort well be ethical journalism outlets, but impartiality,” with headlines written that resulted in hundreds I didn’t include them in my post that in ways that are designed to “distance of virtually identical articles day. (Here are a few of the sites’ names: themselves [the journalists] from scattered across the face of Gizmodo, Wikinews, Gossip Jackal, the words inside.” the Internet like some sort dBTechno, DailyTech, Softpedia, Stop Here is how Robbins began his of fast-growing weed. What Press! News, eWorld Post, Gather. post: did all this effort and expense com, Helium which had at least two achieve? Hundreds of interest- bylined accounts, Newsopi, Spreadit, In this paragraph I will state the ing things happen in science Allvoices, Tonic.com, Ars Technica, main claim that the research every week, and yet journalists First Post, TopNews … I could go on.) makes, making appropriate from all over the media seem Some of these sites merely aggregate use of “scare quotes” to ensure driven by a herd mentality others’ work, but some have distinctive that it’s clear that I have no that ensures only a handful pieces that carry bylines. opinion about this research of stories are covered. whatsoever. Press Releases: Reborn as Is it any surprise that his critique, News Stories His commentary-as-spoof struck couched in satire, traveled far and a chord with other bloggers and wide via social media—garnering Another kind of science writer, if not became The Guardian’s most read readers and stirring up comment science journalist, writes the press story that week. But rather than on The Guardian’s website?  releases that tumble out of govern- stop at writing this cheeky send-up ment-funded labs or universities. The of science writing, Robbins returned Read about The Guardian’s decision Goldilocks planet story was born out the following week with constructive to hire science bloggers on page 32. of at least five press releases sent by the University of California at Santa

34 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Science Angle

Cruz, University of Hawaii Institute for their own calls. That was when I still will—or still does—include science Astronomy, the Carnegie Institution thought of them as inside information. journalism in its daily diet. for Science, NASA and the National Now the work of press agent—and isn’t This much I do know when I go to my Science Foundation. And no longer that an old-time sounding name?—is computer each morning: Something are press releases targeted exclusively simply a routine part of the flow of exciting is simmering in the stew of at the press; each of these was writ- information directly to the public, old media, online, smartphone and ten in journalistic style, if not with a with the journalist as intermediary tablet-borne news streams. And sci- journalistic edge, and was piped to regarded as a bit of a quaint notion. ence journalists are stirring the pot.  the public via in-house websites and Journalism professors tell me that through the many “news” outlets that programs to train science journalists Charles Petit is the lead writer for lightly rewrite and on occasion relabel are still seeing their graduates get the MIT Knight Science Journalism releases as news stories. jobs. Though I live in the territory Tracker. He also does freelance When I first started at the KSJ where the work of the science beat reporting and was for 26 years a Tracker, I regarded my inclusion of writers resides, I couldn’t tell you science writer for the San Francisco press releases as brilliantly subversive. where these jobs are. Nor do I know Chronicle and spent six years at U.S. Have them there for readers and they’d when or whether a business model will News & World Report. He is the past reveal how much spoon feeding goes come along to provide the competent president of the National Association into the generation of a lot of news ones with a reasonable wage. Nor do I of Science Writers and serves on the and make transparent which writers know when or whether any more than board of the Council for the Advance- tend to lift quotes rather than making a small fraction of the reading public ment of Science Writing.

Eclectic, Entertaining and Educational—The 21st Century Science Beat ‘While the science beat is old—dating back to even before Sputnik—the approach we take is new. ’

BY PAUL ROGERS

“Giant, hippie-hating, cannibalistic rounded by stacks of papers, busily high-quality radio and TV pieces, but squids attack SF Bay Area.” reading journals and pitching stories it didn’t have a local show focusing that editors and executive producers on the scientific and environmental t’s not exactly the kind of headline don’t understand. Quarks? T-cells? wonders of Northern California, which normally associated with PBS or Can’t we do something instead on the is home to Stanford University, the NPR. But when our TV story about calf with the funny birthmark? University of California at Berkeley, Igiant Humboldt Squid spreading up the Since 2006, KQED, the main PBS Google, Apple, Napa Valley, the world California coast was featured a couple and NPR affiliate in the San Francisco headquarters of the Sierra Club, and of years ago on Boing Boing—the ir- Bay Area, has been working to bring countless other sources of innovation, reverent, wildly popular blog of tech, the science and environment beats fomentation and experimentation. culture and games—we cheered. We into the 21st century. While keeping With a start-up grant from the knew we had arrived, especially when science front and center, we’ve been Gordon and Betty Moore Founda- 48 hours later, more than 200,000 experimenting with ways to expand the tion, KQED—motivated in part by people had watched the piece on- stories we cover and how we tell them. alarming statistics about students’ line—roughly three times as many as By using emerging media platforms, understanding of science—spent a watched on TV a few nights earlier. we connect with fresh audiences. year gathering input from scientists, Think about science journalists, While the science beat is old—dat- journalists, museum curators, and and clichés are abundant. The science ing back to even before Sputnik—the science teachers. It created QUEST, a reporter is the rumpled, socially inept approach we take is new. KQED had weekly series aimed at recasting science character in the corner cubicle, sur- a storied 50-year history of producing and environmental journalism for new

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 35 The Beat Goes On

When the QUEST TV team put together a story about the physics of big-wave surfing, for example, produc- ers went out to Mavericks, a famous surfing spot about an hour south of San Francisco, where the waves can reach 40 feet high. They filmed Grant Washburn, a world-class big-wave surfer. They brought physical ocean- ographer Toby Garfield to the beach to explain why the monster waves are so big. And after mixing in some surf music and shiny graphics, they researched the top surfing websites in the world and sent e-mails show- ing their proprietors how to embed the video story for free. They did the same with Bay Area newspapers. And when the waves hit their peak in the spring and an international surf contest sprung up, the newspapers and surf blogs embedded the QUEST story with their text stories online. Every time a The QUEST team gathers sound and pictures to portray the work of Chelsey Juárez, a Uni- reader clicked on the QUEST player, versity of California at Santa Cruz doctoral candidate in forensic anthropology, who devel- it registered a hit back at KQED. oped a technique to help identify the remains of migrants who die crossing the U.S.-Mexico Those who watched on surf blogs— border. Photo courtesy of QUEST/KQED. who also learned about energy transfer, bathymetry and wavelength—rep- audiences, using new tools and new for teachers. Any of the TV or radio resent younger, more diverse, and expectations for its journalists. Now pieces can be found on our website, different audiences than the ones in production on its fifth season, the and Web visitors can follow local public broadcasting normally attracts. project has been held up nationally as scientists who blog or can download In short, they represent hope. a way forward for public broadcasting Google maps embedded with photos This distribution model works. and other media outlets to stay relevant and videos for local hikes featuring In QUEST’s first season in 2007, 18 in an age when young people not only everything from earthquake faults to percent of the audience watched the have given up landlines for cell phones, birding areas. Rolled out this year, a TV show on a computer; in 2008, 27 radios for iPods, and newspapers for Web-only series called “Science on the percent watched on a computer, and blogs, but most recently, televisions SPOT” has five-minute presentations by 2009, 50 percent or more of the for online video. “You’ve got to go on topics such as the science of Bay audience for some QUEST episodes where the audience is,” says QUEST Area fog and the genetics of albino watched on a computer. And this executive producer Sue Ellen McCann. redwood trees. growth in online audience didn’t can- As others have cut back on science nibalize the TV ratings. They remained and environment coverage, QUEST Distributing Science Stories about the same. has assembled the largest team of QUEST’s stories have been distrib- journalists covering local science and A big part of QUEST’s strategy is uted nationally as well. Pieces about environment issues of any media outlet finding those who are frequent visitors the giant plastic garbage patch in the in Northern California. Between its of websites like Boing Boing. So every Pacific Ocean, the physics of baseball, debut in February 2007 and the end of QUEST TV and radio story is uploaded and Silicon Valley’s burgeoning electric November 2010, QUEST has produced to iTunes. The TV stories are posted car industry were co-produced with 414 TV, radio and Web stories. The on YouTube. QUEST producers put “PBS NewsHour.” In August 2010, weekly 30-minute TV show features all the content, which is shot in high- NPR’s “Morning Edition” aired a stories from Mendocino to Monterey definition, into a video player that can five-part series produced by QUEST County, an area with about eight million be easily embedded into any website and Climate Watch, another KQED residents. There is also a five-minute or blog. Like dandelion seeds blown project. It explored Governor Arnold weekly QUEST radio story on KQED- by the wind, stories spread digitally Schwarzenegger’s ambitious plans FM and educator guides are produced far and wide. to provide 33 percent of California’s

36 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Science Angle electricity from renewable sources by To report science and environ- Money also is a challenge. The 2020—along with all the pitfalls and ment stories, QUEST producers have show costs about $2.5 million a year problems, from inadequate transmis- climbed inside the massive towers of to produce. Funding comes from the sion lines to environmental concerns the new Oakland Bay Bridge to explain National Science Foundation and an that big solar arrays will harm desert its engineering, gone on expeditions for array of other donors. QUEST would tortoises and other endangered spe- great white sharks, mapped earthquake love to travel farther and wider—to cies. In October, NPR aired nationally faults, and worked in laboratories with Lake Tahoe, the northernmost ancient QUEST’s three-part consumer guide researchers seeking to find everything redwood forests, the deserts of Califor- to the surge of electric cars about to from a cure for AIDS to the identities nia—but can’t afford it. Yet the project hit U.S. showrooms. of migrant workers who die alone in has built a significant audience on the the desert. David Perlman, the veteran radio, TV and the Web and has won Collaborating on Science science reporter for the San Francisco five Northern California Emmy Awards Reporting Chronicle, once said that covering as well as national awards from the science, environment and medical Society of Environmental Journalists. QUEST also has experimented with issues “is like attending a never- Now KQED has begun an effort to new models of collaboration among ending graduate school of unlimited replicate this multimedia reporting journalists. On its first day, model at other PBS and NPR the staff of 15 employees affiliates around the nation. was brought out of separate Not all of the seven stations departments at KQED—TV, in this initial effort—including radio, education and interac- Why can’t TV producers share their audio affiliates in Seattle, Tampa, tive—to sit together on the with radio reporters, for example? Why Philadelphia and Nebraska— third floor. Assigning editors will be able to raise the money didn’t hand out story ideas. can’t every station create a wiki for story for a full-blown TV, radio, Instead a wiki—a collab- Web and education series. But orative internal website like ideas ... ? Why can’t a station create we’re convinced that using Wikipedia—was set up where slideshows with radio stories and work even some of the QUEST every staff member, from the techniques can help them newest intern to the executive with local museums and nonprofits produce more compelling producer, was encouraged to stories for broader audiences. enter ideas and critique or to distribute them in e-mail newsletters Why can’t TV producers share contribute to ideas already to members? their audio with radio report- there. ers, for example? Why can’t QUEST concentrates its every station create a wiki for coverage on nine topics— story ideas, including notes astronomy, biology, chemistry, and experts’ phone numbers engineering, environment, geology, diversity, with a faculty that is most for any staff producer to see? Why can’t health, physics and weather. These often eager to instruct and patiently a station create slideshows with radio were chosen to be in sync with Califor- explain.” And it is. stories and work with local museums nia’s public school science curriculum Reaching out to the community has and nonprofits to distribute them in standards. Sixteen community partners not been without challenges. At first, e-mail newsletters to members? were enlisted—from the Monterey Bay we had a delicate dance with partners QUEST might flame out like other Aquarium to the California Academy of to ensure the project benefited from journalism experiments. But so far— Sciences, the U.S. Geological Survey to their advice but we retained our jour- from rocket ships to giant squid—it’s the Girl Scouts—to suggest story ideas nalistic independence. We learned we been a wonderful ride.  and provide feedback. Some stories now needed to involve the education team play on flat screen TVs on the walls early on to make sure we included Paul Rogers is the managing editor of Bay Area aquariums and muse- key facts to help stories meet state of QUEST and the environment ums. One 30-minute QUEST special education standards. By the third year, writer at the San Jose Mercury News. about the state of science education we realized that many schoolteachers For more, go to www.kqed.org/quest. in California schools was embedded and community partners most wanted on the National Science Teachers KQED to train them how to shoot Association website. At some of the their own video, make their own partner locations, QUEST producers interactive maps, and create their own have hosted public lectures and film audio pieces with slideshows for their festivals with scientists. websites. So we did.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 37 THE BEAT | The Topic as Target

Modern-Day Slavery: A Necessary Beat—With Different Challenges The nonprofit Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism is dedicating a gift of funding to support a reporter’s effort to gather and tell these stories.

BY E. BENJAMIN SKINNER

n its code of ethics, the Society of bias: I am not for slavery. In fact, I ing in South Africa one freezing cold Professional Journalists (SPJ) lists hate it, and when victims have asked night in July 2009, I met two girls as its first two principles: Journal- me for help to get free, and when there who desperately needed help. Several Iists should “seek truth and report it” has been a way to aid their recovery months earlier, a recruiter had lured and “minimize harm” in the process. responsibly, I have gotten involved. the best friends out of their township, My beat is modern-day slavery, and Perhaps it’s simply the nature of then sold them into sex slavery for $120 for those who cover unfolding crimes this beat. Perhaps it’s me. and a bag of crack cocaine. The buyer against humanity, doing no harm does While on assignment for Time was a Nigerian pimp named Jude, who not mean doing nothing. I confess my magazine to investigate sex traffick- kept every penny the girls earned on

Reporting stories about girls like “Elizabeth,” who stands on a corner in Bloemfontein, South Africa, can mean that a journalist becomes involved in their lives in ways that can press up against journalism’s code of ethics. Photo by Melanie Hamman.

38 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Topic as Target the streets. Jude had kicked out the Setting Rules for Reporting because slavery is a continuously older one, Sindiswa, 17, a week before unfolding crime against humanity, I met her, as she was too sick to work. Since I began reporting on modern-day the SPJ’s code is particularly crucial Now Sindiswa lay alone, dying in a slavery in 2002, I have interviewed for reporters who take on the subject. state-run hospice in central Bloemfon- hundreds of slaves, survivors, traffick- “I only have one rule,” I typically tell tein, feverish from AIDS, tuberculosis, ers and abolitionists in some two dozen slaves or survivors before an interview and a first-trimester pregnancy. As she countries. I’ve logged more than one in which I ask them to bear honest spoke, I wiped sweat from her witness about their lives. “You brow with a paper napkin. Her make the rules.” fever was high and her T-cell The safety of slaves, sur- count was bottoming out. She vivors and other sources as shivered, but her pillow was well as fixers, translators and soaked. Next to the rusty bed drivers is what matters, above lay one small duffel bag with all else. Informed consent of all of her worldly possessions: subjects can be a matter of two T-shirts, pants, raggedy life or death. As is true with lambskin slippers, and her most Western journalists toiletries. On her side table reporting abroad, the dangers was a half empty bottle of I face are minimal compared Sprite and a bottle of the to those that my sources and rehydrant Pedialyte. That confederates confront, and was all that she had left in working primarily to ensure the world. their safety normally means “I’m hungry,” she said, let- ensuring my own. ting me know that she couldn’t Such precautions extend to eat the food that they fed her the editorial process as well. in the clinic. She could not Of course I won’t change move so she asked me to get facts, but if a particular pub- her Kentucky Fried Chicken, lication will permit it, I will of all things. Ironically, she change names. “Elizabeth,” wanted a meal called “Street- for example, is not the real wise Two.” I fetched it for her, name of the victim mentioned and then she told me her life above; Sindiswa insisted that I story in 20 halting minutes. use her real name. I also will “Thank you for being conceal certain biographical interested in my life,” she details of slaves and survivors said after she began to fade in order to protect them from out for the night. retaliation. “It’s an honor,” I responded. Most times these safety “Thank you for your courage.” Reporter E. Benjamin Skinner wipes the perspiration from concerns dictate that it is Shortly afterward, at mid- Sindiswa’s brow as she lies in a hospital, pregnant, HIV-in- not possible to get informed night, by pure coincidence, fected, and ill from tuberculosis. Photo by Melanie Hamman. consent from criminally active Melanie Hamman, the pho- traffickers before interviewing tographer working with me, them. This means that certain took a picture of a young girl working million flight miles. And yet I have publications that I work for will not on the corner of a hotel that a traf- only peered through a tiny window into publish information that I have gath- ficking syndicate had overrun. The the world of what the International ered while undercover. Yet undercover girl was “Elizabeth,” Sindiswa’s best Labor Office claims are 12.3 million work is indispensable—and, according friend. She said that she was 15, and forced laborers. Forced to perform to the SPJ, defensible if acknowledged though she had failed in two previous services under threat of violence, for in the publication—to getting the truth escape attempts, she held out hope of no pay beyond subsistence, slaves are while protecting the safety of sources breaking free from Jude. Hamman among the world’s most vulnerable and confederates. Activists often warn and I decided to act immediately and and fragmented populations. They are of immediate blowback suffered by deliberately to help her to safety. [See hidden everywhere and nowhere, in slaves when overt journalists confront photo essay on page 41 by Hamman all major countries, in all 50 states, in traffickers: A human rights advocate about her work documenting human brick kilns and underground brothels, in Nebraska alleged that traffickers trafficking.] in fisheries and private homes. And recently gang-raped a young victim

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 39 The Beat Goes On

the night before she was scheduled Miles Wright, treasurer of the North As I write this, I am with him in for an interview. Carolina-based organization that sup- Raleigh, North Carolina, where he In Romania during the summer ports Nathan’s orphanage, learned that received excellent round-the-clock of 2006, when interviewing a brutal Nathan had fallen some 80 feet off of medical care to save his mobility. His pimp selling a disabled young woman its collapsing roof, breaking his back flexibility is still a problem, but he has out of an underground brothel, I knew in the process. Wright and I worked made a remarkable recovery and has that to break cover would be to risk together to pull strings and charter a spent much of the last few months the victim’s life. But the year raising funds and rebuilding before in Haiti, when I spoke the orphanage. He and others with a trafficker who was at the home have recently operating in broad daylight added a school for recovering on the street with no victim child domestic slaves. in sight, I could interview him Whether deliberately or openly as a journalist. That not, journalists change the “broker,” as he called himself, lives of those whose lives we was further emboldened by cover. For Sindiswa, sadly, I Haiti’s lack of human traf- was too late. I was the first and ficking law enforcement. In last person to hear her short both instances, I reported my life story; she died a week after findings to local authorities our interview. Elizabeth, on before publication. the other hand, is still free and, aided by a suburban Chicago When the Story Ends couple who heard about my investigation, is home with After publication, our respon- her disabled mother. She faces sibility for those that we write serious challenges, but she is about and those who have HIV-negative, and she has helped us report remains. For another shot at life. Sydney Schanberg, that meant Too often, the 24-hour TV staying focused on Cambodia news cycle leaves viewers with and working to contact Dith the impression that journal- Pran, his reporting partner, ists’ professional detachment whom Schanberg had left in covering global crises behind when Phnom Penh fell borders on misery tourism. to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. I have rarely encountered For me, that meant help- journalists thus inclined. And ing Bill Nathan. In 2005, as icons—Edward R. Mur- Nathan, then the manager of row to Samantha Power to a Port-au-Prince orphanage, Nicholas Kristof, to name a told me his remarkable story few—have shown, journalists’ Sindiswa, who was sold into prostitution, died a week after she of child domestic slavery and reports on horrific human shared her life story with reporter E. Benjamin Skinner. Photo escape for my book, “A Crime rights abuses don’t have to by Melanie Hamman. So Monstrous: Face-to-Face be articles or essays merely With Modern-Day Slavery.” “pondering over the deeds of He also served as a guide, walking me tiny plane to Haiti with two surgeons darkness,” in Henry David Thoreau’s through some of the Haitian capital’s and 200 pounds of medical supplies. words. Their honest, detailed report- toughest neighborhoods, including Our main mission, however, was to ing can galvanize action to be taken the gang-controlled community, Cité extract Nathan, which we did less than against those deeds.  Soleil. Most importantly, he was my 72 hours after the quake. savior when I contracted a debilitating Here we were following a different E. Benjamin Skinner is a senior case of malaria, and he provided me set of priorities, those of disaster triage, fellow at the nonprofit Schuster Insti- with the chloroquine, food and shelter which dictate that injured people who tute for Investigative Journalism at that helped me recover. have the capacity to save others—doc- Brandeis University, where his work After this year’s catastrophic tors and other first responders—should is funded through a dedicated gift to earthquake struck Haiti, Nathan be the first victims assisted. Nathan, support reporting on this beat. wasn’t responding to calls I made to who has saved hundreds of children his cell phone, and I was worried. through his work, was first on my list.

40 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Topic as Target

AN ESSAY IN WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Visual Stories of Human Trafficking’s Victims

BY MELANIE HAMMAN

A young woman leaves a house that police raided in Johannesburg, South Africa during the World Cup this past summer. The raid followed a tip from a girl who had been rescued by an outreach worker who helps street prostitutes and victims of trafficking.

ometimes I wonder if I am crazy of human beings, most of whom are subject into the realm of reality. Data to be covering the issue of human women, many still children. In most about human trafficking, while hor- trafficking as a photographer. cases they are helpless to escape the rifying to learn, can’t do justice to SThat’s when I realize how life can have horror of what their lives have become, this story: Visual images—with the its own way of deciding such things; though some do. In hearing their capacity to draw us in to another it’s what I’ve been compelled to do. stories and, in some cases, following human being’s existence—have a vital Nothing about this job makes it easy— their journey of recovery, I have come role to play as powerful storytelling there’s the photographic challenge to understand the interwoven layers of vehicles. Absent this personal connec- of getting shots of criminal activity, my responsibility—as a photographer, tion, people remain detached. which by its very nature is clandestine. a journalist, and a human being. The fine line between being a jour- Equally difficult is bearing the weight The pursuit of any documentary nalist and being someone who exploits of absorbing and communicating the photographer or photojournalist is a victim has become clear to me in my unrelenting pain of the victims. to tell a story visually—so the image attempt to cover this story. During the Yet this is what I do, and so my conveys the story without the necessity past year, as I have met with women journey brings me face to face with of words. To do this, I find ways to and young girls who were victims many victims of the global trafficking personify the issue, to bring an abstract of domestic sex trafficking in South

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 41 The Beat Goes On

Police broke down a security gate to gain entrance to locked rooms in this house. “Wandi,” who was addicted to drugs and had no trust in the police who’d arrested her for prostitution in the past, resisted leaving. She feared violence from the man who controlled her life and told her he would use witchcraft on her if she ever left. Photo and text by Melanie Hamman.

Africa and with social workers who after she was “safe,” she suffered from come to accept that it is not always work with victims who have escaped, I psychotic spells; the effects of her possible for me to remain emotionally have more fully understood the human trauma meant that she could not recall detached, as much as I might feel this dimensions of this issue—and how it with any certainty the timeline of her to be a journalist’s obligation. connects to our efforts to report on experiences. Soon after she related her When human trafficking surfaced these lives. Merely by retelling her story to me, I learned that she had as a story during the World Cup in story, a victim can be retraumatized, relapsed into a mental health crisis. South Africa, numerous reporters severely complicating her recovery. Additionally, questioning victims too sought me out, and they asked me For minors, the risk is even greater early (or at all) can risk jeopardizing “Can you get me a victim?” The insen- since the level of manipulation and possible police investigations, which in sitivity of their request hit me hard, trauma they’ve been exposed to often South Africa are frustratingly more the revealing the ugly side of journalism. leaves them with severe psychological exception in such cases than the rule. Insensitive sensationalist reporting of problems. As a photographer I often ask human trafficking—conveying little I experienced this with the first myself whether what I’m doing is in beyond the hype of headlines based on young woman I spoke to in South Africa the victim’s best interest. I use visual hugely exaggerated speculation—has who had been trafficked. She was 17 images to tell a story; it’s how I com- led to a media backlash. The surge years old and had been entrapped in municate a person’s humanity, how I of misinformed reporting during the this circumstance for five years before convey their pain and anguish or their World Cup resulted in small but unre- she escaped and found refuge. Even hope for and pursuit of survival. I’ve alistic expectations that government

42 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Topic as Target

Wandi was questioned by a law enforcement officer during a raid. If it had been documented that she was under 18, the police would have been required by law to remove her from the house and place her in safe custody. Like the other females there, however, her identity documents were held by the man who controlled her, at his residence. Photo and text by Melanie Hamman.

or legal authorities would respond in of how this nation’s poor women and lives in ways that will reignite their some positive way and in the public’s children are marginalized—and yes, pain.  belief that once the World Cup left trafficked—as they confront obstacles the stage, so, too, would the issue of in acquiring an education and in Melanie Hamman is a photographer human trafficking. It was as if South being kept healthy and safe. It should whose work on child protection Africans convinced themselves that surprise no one that human trafficking and trafficking was exhibited in something foreign arrived with the is happening in this country in which late 2010 at Constitution Hill in sports event—and would be gone when two-thirds of children live in poverty Johannesburg, South Africa. Her the games were over. and sex crimes against women and photographs also accompanied a Yet the truth is that human traffick- children climb year after year, and yet story about human trafficking by E. ing, even though it hadn’t been covered these crimes remain among the least Benjamin Skinner in Time magazine by the news media, has been part of of the government’s priorities. in early 2010. She has developed the migrant flow into South Africa Through my photography I work a website to which journalists can for decades. Nor does it happen only to reveal the reality and horror of go for information about covering to women who aren’t South African. human trafficking. Yet in doing so human trafficking: www.mediamoni And eradicating it will not take place I am acutely aware of the traumatic toringafrica.org/cpt. in a vacuum. scars these experiences leave inside Similarly, reporting about it needs their victims. Being a journalist does to be embedded in the complexities not give me the right to invade their

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 43 The Beat Goes On

A 17-year-old girl, who said she had been gang-raped the previous week, talks to a member of the raid squad. “He bought me a little pink dress and told me to go on the streets, but I didn’t want to do it” she said of the man who was in charge of her life. On this day she left with an outreach worker and was brought to a safe house for victims of trafficking.

Photo and text by Melanie Hamman.

44 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Topic as Target

A man who was in the house during the raid evaded questioning by saying he was there visiting his “brother.” He appeared to be acting as a guard, and his papers identified him as an asylum seeker of West African origin.

This man, who claimed to be visiting his “brother,” packed his bag and left. Police found no reason to bring charges against him.

Photos and text by Melanie Hamman.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 45 The Beat Goes On

Geographic Fortunes—and Misfortunes—Define This New Midwest Beat ‘Although the challenges facing this Midwest region are primarily economic, Changing Gears’ mandate is more than to just tell business stories.’

BY MICHELINE MAYNARD

hroughout much of the 20th century, De- troit, Cleveland and TChicago were industrial boomtowns. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to them from all over the country and all over the world in the Midwest’s equivalent of the Gold Rush. Between 1947 and 1977, the region’s heyday, the arc of many young lives seemed predestined— graduate from high school and walk across the street for a job in a factory. Some- times it didn’t even take a diploma. All that was needed was a contact on the inside, such as a brother, a father, an uncle, or just a The staff of Changing Gears, from left: Dan Bobkoff, Cleveland reporter; Kate Davidson, Ann Arbor pal from the neighborhood. reporter; Micheline Maynard, senior editor; George Nemeth, senior Web producer; and Niala Boodhoo, Now, in a global econ- Chicago reporter. omy, the region’s dynamics have shifted from building to buying, and those boomtowns are as the economy and jobs, we also look diversity to the arts and food. no more. Detroit and Cleveland have to other beats—food and culture, to The mini-beats create opportunities seen their populations drop by half, name just two—to tackle the breadth for individual series designed to involve as carmakers and parts suppliers of issues facing the industrial Midwest. our listeners. They include “Still Work- shrink. While Chicago gleams on the At its core, our beat is the region ing,” occasional reports in which we surface, it has an estimated 3,000 from Duluth, Minnesota to Buffalo, highlight older individuals still at their acres of abandoned and contaminated New York and the states and towns jobs. “Our Towns” is a series that gives buildings largely hidden from tourists’ in between, although our subject of us the opportunity to tackle broader view. With that decline, residents of reinvention is not limited simply by issues while checking in with people Michigan, Ohio and Illinois have to geography. That’s the wide-angle view. who live in Sandusky, Ohio; Kenosha, learn new skills that will lead them Within the industrial Midwest, Wisconsin; and Kalamazoo, Michigan. back to stability and perhaps prosper- we decided to zoom in on five major ity someday. themes, which we call mini-beats. Launching Changing Gears Our job as journalists at Changing These are jobs and job creation, com- Gears: Remaking the Manufacturing munity redevelopment, education, the Changing Gears started to broadcast Belt, a public media project, is to report environment (a topic of great interest its stories and publish them on its the situation and address the region’s to those residing near the Great Lakes), website in September. Officially called prospects. Although our reporting and agriculture. In addition, we are the Upper Midwest Local Journalism assignments focus on core issues such exploring cultural issues, from ethnic Center, the project is funded by the

46 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Topic as Target

Corporation for Public Broadcasting listeners will pick the winner. long operated bureaus in different as part of an initiative that created Listener involvement is a key parts of the country, although many a series of local journalism centers part of Changing Gears since this is are now closed. across the country. conceived as a two-way conversation. This method of coverage—emanat- The idea was two-fold: On September 24, we kicked that ing from the hub outward—has been off with a call-in show examining less common at public radio. While • Cover topics of vital regional inter- whether government officials should NPR has bureaus in the United States est—and do so by having reporters’ focus more on big city problems or and around the world, each of the stories revolve around the shared on boosting smaller communities with 764 stations affiliated with NPR have concerns of those who are expe- fewer obstacles to overcome. There often gone its own way on local news, riencing a sense of disconnection will be a number of public events in though many issues might pique the and decline. each partnership city. interest of listeners in nearby states. • Bring together as newsgathering Yet, in everything we do—stories, Changing Gears is different because partners public radio and television documentaries, special reports—and its reporters are asked to assume a stations in the region, including on every platform on which our stories broader perspective than their home WBEZ in Chicago, Ann Arbor-based appear, our focus stays fixed on this city as they prepare their stories. Michigan Radio, and ideastream, upper Midwest region, an unusual For a reporter like Bobkoff, whose which is public radio and TV in approach for both the journalists and previous job was to cover business in Cleveland. their home stations. Cleveland and northeast Ohio, the shift To be sure, regional coverage hap- has required adjustments as the scope In June, I left The New York Times pens at big newspapers like my former of the story expands to fit its regional to become the project’s senior editor home, The New York Times, where it boundaries and its focus gets tighter and direct a team that includes report- has been common for bureau reporters on the primary topic of transition. “It’s ers in three cities. Niala Boodhoo, to cover a dozen or so states. However, a lot like being a national reporter in formerly of The Miami Herald, is based at other national newspapers, such that we have to answer the question in Chicago. Kate Davidson, a veteran as The Washington Post, even some ‘Why do I care if I live more than 100 producer for NPR, works in Ann Arbor, prominent domestic bureaus (such as miles from here?’ ” he says. “Often it’s and Dan Bobkoff, previously with New York City) have been shuttered, as simple as taking a step back and WCPN in Cleveland, remains there, and most newsmagazine bureaus are asking ‘What’s the bigger picture here? along with our senior Web producer no more. Network news organizations Is this happening in a larger way?’ ” George Nemeth. Although the chal- lenges facing this Midwest region are primarily eco- nomic, Changing Gears’ mandate is more than to just tell business stories. We explore the daily lives of people who live here—young and old (and in between)—as we cover cultural topics, such as the food scene, which is the subject of a Web feature we call “Reinvention Recipes.” This winter, we’ll spend time on the music scene as we team up with Sound Opinions, the rock and roll show based at WBEZ, for a contest intended to discover Midwest musical talent. It will culminate in a symposium and concert at the Rock and Roll Hall Changing Gears reporter Kate Davidson wrote a story about a homeless encampment she discovered of Fame in Cleveland, and while on a canoe trip down the Huron River. Photo by Mark Brush.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 47 The Beat Goes On

Regional Focus canoeing and discovered evidence of go more in-depth and specific than a the poor economy: national piece might and can maybe The Changing Gears website per- help people who live here think more sonifies the nature of our beat. Having The other day, friends and I broadly about where they live,” says reporters based in three cities helps decided to see the fall colors Bobkoff. “But we’re not going to cover to keep the stories focused on the for ourselves. So we spent an the local school board. That’s why we regional mission. “Our challenge is afternoon paddling down the need strong local journalism too.”  to make sure we don’t become too Huron River. It’s something both provincial and lose sight of the whole tourists and locals love to do when Micheline Maynard is the senior region,” Bobkoff says. “For instance, I the weather’s fine. Crimson and editor of Changing Gears. After may do a story from Cleveland, but it yellow shone from the banks. But joining the staff of The New York has to tell some truths about what’s we noticed splashes of color that Times in 2004, she served as its happening in Michigan or Illinois.” On weren’t from the leaves. They Detroit bureau chief and avia- a story about the importance of fall were from the bright tents of tion reporter. She became a senior tourism to the area’s economy, Boodhoo homeless camps. business correspondent in 2008 traced the progression of the changing and was a lead reporter in the autumn leaves with links to maps of Even as the states are trying to put paper’s coverage of the automobile Wisconsin and Michigan. on their best face, it seems, reality can industry bailout. She is the author Changing Gears is not a chamber intrude. With Changing Gears, we are of four books including her most of commerce. Our job is to explore looking at that reality, good and bad, recent, “The Selling of the American and explain, not to promote. And the for a region whose identity no longer Economy: How Foreign Companies rebuilding stories we tell bring with stems from the factories that fueled its Are Remaking the American Dream,” them some uncomfortable truths. On boom. It’s an effort that adds to, but published by Random House in the same day that Boodhoo’s color tour doesn’t replace, the job that individual 2009. story ran, Changing Gears stations also news organizations are doing, both in aired a feature by Davidson, who went this area and outside of it. “We can

Community Host: An Emerging Newsroom ‘Beat’ Without a Guide TBD’s community engagement team listens—and responds—in a city where everyone is talking: Washington, D.C.

The job of engaging with those formerly nod their heads, and then they ask on top of local news by relying on a known as “the audience” is in some again what it is I really do. By now, combination of traditional and new ways becoming a new online “beat”— this routine is all too familiar—but I sources. Then I use social media and one in search of a simple moniker to can appreciate why. Until I started this digital tools to bring accurate and describe what it is, the skills required, job, I hadn’t heard of a community host useful news and information to the and the tasks entailed. Four of the six either. Unlike the previous positions public—quickly. members of TBD’s community engage- I’ve held—reporter, producer, video I’m also responsible for maintaining ment team describe what they do at journalist—this one was unfamiliar, the food and dining section of our this local news site that came to life with responsibilities undefined and website. Every day I compile a com- in the summer of 2010. always evolving. prehensive roundup of food, dining and While I don’t have a clear definition restaurant news in our metropolitan for my title, in the short time I’ve been area. To do this I scour a wide range Nathasha Lim: doing it, one thing is certain: What of local news sources, community and I do is unpredictable and diverse. On food blogs, and social media sites. “I’m a community host at TBD.” That’s any given day I will keep an eye on Those who blog about food and din- what I say when people ask what I do. local bloggers and interact with the ing often play the role of restaurant Hearing this, they smile, sort of, and community via social media. I stay reviewers, and they also break news

48 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Topic as Target about neighborhood eateries. The news they publish—along with their commentary—is what I use to fill my restaurant blog every day. So, in a way, food is the topic that focuses my beat. As a community host, I have a daily challenge to figure out how to keep TBD’s food, dining and restaurant content fresh, relevant and satisfying for readers, which we do with original reporting. A separate though related challenge is coming up with stories that are not already being covered by one of the nearly 200 blogs that have joined our site’s Community Network. Our bloggers provide great informa- tion, but the topics they cover don’t limit my selection of stories for original reporting. In fact, their stories, tweets TBD’s community engagement team, from left, includes social media producer Mandy Jen- and Facebook updates more often than kins, senior community host Jeff Sonderman, community hosts Daniel Victor, Nathasha not provide a foothold for TBD as we Lim, and Lisa Rowan; and Steve Buttry, director of community engagement. do a more in-depth story or approach a topic from a different angle. Or what I read on a blog might spur an idea researcher in a very calm office so my via police scanner updates or from our for a different piece altogether. first task was easy: hyperventilate. It reporters but also from other people Being a community host is about wasn’t like being at a newspaper and who were there, some of whom had engaging bloggers in daily dialogue. reporting the story and publishing it camera phones. Such tips aren’t always But it’s also about figuring out how to in the next day’s edition. We streamed correct. So our job is to do what we take what’s out there on the blogs—and WJLA’s live helicopter coverage. We can to verify information coming to us in the news—and create content for tweeted updates. We added to our from our news desk, and then take a our site with which our readers will ongoing reverse-chronological story on step back and evaluate the informa- want to engage. TBD.com. Eventually, I took a breath. tion coming from our community of When that crisis was over, a few bloggers and followers of our website. Lisa Rowan: followers observed that it was on Though each TBD community host this day that TBD—not even a month is assigned a niche topic or beat, in When I get the inevitable “what do old at the time—joined the D.C.-area reality, at moments like this all of you do?” question, I smile (while news scene. us end up swimming together with groaning inside) and reply, “I work at There was no way we could have reporters, our users, and viewers. a TV station.” It’s easier that way. Only done what we did without our social That’s when our other “beat”—the one the truly curious follow up, and then media tools and our community that’s about being the host connecting I explain that I work “on a new local networks. From across the Web, we to our community—kicks in. news website that works alongside a culled tips and found photographs local ABC affiliate.” Yet when news taken by eyewitnesses. Several who Jeff Sonderman: breaks, my job description doesn’t posted photos on Twitter were part matter. TBD isn’t stuck on titles of our blog network. Our reporters When I let people know that I have a anyway so when something out of and photographers provided essential new job at an online journalism start- the ordinary happens, the newsroom’s information, but we supplemented up, they will often ask, “So are you a collective blood pressure rises, mine their coverage by reaching out to our reporter?” My answer is no, but yes. along with it. audience. As an online news community host, In early September, the tweets came When the deadline is “now or, my job involves reporting—but in a in: There was a hostage situation at the scratch that, five minutes ago” the job different sense than my previous jobs Discovery Communications Building of getting facts in order and stories as a newspaper editor and reporter. My in Silver Spring, Maryland. Report- accurately told before hitting the “save” job is to find and filter information ers from TBD and our sister station button is stressful. Of course, the details from sources. I don’t interview people, WJLA-ABC7 rushed to the scene. I was of a breaking news story change; for but I am reading what they say as I fresh off a three-year stint as a media us, new information arrived not only comb blogs and search social networks.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 49 The Beat Goes On

Or I read comments they’ve left on a sources to interview, I’m scanning the our affiliated TV station did with a story or questions they’ve raised. Or Web for sources of news and informa- surgeon. I read a tip someone sends in. tion that will interest our readers. In I kept my eye out for information From there, part of my job becomes many ways, these two jobs aren’t all to fill the gaps in the story. I could helping to aggregate and geocode that different. When I’m responding see that people were speculating about news from the many local blogs and to breaking news, I’m using many of what might have caused his injury. news sites in the TBD Community the same skills I learned as a beat So when I found a blog by a pitch- Network. At the same ing mechanics expert time, I am listening who had long ago to and responding to raised red flags about users. We are always Strasburg’s throwing trying to come up with motion, I linked our new ways for users readers to it. I didn’t to interact with each need to interview the other and with us. expert; he had already Sometimes we write, answered the ques- but when we do it’s tions I had. usually to share infor- But when I did mation that’s been have additional ques- contributed by users. tions for a surgeon, Or I might give an I called one and did update about what’s an interview. “So you happening at TBD. did actual reporting!” When I come to is what people might work each day, I can be tempted to say at expect to do a mix this point. But I’d of reporting, read- argue that I was “doing ing, headline writing, reporting” all along. search-engine opti- With the Strasburg mization, community story, the amount of relations, customer information available service, blogger coach- far exceeded what any ing, viral marketing, one reporter could TBD, a local news site in Washington, D.C., combines information curated from event planning, mul- gather. Why should other sources—including social media—with reporting. timedia production, TBD ignore what’s out and Web coding. To a there just because we large extent, my newsroom assignment reporter: You need expertise in your didn’t speak to each source? I vetted reflects the shift of the media environ- subject to offer context to links and each link for reliability, expertise and ment from scarcity to an abundance recognize which ones are valuable, and coherence the same way I’d vet a human of content. My challenge is to capture you need a writer’s flair to present it source in a deadline situation. It isn’t and funnel information from blogs, as a readable narrative. the act of speaking to a reporter that websites, and legacy media (yes, even Such was the case on the day when validates sources as worthwhile; it is from our competitors) that will enhance Stephen Strasburg, the young star the vetting process the reporter puts our community’s experience. pitcher for the Washington Nationals, them through before and after the Organize it. Filter it. Present it. found out that he needed so-called interviews. That’s what I do. But my job doesn’t Tommy John surgery on his arm So aggregation has far more value stop there. In fact, in some ways, it’s and his recovery would last at least a than a simple list of poached links only a beginning. Now it’s time to year. As updates rapidly came to the when you apply news judgment and host the conversation that develops Web, I gathered the most reliable and subject expertise. At the same time, and invite others to join in. information-filled reports—relying on a beat reporter who isn’t linking to Twitter hashtags and pre-established other sources is failing to give readers Daniel Victor: lists to monitor baseball bloggers and information they might want to see. beat writers—and then wove these into It’s all about finding good sources, I’d been a reporter for four years before a story with chronological updates. gathering their insights, and presenting I joined TBD as a community host. Meanwhile, a reporter at TBD fed me those to readers. In essence, reporters Now, instead of looking for phone updates from press conferences, and I have always been good aggregators.  numbers or pounding the pavement for embedded a video from an interview

50 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 THE BEAT | The Sports Reporter

The Sports Beat: A Digital Reporting Mix—With Exhaustion Built In ‘It’s thorough in the way a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle is thorough; it’s all there, the consumer just has to put the pieces together.’

BY DAVE KINDRED

hen New York Yankees third posted on the team’s dugout wall and Wally Matthews, a veteran sports base coach Rob Thomson has been since Connie Mack was Cor- reporter who is new to the baseball walks from the clubhouse nelius McGillicuddy catching without beat. Wtoward his team’s dugout, he carries a mask. Yet the assembled literati The reporters race against one a small sheet of paper with which snap to attention as Thomson waves another to thumb the night’s lineup he teases the beat reporters. It’s the the card. They fall in line and follow into their handheld devices. They know lineup card for that night’s game. It the coach to the dugout. That way that if they don’t get the lineup into carries the names, positions and the they’re present the second he tapes the ether immediately they will start batting order for the Yankees. the card up. to hear lamentations from their Twitter Routine stuff, that card. It’s always “Then, thumbs start flying,” says followers, their Facebook friends, and

Photographers, bloggers and beat reporters feed an insatiable appetite for sports news. Here, the media swarm around John Henry, the new owner of the Liverpool Football Club, at a press conference in October. Photo by Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 51 The Beat Goes On

that crowd of fanatics who want the Witnessing a Revolution into a 21st century golden age of lineup now and know they can get journalism. To some dinosaurs still it now and won’t be happy until the Matthews is a veteran New York roaming the ink-stained earth, it feels reporters satisfy, if only momentarily, newspaperman, long a boxing reporter borderline suicidal. It reminds me of their lust for information. and columnist, who in 2010 became a hapless husband at the wheel of the “Hours before the game,” Mat- a baseball beat reporter for the first family car telling his wife, “I have no thews says, “I’m getting tweets asking, time. He covers the Yankees for idea where we are, where we’re going, ‘Where’s the lineup?’ It’s crazy. The ESPNNewYork.com. One conclusion to or how we’ll get there. But we’re mak- beat guys, it matters if we get the draw from his experience is that the ing good time.” lineup posted first by 45 seconds. We work on a sports beat today is more I wanted to be a baseball writer go around saying, ‘Look at the time than an evolutionary step in the news until I met one. I saw him do pre-game code, I had the lineup way before you.’ business. It is revolutionary—with notes. Then during games he wrote a It’s now a world of flying thumbs. It’s reporting routines that never existed running account of the action, inning like those video games I used to get before becoming fixtures overnight. by inning at best, at worst hitter by on my 12-year-old son for playing—I’m Maybe this revolution is a brave, hitter. Afterward, he hurried to the 53 and now I’m doing it.” necessary and visionary leap forward clubhouses for quotes. Back in his

Red Smith: He Made Words Dance

By Jonathan Seitz

Of the many memorable phrases of sorts, for example, among Dave sportswriter Red Smith bestowed Kindred, who spoke in 1991, Bob on the English language, the most Hammel, who delivered a response, enduring may be his description to and Jane Leavy, who spoke about a group of New York Herald Tribune women sportswriters within days of advertising salesmen of the pleasure that lecture. he found in writing a column: “All Sports serve as a unifying thread you do is sit down and open a vein and jumping-off point for reflection. and bleed it out drop by drop.” Yet at the core of these lectures His devotion to finding the precise and discussions resides the craft of word is matched only by his tenacity journalism and the lessons learned by at producing so many of them; he these veteran “typewriter jockeys,” to spent much of his 55-year career use Smith’s embracing euphemism. writing six or seven columns a week, For those uninitiated in Smith’s plus a few articles along the way. His writing, Schmuhl scatters 15 of his output only stopped with his death in columns and articles throughout the 1982, but the spirit of Smith’s prose book including “Miracle of Coogan’s lives on in the Red Smith Lecture Bluff,” a game story he wrote after that the University of Notre Dame, Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard ’round Smith’s alma mater, inaugurated 27 the world” sent the New York Giants years ago in which journalists and to the 1951 World Series. It opens with authors discuss the craft of writing. Smith’s only somewhat hyperbolic In “Making Words Dance: Reflec- James “Scotty” Reston addressed declaration: tions on Red Smith, Journalism, the impact of sports on politics; in and Writing,” Robert Schmuhl, the 2008, political journalist Tim Russert Now it is done. Now the story Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. delivered the lecture just months ends. And there is no way to Joyce Chair in American Studies before his death. [Excerpts from tell it. The art of fiction is dead. and Journalism at Notre Dame and the 2010 lecture delivered by Frank Reality has strangled invention. the book’s editor, has collected 14 of Deford are on page 54.] Schmuhl Only the utterly impossible, the these lectures. The inaugural speaker, weaves into these lectures discussion inexpressibly fantastic, can ever Smith’s New York Times colleague and comment; there is a roundtable be plausible again. 

52 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Sports Reporter press box seat, he wrote a new story. blogs (play-by-play), then scrambling box at 10:30, he would then do his All that work, done at speed, was to write a completely different story morning column. counterproductive to good reporting, on deadline. What a waste of talent.” Can this be good? For the paper let alone keen observation of a game The best baseball beat reporters or the website? For the reporter? For that rewarded such attention. As for have always been perpetual motion readers and users? For journalism? writing anything of a quality much machines. But even for them, there To my fundamental question—“Is higher than a ransom note, the work- are physical and mental limits beyond all this good or bad for reporting?”— load made that impossible. which they lose effectiveness. Olson Matthews responds, “Well,” before he That’s what I thought way back in believes those limits have been reached. pauses. “It’s certainly thorough,” he the 20th century. Now, concludes. as we hurtle through It’s thorough in a way the 21st, baseball beat that journalists know is reporters would love deadly to their work. to live at that leisurely It’s thorough in that it pace. “From the time records everything with I get to the ballpark, little regard for context, four hours before a perspective or narrative. game, until I’m done It’s thorough in the way two hours or so after, a thousand-piece jigsaw I’m writing constantly,” puzzle is thorough; it’s Matthews says. all there, the consumer Everything he hears just has to put the pieces in the clubhouse and together. dugout is fodder for Sounds terrible, Twitter and his live- doesn’t it? It is. The blogging. He records paradoxical truth, how- every word, transcribes ever, is that such thor- the interviews, and oughness is the beating rereads it all so if he hap- heart of the revolution pened to miss a “news” that is necessary in the item while thumbing/ journalism business. writing, he can drop it Warren Buffett, who into his next tweet. He knows about making says, “I tell my wife, money, once said that after 3:30, don’t call me no one ever built an unless it’s an emergency audience without mak- because I don’t have ing money from that time to talk.” audience. So journalists Lisa Olson, a colum- know what they must nist for AOL Fanhouse, do. Build the brand. has seen live-blogging A reporter takes a cell phone photo of his screen after learning through the Drive traffic. Draw an in action. The process @realpatriots Twitter feed that the New England Patriots traded the 23rd audience. And hope is essentially an awk- pick in the 2009 NFL draft. Photo by Stew Milne/The Associated Press. that someone figures out ward, truncated boys- how to make the money at-the-bar conversation that makes it possible to between a reporter and an audience of “Most newspapers and some sites,” she again do real journalism. anonymous users. Generally, the writer says, “are running their beat reporters “It’s crazy,” Matthews says. Then he offers random thoughts and answers into the ground way too early.” sighs. “But it’s the world we’re in.”  questions. For reporters whose skills Beat reporters are not alone in have been shaped by years of news- typing without rest stops. In Atlanta Dave Kindred is the author of gathering, this work must be as much this fall, as I went to the Braves club- “Morning Miracle: Inside The fun as playing Scrabble with a poodle. house, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Washington Post, A Great Newspaper “The running blogs are such a columnist Mark Bradley hustled ahead Fights for Its Life.” He has written waste of energy,” Olson says. “Wally of me, head down, notebook in hand. for newspapers and magazines for Matthews is a great example. He’s a “Been writing constantly for six hours,” more than 40 years and received the wonderful writer, but the games I’ve sat he said. That day he had been the Red Smith Award for his work as a near him, he’s typing furious running paper’s live-blogger. Back in the press sports columnist.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 53 The Beat Goes On

Frank Deford: Sports Writing in the Internet Age

In the spring of 2010 Frank Deford, a senior contributing writer at Sports But sportswriters: one word. The Illustrated, author, and commentator on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” delivered assumption, I suppose, is that we do the Red Smith Lecture in Journalism at the University of Notre Dame. He not stand apart and clinically observe called his talk “Sportswriter Is One Word,” an at times humorous, always so well as our more respected breth- insightful rendering of “the carnival I hitched a ride onto in 1962.” For close ren who better keep their distance to half a century he has written stories about athletes and the games they from their subjects and are properly, play, and now, as he assesses the technological changes in how sportswrit- clinically objective. … ers do their job, he provocatively states that “The end of journalism as we In fact, to be a sportswriter today know it is only the beginning of better things for sports journalism. With isn’t nearly as engaging. The revolu- two caveats.” His talk is available at http://images.amuniversal.com/amu/ tion is over. There are just more teams, FrankDeford.pdf. An excerpt follows: more standings, more players, more numbers, more agate type. There’s It says something that alone in the the business is two words, modifier even more soccer. canon, sportswriter is one word, as if and noun, discreetly separated: edito- Still, while it’s not just nostalgia we press box inhabitants cannot be rial writers, foreign correspondents, and the sappy memories of an old separated from that which we profes- movie critics, beat reporters, and man to say that sports was a better sionally embrace. Everybody else in even—yes—sports editors. canvas to paint on then, nonetheless,

Nearly a century later Twitter is the telegraph in the press box. Reporters watch the New York Giants play the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1913 World Series. Image from the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress.

54 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Sports Reporter

when talking about the changes in going to want to read about sports, with the wrong people. And now, of sports journalism, it’s so hard to dis- and this link of sports leads to that course, that includes sports celebri- till it from the rest of the discipline. link and on and on and on, and soon ties getting caught in bed with the That world I stumbled into in 1962 we know more and more and more wrong people. was already on the cusp of being about draft prospects and recruits No, no need to worry, fans: All manhandled by technology. and possible trades and schedules that stuff will continue to be well The late Neil Postman, who was and point spreads and polls and more covered. It is the good stories, and, a brilliant social observer, once polls and statistics and statistics and even worse, the good investigative suggested: Education as we know more statistics. Who cares that it’s journalism, that we will lose. it began with the printing press and bush? It’s fun. It was only a few years ago that ended with television. The end of journalism as we know two reporters on the San Francisco So now, I suppose, we could say: it is only the beginning of better Chronicle, Lance Williams and Mark Journalism, as we knew it, began things for sports journalism. Fainaru-Wada, worked for more than with the printing press. It ended With two caveats. First, who’s a year on the story—BALCO—that with the Internet. … gonna pay for it? Nobody’s yet figured essentially fully exposed steroids But now, of course, people in that little niggling detail out. … And in baseball and other sports. Phil this century are growing up with a number two, what’s good for sports Bronstein, who was editor of the predilection only to read about what journalism is not necessarily good Chronicle during that investigation, already interests them. Actually, I’m for sportswriting. told me not long ago that today the ahead of this curve, because I dis- The Internet—or, to be kind, the paper surely couldn’t even begin to covered this luxury years ago when influence of the Internet—is reducing consider such a risky expenditure of researching novels. You only have the amount of storytelling in sports time and human resource. … to cherry-pick precisely what you journalism. The increased interest Lost is the weight of the writ- need for your novel. You come across in reading and hearing about sports ten word. Instead, the images that something you don’t understand, well, is all too often about minutiae: the flicker before us are so ephemeral, you just skip it and say, “No need to statistics, expertise, Xs and Os, the it’s hard for us to grasp much of put that in the novel.” Because, you’re skinny. anything—and because there are making it up! It’s great. The feature story—the “takeout” as no movies of the distant past, soon But novels are one thing, a it is known in newspaper parlance—is there is no past. Sometimes I think vocational bagatelle, and being an being taken out of newspapers. Not that all that remains of history that informed citizen is quite another. enough space. Too expensive to take anybody cares about anymore are Unfortunately, you can’t make up all that time to research and write it. home-run records. the prevailing news menu. If you avoid People don’t have the attention span So, if we have not actually regressed reading about the bad news, it’s still to actually read paragraphs anymore. to illiteracy in these digital times, we out there, looming. You can’t escape Alas, that’s pretty much an article of are, increasingly what may be fairly global warming and Afghanistan faith now. Pitchers can suddenly only called a nonliterate society. We risk simply by turning over to “Access go six innings, and readers can only becoming optionally illiterate. Hollywood” or “SportsCenter.” Not go six paragraphs. Those of us in journalism love surprisingly, every study and every The story, which was always the to quote … and quote and quote bit of common sense tells you that best of sportswriting, what sports gave again … Thomas Jefferson’s famous if you give people a choice between so sweetly to us writers—the sports remark: “… were it left to me to watching news or entertainment, story is the victim. Sportswriting decide whether we should have a an awful lot of them are going to remains so popular—one word. Sports government without newspapers, or choose the fun. But, guess what? stories—two words, are disappearing. newspapers without a government, This is wonderful for my crowd. So while we may properly bemoan I should not hesitate a moment to This is absolutely terrific for sports the loss of newspapers and magazines, prefer the latter.” journalism. We’re the winners. have no fear, sports fans. There will Hooray for our team. Thank you, Because people do like sports—and be no dearth of easy access to box Mr. Jefferson.  in fact, especially as more and more scores and statistics and dugout gos- women get involved in sports, more sip. Or celebrities walking down the and more people of all stripes are red carpet or getting caught in bed

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 55 The Beat Goes On

The Sports Tweet: New Routines on an Old Beat ‘As much as possible, I adhere to the same reporting rules with social media when it comes to breaking news. Do I have a reliable source? Is this information on the record? Am I absolutely sure the information is accurate?’

BY LINDSAY JONES

y name is Lindsay Jones, and I am a Twitter-holic. OK, I admit it. I didn’t take Mto this Twitter revolution right away. Soon after I joined The Denver Post in the summer of 2008 to be the beat reporter for the Denver Broncos, my editor asked me to tweet as part of my routine at training camp. Twitter wasn’t well known back then, and I remember wondering why anyone would possibly want to receive a 140-character mes- sage from training camp or during a nationally televised game. I did it anyway, and boy, was I wrong. By the next spring, Twitter—along with other social media—was playing a huge role in my coverage. Tweets were now as big a part of my job as filing stories for the paper, just as they were for my NFL sports writing colleagues. Twitter has completely changed the way we cover football, as I’m sure it Lindsay Jones in the press box at Super Bowl XLIV. has changed all other sports beats. The Denver Post’s Broncos Twitter account was launched during my first while integrating our social media the practice field. No calls. No texts. training camp with the team. Since strategy with what we publish in print No Twitter. No Facebook. Pull that then close to 14,000 tweets have been and online. phone out of your pocket and you risk sent—the majority from me. Nearly We break news first on Twitter—in expulsion from the practice field. So all relate directly or indirectly to the Facebook posts, too—with the under- when something newsworthy happens Broncos and the NFL, a combination standing that the beat reporter also on the practice field, it is a race to of breaking news from me or my Post files this news to our website. This get outside the gate to be the first to partners, analysis (particularly during way the link we send out gives our post something. If you’ve never seen games), and some back and forth with readers instant access to a story that a herd of sportswriters run, well, it’s the public. Some are auto tweets from takes them deeper than 140 characters not a pretty sight. our Broncos and NFL print and online allows—and we draw sought-after Such an unsightly occasion hap- news stories, columns and analysis. eyeballs to the Post’s website. pened one day in August during the These days breaking sports news is Now here’s how this approach first full week of training camp when virally disseminated via Twitter. With gives my editors heartburn. What I the team’s star pass rusher, Elvis everything being so competitive—and tweet goes from my keyboard to the Dumervil, was injured during practice. speedy—on the NFL beat, this puts masses—with no filter. Of course, I saw him pull out of a one-on-one slow thumbs at a distinct disadvantage. all the Broncos beat writers have to drill so I hurried to the other side It also presents challenges for news operate under some strange rules— of the practice field where I could organizations like ours. We are having ones we don’t like—that the league see him walk into the locker room. I constant discussions about how best and team place on us. The Broncos was hoping to get some sense of what to get breaking news to our readers prohibit any cell phone activity on had happened to him—some color I

56 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Sports Reporter could add. I knew no comment from as those who aren’t part of a news sis—and this happens most often on the coaches or from Dumervil would organization can use this reporting game day. Thinking back two years be forthcoming. tool recklessly. ago, this is one of those things that I So there I was half-running, half- My approach is this: I am a journalist never could have anticipated. walking to outside of the practice gates first, reporting for a newspaper. My At a late October Broncos game, I and into the adjacent media room. I standards for sending something out sent 108 tweets. That’s pretty standard didn’t want to be too obvious lest the on Twitter or Facebook remain the output for game day. From the time I herd would start to follow me. Once same as if I was going to publish the arrived at Invesco Field at Mile High there I sent a tweet that said something news in the print edition. As much as stadium—about three hours before like “Broncos OLB Elvis Dumervil left possible, I adhere to the same report- kickoff—until I shut down my computer practice Wednesday evening with an ing rules with social media when it that evening, I was in constant tweet apparent shoulder or chest injury.” That comes to breaking news. Do I have mode. In between, I filed several blog I had to leave the field to do this is a a reliable source? Is this information posts, wrote an early story for the bit ridiculous; the practice was open to on the record? Am I absolutely sure Web, watched the game, went to the the public, and none of them seemed the information is accurate? home and visiting locker rooms for concerned about team rules forbidding In September, I weighed these interviews, filed an 18-inch sidebar them from posting words and pictures concerns when I received a direct and a handful of notes, along with nor was the Broncos staff concerned message on Twitter asking if I’d heard a variety of other “candy” elements. about enforcing those rules. Fans could a rumor that a Broncos player had Back to the tweets. I sent word simply post what they wanted from committed suicide. I immediately about what I call “newsy elements”—the where they were sitting on the grass. called my sources, and within minutes release of the inactive list of players, I posted what I’d seen and what I had confirmed with an off-the-record a moment that fantasy football fans I knew immediately to The Denver source that Kenny McKinley, a second- live and die by each week; in-game Post’s All Things Broncos blog and year wide receiver, had killed himself. injury updates; and a minor amount from there it went to our main Web I knew this was not the type of of play-by-play. The majority of those page. In subsequent tweets I told sourcing that would pass muster with tweets were my reactions to—pretty followers what Dumervil was doing my bosses for the newspaper. But while much instantaneous—and analysis—a when he was injured and discussed I was seeking additional confirmation, little less spur of the moment—of what possible ramifications, depending on a competitor in the Denver market was happening on the field. Of my the severity of his injury. The next went with the story via Twitter, cit- 12,000-plus followers, many watch the morning we learned it was very bad. ing “sources.” My initial reaction as a game so I don’t feel any need to tweet Dumervil had a torn pectoral muscle reporter was that wrenching feeling of as a play-by-play person might do. that would keep him out for the dura- “I just got beat.” As a human being, I My tweets highlight behind-the- tion of the season. It was devastating was fine that I had paused. Had this scenes insights about what is happening for the team to lose the man who last been a case of a sprained ankle or a on the field before and after the play, year was best in the league at tackling free agent signing, I might have gone what’s happening on the sidelines, or the quarterback. with what I had sooner. But there was what the atmosphere of the stadium That news also went out as soon no way—not even a tiny chance—that is like, along with the information I’ve as I heard it—virtually in real time. I was going to race to be first with the gleaned from being around the team That’s easy—a thumb here, a thumb story of a player’s suicide without an as it prepared for the game. Often that there, and the news is out. on-the-record source. includes why a play worked or didn’t, When the Post got confirmation or I might tweet about why a certain Speed and Accuracy from the local sheriff ’s department, we player is being used or isn’t. went with the story, both on Twitter It’s at these moments that I can What’s much tougher—and expo- and as a full news story on our website. develop my voice on Twitter, though nentially more complicated for those As the story developed, I updated as a beat writer I am often straddling working with the values of traditional Twitter and wrote for the Web until the line between news and opinion. journalism—is when I learn news about midnight; at that point I filed Even if I am wary of moving too far from off-the-record sources, which is my last blog post of the day sharing into the realm of opinion, those on increasingly common across the league. personal thoughts about McKinley. the receiving end are not. During the This is when I find the immediacy to preseason, I was called profane names, be tricky because rumors often mas- It’s Game Day told I was too snarky and negative querade as news and are transmitted about the Broncos, and informed without regard for whether they have Perhaps the best case for Twitter and that I clearly had an agenda against been verified. There is a noticeable other social media is the ability they backup quarterback Tim Tebow. Of lack of accountability that seems to give reporters like me to combine course, I was also told I was overly reside in the emerging Twitter territory breaking news elements with analy- positive about the Broncos and that

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 57 The Beat Goes On

I am obviously a big fan of Tebow. I constantly—“Is [head coach] Josh England, Scotland, the Netherlands, must be doing something right. McDaniels’s job in trouble? When will and Kuwait, all within a matter of The most amazing effect of social Tim Tebow play? Exactly how many hours, after sending a tweet asking media is being connected directly with carries will [running back] Knowshon international fans to let me know if readers unlike what was ever possible Moreno get today?”—during the games they were coming to the game. before. Having a direct line to the I have entertaining and informative I don’t get much sleep. My thumbs fans often changes the tenor of my dialogues, sometimes to the point get tired. And I’ve figured out that if I reporting since what they write clues where just keeping up is a challenge. am going to half-walk, half-run to tweet me in to what they care about and Conversations I have with fans breaking news, I need to wear sneak- want to read. Just a few seasons ago, are also an invaluable resource for ers. I also need to keep a low profile. a Broncos fan would watch the game my stories. This year I have posed Sometimes it seems that the eyes of and scream at his TV; if he was really questions and used the results as fellow reporters aren’t on the field but upset, he might send an e-mail or fire an informal poll in print. I’ve found scanning the sidelines—accounting for off a letter to the editor. Now fans people to interview and used fol- reporters lest one disappear from view. watch the game with their computers lowers as on-the-record sources for Years ago it was the rush to be first to or smartphones on their lap and they fan-based stories on a range of topics. the phone booth; now the goal is to fire off rants, 140 characters at a time, When I’m going on a road trip, I ask find a place of one’s own to tweet.  to my Twitter account. for suggestions for restaurants and My words have angered plenty of running routes. For my recent trip Lindsay Jones covers the Denver folks, but I’ve also amassed a fairly to London, where the Broncos played Broncos for The Denver Post. She loyal following. While it can be the San Francisco 49ers, I was able tweets @PostBroncos. infuriating to get the same questions to connect with Broncos fans from

The Sportswriter as Fan: Me and My Blog ‘Our blog made no bones about its utter subjectivity, but we were seen as more objective than those for whom objectivity was a commandment.’

BY JASON FRY

n early 2005 as a technology col- I had no idea that our six-week nal for a decade, and its name gave umnist for The Wall Street Journal experiment would last five years (and me a certain readership and visibility; Online, I returned repeatedly to counting) or that I’d begun an uneasy what I wrote was taken seriously. On Iblogging as a subject. It was a rich dialogue with myself about journalism the blog, though, I was just Jason, vein to mine, but there was only one and fandom, access and independence. with no affiliation or connections. My problem: I’d never been a blogger. That conversation has grown more writing had to stand for itself. I decided to spend spring training complicated in recent years as news- And it did: By the end of our first blogging about the New York Mets, paper veterans have fled to the Web year, Greg and I had a decent-sized whose routine miseries and occasional and teams have experimented with audience, had been referenced not just successes I’d followed avidly since I accrediting independent bloggers. by other blogs but also by newspapers, was seven. Six weeks seemed long Amid blurred lines, I feel simultane- and had appeared on TV to talk about enough for me to learn blogging’s ously like an outsider and an insider: the Mets. At least one revolutionary routines and be able to talk about it Are the Mets my “beat,” except I write claim about blogs had proved true: authoritatively, and I thought it might from an outsider’s point of view? Am I The Web really was a meritocracy, a be fun. So I asked my friend Greg a sportswriter, a fan, both or neither? talent show open to anyone who was Prince to split the writing, found a willing to work at writing and building blog-hosting service that worked for The Beat as Blog an audience. I’d seen that for myself. both of us, and a few hours later we I was 35 and an established editor were the proprietors of Faith and Fear One part of the blogging life was a and columnist so this unexpected in Flushing. surprise. I’d been writing for the Jour- success was a lark. But I wondered:

58 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Sports Reporter

What if I’d been 22 and found success blogging about the Mets after a day working on some anonymous lower rung of the news business? Would I have kept trying to pay my dues the old-fashioned way, hoping to parlay a job at a small-town paper into another job for a regional and eventually a chance to work night cops at the major metro? Or would I have struck out on my own, trusting in my own words and my virtual printing press? I was simultaneously relieved and a little disappointed that I had no reason to find out. Something else struck me. Some of our readers routinely rejected arguments made by the beat writers and local columnists, dismissing them because everybody knew so-and-so had it in for the Mets. The casual assumption that journalists were biased offended me—and I was puzzled that Jason Fry, standing in the New York Mets dugout with notebook in hand, was among the when Greg or I criticized the Mets, we bloggers who were invited to cover the game as credentialed press. Photo by Kerel Cooper. seemed to get a fairer hearing than the newspaper guys. This seemed ridiculous: Our blog left quotes from athletes trained to say been a beat writer, rewrite guy, copy made no bones about its utter subjectiv- nothing interesting, was access really editor, section chief, and columnist, ity, but we were seen as more objective such an advantage? I was thoroughly MSM. After the than those for whom objectivity was Columns had always been my Journal and I parted ways, I took a commandment. Paradoxically, there favorite form of sports writing, but I a gig writing columns about sports was a power to subjectivity: Since started to notice how many of them writing and new media. I had plenty nobody could accuse us of being anti- could have been written (and probably to say on the subject, but sometimes Mets, our criticisms of the team were were) without actually setting foot in struggled to address a topic from a taken more seriously. the stadium. Our Faith and Fear posts single perspective; my challenge was It started to feel as though the were essentially columns, and often deciding which one to choose. foundations of sports journalism were as good as the papers’ efforts. After I This year things got more compli- cracking. By my reckoning, sports realized that, it no longer surprised me cated, and my separate worlds began to journalism relied on distribution, that the most vociferous denunciations merge. The Mets reached out to some objectivity and access. Distribution of sports bloggers came not from beat of the more-established independent was easy: I could publish my thoughts writers, but from columnists: On some bloggers, including Faith and Fear, and to Faith and Fear within seconds and level they knew the talent pool for so one day in July I found myself on reach a global audience. Now, our what they did was now a lot deeper, the warning track at Citi Field with readers’ reactions suggested objectivity and they didn’t like it. a pen and a pad and a credential wasn’t the asset I’d assumed it was. around my neck. All that was left was access. So what Blurring the Line That brought me back to a long- was its value? Yes, there were hard- ago decision. As a teenager working working beat writers who parlayed A lot of bloggers had come to similar on my high school paper, I knew I’d their access into exclusive news and conclusions, and saw themselves as be a journalist and assumed I’d be a insightful features. But lots and lots of part of a war between blogs and the sportswriter. But in my early twenties game stories were little more than play- mainstream media, or MSM. I some- I rejected that; I knew becoming a by-play and paint-by-numbers quotes. times wondered: If this were a real sportswriter meant you had to stop Play-by-play had clearly outlived its war, which side would be shooting at being a fan, and I wasn’t willing to do usefulness: My big HDTV gave me a me? At the Journal I’d been a Web that. If there was no cheering in the better view than the guys in the press guy with a sideline as an independent press box, I wouldn’t go in there. I’d box had, and I could see highlights on blogger. Yet to bloggers who heard chosen fandom and distance. the Web whenever I wanted. If that “Wall Street Journal” and learned I’d Yet now the world had changed;

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 59 The Beat Goes On

somehow I’d become a sportswriter thought about what I might do if it Jason Fry co-writes the blog Faith anyway. Wasn’t that what I was? After were offered—or if I even wanted it. and Fear in Flushing (www. all, I was a professional journalist I wasn’t sure where I belonged, but I faithandfearinflushing.com) with who had written more than half a also wasn’t sure where I wanted to be. Greg Prince and contributes a weekly million words about the Mets and Questions about access are emerging column about sports writing and was now standing on their field with piecemeal from experiments conducted new media for Indiana University’s press credentials. Yet I’d never held a by teams and leagues and the many National Sports Journalism Center. microphone in a locker-room scrum, flavors of news organizations. Given all During his 12-year career at The and I was still an unabashed fan. Did this tumult, I suspect I’ll never find a Wall Street Journal Online, he edited that disqualify me? definitive answer to where I fit—lines and later co-wrote The Daily Fix, a The Mets’ media folks were there will continue to blur, and questions roundup of the best sports writing to help us if we wanted to interview like mine will become irrelevant. That’s online. He tweets @jasoncfry. His players. I passed on the chance, and for the best. People should be judged website is www.jasonfry.net I’m still sorting through why. I think it’s by the quality of their work, not their because I’d spent five years co-writing medium or their background. Faith and Fear without access and never Still, I’ll always wonder. 

It’s a Brand-New Ballgame—For Sports Reporters ‘This is why the advice is simple: Don’t look down from that tightrope; your safety net is gone, likely forever.’

BY MALCOLM MORAN

ere was a moment that ex- 21st century, a daily plained why a sports fan in sprint toward the New England would reach for latest slice of relevant HThe Boston Globe each morning. The information that can excitement of a New England Patriots transform a long-held victory had become overshadowed standard—as in “the by speculation that Randy Moss, the Globe has learned”— gifted and controversial wide receiver, into reliance upon a was about to be traded to the Min- source from another nesota Vikings. The combustible mix planet. had become a national story during The story inspired the previous evening. In the morning, a conversation in a when I opened up my Globe, this is sports writing class what I read: I teach at Penn State University. I confess The Patriots and Vikings have there are times— been in trade talks for a while, arriving more and and as of last night were close to more often—when “tightrope walking” eration? When addressing prospective a deal if Moss and the Vikings seems a more apt title for this class. members of the John Curley Center for can agree on a contract exten- The technology of our time and all Sports Journalism several years ago, I sion, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports of the ways to make use of it have spoke about thrills I’ve experienced as said on WEEI’s “Planet Mikey accelerated the process of newsgather- a reporter covering a memorable event. Show” last night. ing to such an extent that those who Kirk Gibson’s ninth-inning home run graduated five years ago tell me how in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series That is what we are left with in out of step they can sometimes feel. came to mind, the one that sent the the fragmented tick-tick-tick of the So how do we prepare the next gen- Los Angeles Dodgers on their way to

60 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Sports Reporter a five-game victory over the Oakland Today’s sports beat reporting seems tion, and framing that question to Athletics. I’d just finished describing more about producing fragments of gain insight as well as information. the wonder of clinging to a railing information than in shining a light Still, there remains the essential need behind the last row of the press box on core issues of our time. That said, to develop relationships as a way of at Dodger Stadium as I watched the it’s been all but impossible for any earning trust and the reliance on ball clear the right field fence, when sportswriter (or fan) in recent months those relationships to gain access to a Jamey Perry, an assistant dean in Penn to avoid a few topics—Tiger Woods, sensitive or controversial truth. State’s College of Communications, steroid use, and concussions. But it’s Here is what has changed—just leaned in my direction and did me worth remembering that behind at about everything else. a favor. When the notebook in “They weren’t born yet,” the back pocket or the purse he whispered. was replaced by who-knows- I have an artificial Christ- how-many toys, there was mas tree that is older than Those hours spent on digital media— no warning label attached. my students. Freshmen in from computers to smartphones—are Competitive pressures are this past fall’s class might rewriting the rules. Tweeting not have been alive when contributing to two deficiencies among the was barely in a reporter’s Christian Laettner of Duke vocabulary several years ago; made the last-second shot beat reporters today: a lack of discernment now the process can border that beat Kentucky in a and a reluctance to engage. And each on the obsessive. A story, game for the ages and sent once read by two, three, four the Blue Devils to the 1992 deficiency can prevent sports reporters editors, is now a blog post Final Four. To them, Bob read by how many? One? Knight and Lou Holtz are not from finding out information that their Maybe? coaches as much as talking readers and viewers deserve to know. Under the old model, if a heads. Need any reminders source passed along sensitive of the ephemeral nature of information to a reporter at sports? Look no further than noon, the reporter would the blank stares in press have an entire day to digest boxes when once famous names go least the last two of these topics was the information, determine its context, unrecognized. the investigative work of a few dogged contact others, and return to the Yet, there is so much that matters reporters who refused to stop digging. original source to confirm additional that we should be passing along to a Those hours spent on digital information before it was time to write generation that faces big journalistic media—from computers to smart- a story. The entire process could take challenges. The lucky ones—those phones—are contributing to two four, six, eight hours. Now this process students who can parlay their eagerness deficiencies among the beat reporters might be compressed into minutes. into something resembling a job—are today: a lack of discernment and a This is why the advice is simple: being asked to produce more content reluctance to engage. And each defi- Don’t look down from that tightrope; and do so more quickly than any ciency can prevent sports reporters your safety net is gone, likely forever. generation to precede them. They blog, from finding out information that their What happens when the newsroom they tweet, and then they blog and readers and viewers deserve to know. boss is more interested in being first tweet some more, and yes, eventually A few givens about sports writing with the new—eager to have the pub- they file a story, squeezing in time to remain as true today as when Red lication’s logo gain a spot on the scroll watch the game. Even then, many are Smith wrote his columns on a portable across the bottom of the television expected to provide instant context typewriter. Technology doesn’t change screen—rather than making sure that in real-time, bite-sized pieces—while them. There is an expectation of pre- the story is accurate and fair? This is also interacting with fans who are cision and careful preparation, and the point when I tell students about tweeting and blogging, too. When is the importance of arriving early and a contentious conversation from a there time to exhale? staying late. There is the payoff that long time ago in which I resisted an It’s true that they have been raised results from that extra phone call—or editor’s preference that I rely upon a with digital technology—and thus even in making that first phone call source that I neither knew nor trusted. arrive at the starting gate as digital rather than relying on texting. (I’m When I asked if this was the policy natives. We see this in their expecta- old-fashioned enough to believe that of the department and whether this tion that replays will reveal every value still resides in the exchange of is something I was being instructed possible angle. Why watch the game, conversation.) Then there is the art to do, the editor replied: “I think that when what’s important gets replayed? of assessing a complex situation, of makes for good reading.” You can miss it and head to YouTube. choosing the topic worthy of a ques- As more opportunities for entry-

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 61 The Beat Goes On

level reporters develop in digital that the Big 12 conference was dead, And there is one other thing. Dur- media, I’m concerned that they will be a victim of a seismic shift in the ing the first class of the semester, I unprepared for that type of conversa- affiliations of athletically ambitious posed a question. “Who can tell me tion. At the start of the semester, I colleges and universities? That is not what newspapers Red Smith wrote write these words on a whiteboard: what happened. How often are reports for?” No one raised a hand. It’s Your Name. I am not saying that on a high-profile coaching search in They need to know that, too.  their reporting should be timid, not at error? Too many to count. all. I am suggesting that in a real-time This generation has been told that Malcolm Moran is the Knight Chair environment, when facts can—and an accuracy rate of 80 percent suf- in Sports Journalism and Society at do—shift by the hour, there are times fices—and sometimes it seems even that Penn State University and directs when they should be aggressive and number is high. Perhaps 80 percent the John Curley Center for Sports others that require restraint. is considered good when Shaquille Journalism. Before assuming this They don’t have to listen to me. All O’Neal stands at the foul line—sorry, position, he was a sportswriter at the students have to do is sit back and Shaq—but not for a reporter when he USA Today, The New York Times, watch. How many times did we read or she clicks “send.” Students need to Newsday and the Chicago Tribune. or hear reports last summer declaring know that.

Gay Talese: On What Endures in Sports Writing Amid Change

Early in October Gay Talese came to tion of sportswriters at work. Seeing the Boston Athenaeum to celebrate women reporters in the locker room publication of “The Silent Season was the biggest reminder of how of a Hero: The Sports Writing of much sports writing had changed. Gay Talese.” In this collection of his “I thought to myself that these men stories, his words span nearly five should be allowed sometimes to be decades—beginning in 1948 with alone, to be dressed,” he said. glimpses at “short shots” he penned Some things don’t change, how- as a teenager for his hometown ever. One is Talese’s intractable belief newspaper, the Ocean City Sentinel- that the best stories come from hang- Ledger, and ending in 1996, when he ing out—from being with athletes and wrote for Esquire about a visit that around the game. Acknowledging Muhammad Ali, by then rendered his lack of familiarity with digital nearly speechless by Parkinson’s, had media—no cell phone and on e-mail with Fidel Castro in Cuba. for the first time this summer—Talese Talese spoke about what attracted didn’t hesitate when someone asked him to sports writing and his thoughts him to comment on technology’s about doing the job today. Melissa impact on the Fourth Estate. Ludtke reports on what he said: Reporters are behind laptops too much, he replied. Nor do they “get Writing about sports, Talese observed, anything they didn’t ask for” since is “understanding human nature in the digital inquiry is “linear” and the raw.” As a 23-year-old junior thereby “limiting.” By just hanging reporter assigned to the sports beat is the one who once heard cheering,” around with athletes “in their envi- at The New York Times, he was he said of these fading athletes. ronment” he stumbled by accident on drawn toward athletes during their Sports writing, Talese told the important details. “By moving around. “moments of despair and failure.” audience, gives those who do the job Seeing. Observing. Sometimes being He sees sports as being “a metaphor “the capacity to observe emotion.” surprised,” is how he described his for life.” In the athlete who returns It’s why he calls the job “a dream method. “Sometimes I think reporters from “being a has-been” resides the occupation.” should waste some time,” he said, struggle of human perseverance; in Now 78 years old, he recently referring to times when they might the star athlete’s slide into oblivion, went to some football games with consider the value to be found in he finds an opportunity to explore a New York Times sportswriter Greg disconnecting from technology. “Good performer’s perishability. “Forgotten Bishop and observed a new genera- journalism is wasting time.” 

62 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 The Sports Reporter

A Shrinking Sports Beat: Women’s Teams, Athletes As newsroom staffs shrink and eyeballs measure interest, women’s sports coverage is losing ground it once seemed to be gaining.

BY MARIE HARDIN

isit the Minneapolis Star Tri- bune’s website or pick up the paper on most days and—as Vwith most other newspaper sports sec- tions—you’ll be hard-pressed to find news of women’s sports. It’s not that women aren’t playing. They are, and in huge numbers. Simply put, staffers aren’t assigned to cover women’s sports. At the Star Tribune, for instance, most writers are assigned to beats for men’s teams at the college and pro levels. A reporter who covered women’s sports regularly left the paper in 2007 and was not replaced. Another reports on home games for the WNBA Lynx during the summer but then mainly Women athletes receive media attention during the Olympics, as in USA versus Finland, focuses on men’s college hockey with then fade from view. Photo by Chris O’Meara/The Associated Press. an occasional story on women’s col- lege teams. This sports beat arrangement leaves from almost nothing to a bit less than is the assistant managing editor for a lot of territory uncovered, including almost nothing—from slightly more sports at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette women in Olympic sports such as than 2 percent to less than 1.5 percent. and former president of the Associated track and field and figure skating, and What’s happened to the coverage of Press Sports Editors (APSE). “Beats are those who play tennis and golf. Women women’s sports during the past few set up to cover the core interests of competing on a spectrum of teams for years at newspapers, where there have readers, and once you get that settled, the University of Minnesota and area been dramatic reductions and a reshuf- you see who you have left and what colleges can also be overlooked. fling of staff as well as competitive you can cover … It’s not pretty out Rachel Blount, who has been at the pressures from bloggers, has not been there for newspapers when it comes Star Tribune since 1990, is the only systematically studied. But I feel safe to people and resources.” sports reporter and columnist without in contending that women’s coverage an assigned beat. The only woman at hasn’t generally increased. Of course, Following the Eyeballs the paper who covers sports, Blount exceptions are likely to occur in places said she feels obligated to try to close where a pro or college women’s team In most respects, the priorities for the gap. “I’ve got to cover this niche,” has built an unusually large fan base, sports editors are nothing new. Cov- said Blount, who describes her news- such as the University of Connecticut erage of female athletes has always paper’s coverage of women’ sports as basketball team, the University of been paltry, except for the occasional “the worst” she’s seen in her 20 years Utah gymnastics team, or the WNBA’s media sweetheart with hometown there. “Things are falling through the Seattle Storm. ties—such as Lynx player Lindsay cracks.” In the vast majority, however, it’s Whalen or Olympian Lindsey Vonn Women’s sports coverage is shrink- languishing—the victim of decisions in Minneapolis. It was once expected ing—not growing—even as more about resources that are justified by the that coverage would increase as Title women and girls are competing in belief that women’s sports are periph- IX turned more girls and women into sports. A recent study of ESPN found eral to readers’ interests. “When sports athletes and sports fans, but that has that between 1999 and 2009 the time editors are in a constant reshuffling of not happened. Instead, women’s cover- given to coverage of women’s sports on staff, it’s often women’s sports beats age remains “a luxury item,” said Amy that network’s “SportsCenter” dropped that take a hit,” said Jerry Micco, who Moritz, president of the Association

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 63 The Beat Goes On

for Women in Sports Media and a as they do other beats—some terrific Hueter’s and, in newsrooms, those of reporter at The Buffalo News. “When stories are lost. Michael Anastasi, the reporters like Blount, may be what there’s the staff, space and resources managing editor for sports and features keeps women’s sports visible—for now. to cover women’s sports, papers will at The Salt Lake Tribune and an APSE A new initiative might, in time, force do it. When those start to erode, vice president, said it’s incumbent on editors and other media producers women’s sports coverage is one of the sports editors to set up beats in ways to rethink their priorities. This year first to get cut.” that these stories will be found. He has ESPN announced plans to launch its Women’s sports leagues have always created two such beats to help staffers “W” brand with a website, a project struggled to gain media attention. For catch them: one he calls a “university the network touts as being about and instance, the WNBA in 2007 launched beat,” the other is an Olympic sports aimed at sports-focused women. a short-lived campaign encouraging beat. He also points to the University As soon as word emerged about fans to write sports editors demand- of Utah’s women’s basketball team, ESPN’s plans, buzz surfaced in the ing more coverage; the campaign was which is a solid performer but doesn’t blogosphere, driven primarily by largely ridiculed. The new Women’s have a large fan base. “Does that mean skeptical female bloggers and women’s Professional Soccer league also gets there aren’t great stories there?” he sports advocates. Perhaps this isn’t relatively little coverage. Editors asks. “No.” surprising given this network’s paltry traditionally cite lack of interest by track record on coverage of female fans as a reason for their decisions, Bloggers Surface athletes. And ESPN might find that a rationale that has exasperated its “W” brand will flounder, as well. women’s sports advocates. When asked Even with the Tribune’s two beats, There is no doubt that women’s to produce empirical evidence of this it’s hard to find many female-focused sports do have a loyal and sometimes so-called “reader interest,” most editors sports stories on its website. The robust following, and the fan base is couldn’t do it. vacuum left by the Tribune and other growing, albeit slowly. And we know Today, things work a bit differ- local news organizations has given that female participation in sports has ently—though the result is much rise to a relatively small but vigilant increased enormously since passage of the same. Editors can produce the army of bloggers who write about Title IX in 1972. evidence, flawed as it might be. They everything from women’s professional The job of transforming a dedi- can track where the eyeballs are going basketball and soccer to barrel racing cated sliver of these much larger on the Web—and it’s mostly to stories and competitive surfing. The most universes of sports fans and athletes about men’s professional sports or active blogging network is Women into a profit-making enterprise in college football or basketball. Blount Talk Sports, a collective of about 150 an ad-driven environment—and at a says that is one reason she can push women and men who blog, post video, national level—is one that even ESPN stories about female athletes with her and tweet with women athletes in might not succeed in making work. editors only “up to a point. … I’ve been mind. Some of these sports bloggers, It’s possible that this attempt might told point-blank, ‘No one is going to such as Cheryl Coward, were once print turn out to buttress the tired excuse read that,’” she said. “The Web feeds journalists. Others, such as basketball of sports editors—that women’s sports into overkill.” player Kelly Mazzante, are athletes coverage doesn’t draw enough eyeballs The result? More writers are who are using new media to reach to justify the investment of diminish- being assigned to men’s professional out to their fan base. ing resources. teams—and those become the beats Cofounder Megan Hueter started If this is the case, it returns us to and coverage readers can count on. Women Talk Sports with two other asking two key questions: Why do Blount remembers the days when the bloggers in February 2009. The site women’s sports lag men’s so much Vikings, for instance, had a single (http://womentalksports.com) has when it comes to fan interest? And full-time writer. Now it’s two, at a gotten the attention of executives despite this gender chasm, does the minimum. The editors say that they at ESPN. Traffic has been steadily news media have an obligation to cover can’t ignore the numbers. climbing, and during events like the them? In newsrooms this comes down The fact that fans are clicking on Olympics it has attracted a million page to asking whether there should be a men’s sports stories could be, at least views in one month. Despite that, the women’s sports beat if only because in part, because the sports pages on traffic is paltry compared to SBNation it is the right thing to do. My answer most newspapers’ websites offer little or Deadspin. Research shows that the is yes.  else. But it’s hard to resist the logic Web is dominated by blogs that are that if certain stories draw traffic, solely about men’s sports, perhaps Marie Hardin is associate director posting more of those stories is a because most of the bloggers aren’t for research at Penn State Univer- smart allocation of resources. women’s sports fans. sity’s John Curley Center for Sports The problem, though, and sports As resources tighten and newsroom Journalism. Her research focuses editors concede this, is that in sidelining beats continue to be clustered around on issues of diversity and ethics in women’s sports—by not carving it out big-time men’s sports, initiatives like sports coverage.

64 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 WORDS & REFLECTIONS

From Journalism to Self-Publishing Books ‘Our experience with print-on-demand books offers promising and challenging news.’

BY FONS TUINSTRA

igital technology is low- bureau is a venture I started a few tion, if we went with a traditional ering the threshold for years ago with fellow Shanghai publisher, it would mean that our book publishing, and it correspondent Maria Korolov book would not be available for Dcouldn’t arrive at a better time Trombly. Now in addition to sale for a year or more. given the difficulties aspiring and arranging for speakers in China Around this time I read what established authors face in getting we are guiding authors through Claudia Gere, a longtime author’s their books into the marketplace. the process of publishing books coach, wrote after attending a So earlier this year we at the on demand. Earlier this year book expo in New York. Her words China Speakers Bureau decided we published our first book, “A confirmed what I was hearing to help potential authors get their Changing China,” a collection of from these authors. Here’s an words published as books. The essays by 17 of our speakers about excerpt: how they have seen China change. Book publishing has When we decided become a cutthroat busi- t o p r o d u c e “A ness, even more so than Changing China,” it has been in the past. To we discussed briefly sell a book to a publisher, a whether we should nicely written first chapter try to find a tradi- and an outline of the rest tional publishing isn’t enough. Even a com- house for it. But pleted book isn’t enough, authors who were no matter how readable part of our speakers or interesting. What the bureau were telling publisher needs is the book’s us how much harder business plan. A competi- it was getting to find tive analysis, market demo- a publisher for what graphics, new sales and they had written—or marketing channels—and wanted to write. a solid platform for the Some turned to us author. That platform could for help in gaining be a television program, access to a publisher, a radio show, a speaking but by then we had circuit, or a popular blog decided not to head through which the author in that direction. can promote and distribute For this collection his or her own books. of essays, we knew it would be hard It was true that in exchange for to find the right handing over a large percentage publisher, and we of a book’s sale price, authors also thought that usually end up earning very little. doing so could add Of course, we did not expect to to our costs and not produce a bestseller. Even so, necessarily give us we thought that by using digital any benefit. In addi- media on both ends—producing

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 65 Words & Reflections

the book and promoting it ourselves— of details to which attention much books is even greater. In the increas- we could do a better job than local be paid so it’s best not to have other ingly competitive market, the price bookstores could for this book. So we distractions, which can be hard if you of e-books is certain to drop; already published it ourselves. are a journalist these days. Most of the they frequently cost less than half what Now, if someone wants to buy our authors we work with do not want to a hardcover does. By self-publishing, book, it’s available in paperback at fiddle with software systems, editorial authors lower the price even more. Amazon.com and on other sites. To processes, or even figuring out how to Even now, we realize that our the book’s purchaser, things appear sell their book. What they want to do model has to grow and change. With pretty much the same. What’s differ- is to write books. hardcover books likely to remain on ent happens after the sale is made; the market, we’re watching closely the the book is printed and mailed. The developments with the iPad and Kindle cost to us for the printing of each as we think more about producing book is $7, in our print on demand With the e-book e-books. And we keep looking for ways (POD) arrangement; the cost to the to connect what we see as missing customer on Amazon.com is $24.99 marketplace showing links in these emerging markets. For plus shipping. In the book’s first 10 example, POD firms focus more on months, 800 copies were sold. explosive growth— the needs of engineers than on those spurred by the release of of authors or even readers. Certainly, What We Learned this imbalance will be remedied in the iPad—the urgency the next few years, and when it is Our experience with print-on-demand many more authors—some of whom books offers promising and challenging to find a less expensive do not want to go through the process news. The good news is that anyone can way to publish books is that we’ve gone through—will turn to get an ISBN number, publish a book, on-demand publishing. and distribute it through Amazon and even greater. ... By self- Earlier this year Amazon increased other online stores. Self-publishing is the amount it pays authors for now a huge industry. But to succeed publishing, authors lower e-books—with conditions—to 70 per- requires a stiff learning curve—and the price even more. cent of revenue. An article in The Wall time to devote to details. Street Journal quoted Richard Nash, We began by organizing the authors a veteran of book publishing who has in China, and then we found editors moved from a traditional publishing who know how to edit books in the house into digital publishing, with the business style of U.S. publications. Putting together our business plan following observation about digital We brought in cover designers who and launching it took us less than self-publishing: know how to calculate the width of six months. Then we signed our first the spine, how to embed a bar code, contract within a week and published a It shows best-selling authors that and how to account for the fact that book within nine weeks. This timetable there are alternatives—they can POD publishing requires an extra never would have happened if we’d hire their own publicists, their margin for the cover art and text. We taken the traditional publishing route. own online marketing specialist, hired layout designers and had the Apart from money and convenience, a freelance editor, and a distri- text formatted. journalists like speed so self-publishing bution service ... If they already We steered this process through an worked well to satisfy that desire. have a loyal fan base, will they ever-changing field of emerging, merg- We are now preparing a set of want 70 percent of $100,000 ing and disappearing POD firms. (For books in five languages on China’s or 15 percent of $200,000 for our next project, we have switched from international position. “When I do a hardcover? BookSurge, now called CreateSpace, this in the traditional way my book is to Lightning Source, but who knows outdated before it is on the market,” says We think we know the answer.  how long our new arrangement will Juan Pablo Cardenal, a Beijing-based last.) To manage all of this, to meet foreign correspondent who is taking a Fons Tuinstra is a cofounder of the deadlines, and to help the authors year off to work on this project in the China Speakers Bureau, new media with marketing, our backgrounds as hope of having the book published by consultant, and a former foreign journalists came in very handy sim- the end of 2010. correspondent based in Shanghai. ply because we’d done some of these With the e-book marketplace show- things before. ing explosive growth—spurred by the So, yes, everybody can publish release of the iPad—the urgency to their own books, but there are a lot find a less expensive way to publish

66 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Books

Figuring Out What a 21st Century Book Can Be When an author’s insistence on publishing under a Creative Commons license met resistance from book publishers, he decided to self-publish his book with Lulu.

BY DAN GILLMOR

left the traditional newspaper world into bookstores. This is how word about almost six years ago. Now I’ve left it spreads. Had we not published it the traditional book publishing in this way, I believe the book would Iworld, too. The publisher of my new have sunk without a trace—especially book and website, Mediactive, is me. given the indifference shown to it by With the help of a company called Lulu, American newspapers and magazines an enterprise that understands the in the weeks and months immediately changes taking place in the publishing following publication. world, I’m moving beyond traditional Some editors took the “Mediactive” boundaries to figure out what a book proposal to their in-house commit- is in this digital age. tees that decide whether to buy a The publisher that brought out book. Several asked me to write what my book, “We the Media: Grassroots amounted to a different book, which Journalism by the People, for the I wasn’t willing to do, in part because People,” a few years ago was planning the one I was writing was almost to publish “Mediactive,” a user’s guide finished. And the few publishers that to democratized media. Early this year did understand the value of Creative we parted company, and at that point Commons didn’t want to publish my my literary agent, David Miller, started book. One rejection was almost amus- looking for a new publisher. He told ing; this editor told my agent that his me that the potential field would be company’s publicity and marketing limited because I had a non-negotiable people “felt that the major media requirement: This book, like my first publishing industry is understandably would avoid the book because of the one, had to be published under a skeptical, and we’re in the early days criticism of their techniques.” Creative Commons license that I use of understanding the dynamics of what Another major New York pub- for my work. Under the license I’ve happens when books are published in lisher—a nearly ideal fit in any number chosen for this project, anyone can this way. Yet almost a decade after of ways—did offer us a deal. But it make copies of the work for noncom- Creative Commons was founded, a came unraveled when the publisher mercial use, but if they create derivative recent small study of nonfiction book flatly refused to agree to the Creative works—also only for noncommercial sales found some evidence to support Commons license—even after we’d purposes—those works must be made making books freely available. Writing offered to drop the advance to zero available a) with credit to me and b) in the Journal of Electronic Publishing, dollars. With that, our search for a under the same license. John Hilton III and David Wiley asked publisher ended. If a principle has My primary goal in using this system “What happens to book sales if digital meaning, then it meant sticking to it is simple: to spread the ideas. There is versions are given away?” The data even when I felt tempted not to. no better way to achieve this than by made them “believe that free digital I’m convinced that publishers offering the book for free downloading book distribution tends to increase who aren’t willing to head down the and remixing. The financial principle print sales,” but they also cautioned Creative Commons path today will behind the Creative Commons license “this is not a universal law.” eventually do so. This will happen as I’m using is also simple: While I want My own experience falls solidly on they appreciate how profoundly digital my work to get the widest possible the side of publishing books this way. media are transforming the business distribution, if anyone is going to Miller explained to editors at publish- of book publishing—and the book make money on it I’d like that to be ing houses that the main reason I’m itself. In the current way of thinking me and the people who have worked still getting royalty checks for “We the among publishers, books are what they with me on it. Media,” which was published in 2004, manufacture and send out in trucks It’s a rare commercial publisher that is that the book has been available as to fill store shelves or in digital files would agree to such stipulations. The a free download since the day it went that they rent to their customers—or,

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 67 Words & Reflections

more often, to customers of Amazon, growing quickly, in part because of how on the Mediactive website with audio Apple and other companies that use traditional publishers are hunkering and video interviews, links to resources, proprietary e-reading software to lock down. I like Lulu’s vision of its part and much more, including previous the work down in every possible way. in the emerging ecosystem so while versions of the book’s chapters available In all of these scenarios, publishers still our publishing partnership comes at alongside the current ones. Thus, the are the gatekeepers, a position they a price, it’s worth it. book becomes a subset of the larger crave and stubbornly defend. The publishing timetable works project. Initially, the e-book edition will I intend for “Mediactive” to be a well, too. Had I signed an agreement be little more than the printed book multifaceted project—a book plus a with an old-line publisher, “Mediac- with hyperlinks to my source material lot more. During the next few years tive” would not have reached the and other information. Over time, I’ll I hope to experiment with the ideas marketplace for a year or more from experiment with making those versions I write about in the book in lots that date. Not only that, but my editor a more immersive digital experience of other media formats and styles. there might not have fully understood using other media forms. Experimentation will also carry them what I was trying to say. Besides, it’s Along the way, I’m having fun con- into the ecosystem of templating the question ideas that is evolving at of what a book is—and an accelerating rate. can become—in the 21st century. I’m exploring a Enter Lulu A year from now, I hope to launch “Mediactive range of issues I had never 2.0” in print. ... I’ve asked readers—and will considered before. For After I gave up on the example, I’m still trying old-line publishers, I continue to ask them—to be part of this to figure out the best way contacted Bob Young, to help people who might Lulu’s founder and CEO. updating process; I count on them to tell me have cited a section from I’ve known him since the what I’ve gotten wrong and what I’ve missed. the book that’s since been days when he started revised. With nonfiction, Red Hat, one of the first it’s hard to imagine why companies to prove that an author wouldn’t want it was possible to make to bring new insights and money with open-source software unlikely that the publisher would have information to an endeavor. We never by providing services. He’s been an spent time or money in marketing get things exactly right so this becomes ardent supporter of ensuring that the book unless it suddenly decided an interesting and important issue in the principle of intellectual property it might have a big hit on its hands. publishing today. What is the baseline offers as much flexibility as possible With a company like Lulu, I’m well when we continue to improve and fix for creators and users. He’d told me aware that the marketing is my job. what we’ve written? about Lulu several years earlier and Once the project was finished, the All of this speaks to the expanding suggested that it would be a good fit turnaround from manuscript to book potential of writing a book in our digital for me someday, and now was looking was relatively quick. In a fast-moving times. It can be a living document—as like that time. arena like media, that’s a huge benefit. it should be.  He put me in touch with Daniel Wideman, Lulu’s director of product Upgrading and Updating Dan Gillmor is the director of the management, who told me about the Knight Center for Digital Media company’s VIP services for established In “Mediactive” I ask readers to think Entrepreneurship at Arizona State authors making the move to this kind of what they’re looking at as version University’s Walter Cronkite School of publishing. He liked what I was 1.0—the first major release in what I of Journalism and Mass Communi- trying to accomplish in this project expect to be an evolving effort. A year cation. This essay is adapted from so we talked more until we realized from now, I hope to launch “Mediac- “Mediactive,” which is copyrighted the fit was good. I’d write and then an tive 2.0” in print, which will be a fully (as is this essay) under a Creative editor of my choice would help make updated book that takes into account Commons license. the text sing. For a fee, Lulu would what I’ve learned since publishing the handle most of the rest of the job, first edition. I’ve asked readers—and See Nieman Note on page 79 about including printing, binding, distribu- will continue to ask them—to be part Marites Dañguilan Vitug’s need tion and some back office tasks. of this updating process; I count on to publish her controversial book Lulu isn’t alone in offering this them to tell me what I’ve gotten wrong online—and the method she used to kind of publishing opportunity. In and what I’ve missed. do so. fact, self-publishing as a business is Updates will appear more regularly

68 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Books

Creating a Navigational Guide to New Media Two veteran journalists illuminate the convergent paths ahead—for those who consume news and those who report it.

mentary and discussion. We see Blur: How to Know What’s True eight essential dimensions or func- in the Age of Information tions that the new news consumer Overload requires from journalism: Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel Bloomsbury. 227 Pages. Authenticator: We will require the press to help authenticate for us what facts are true and reliable. In their new book, “Blur: How to While we will not look to journalists Know What’s True in the Age of as our sole information provider, we Information Overload,” Bill Kovach will need some way of distinguishing and Tom Rosenstiel, who previ- what information we can trust and ously partnered as the authors of some basis in evidence for why that “The Elements of Journalism,” is the case. Playing this authenti- explore the evolving relationships, cator role, however, will require responsibilities and roles of jour- a higher level of expertise from nalists and news consumers in newsrooms, particularly on their the digital age. In their concluding franchise subject areas. It will also chapter—“What We Need from the require that journalists provide this ‘Next Journalism’”—Kovach and information with more documenta- Rosenstiel describe “eight essential tion and transparency about sources dimensions or functions that the and methods than they may have in new news consumer requires from the past. The authenticator role will journalism.” With permission, we be a critical one at the heart of any are presenting an adapted version news organization’s authority and a of their words. key element of remaining relevant when such organizations no longer The news has become unbundled from the news must understand is that this have a monopoly over information or the news organization. We seek the new lean-forward consumer requires our attention. news today, in effect, by story rather a new kind of journalism. In the than by news organization. As we hunt broadest terms, journalism must shift Sense Maker: Journalism is also well for news on our own, instead of relying from being a product—one news orga- suited to play the role of sense maker— on what a news gatekeeper provides nization’s stories or agenda—to being to put information into context and in a single newscast or newspaper, more of a service that can answer the to look for connections so that, as news consumption has become a audience’s questions, offer resources, consumers, we can decide what the more proactive experience. Some have provide tools. news means to us. The reason this role even come to call it a “lean forward” The important idea is this: In the is becoming more important is pre- experience, in which we look for things future the press will derive its integrity cisely because information has become we are interested in—for answers to from what kind of content it delivers more plentiful. When information is our questions. Getting the news is no and the quality of its engagement, in greater supply, knowledge becomes longer a “lean back” experience, in not from its exclusive role as a sole harder to create because we have to which we put our feet up and have information provider or intermediary sift through more data to arrive at it. an anchorperson tell us what’s hap- between newsmakers and the public. Confusion and uncertainty are more pening or flip through the newspaper. To do this, newspeople must replace likely. That is why, in part, the journal- This shift away from relying on one the singular idea of the press as a ism of affirmation has become more news organization to be our primary gatekeeper with a more refined and popular. But reinforcing prejudice, news provider is the real meaning of nuanced idea based on what consumers retreating to the familiar, is a false the breakdown of the gatekeeper role. require from the news—particularly way of making sense, a retreat from What those who want to provide reportorial news, rather than com- learning. The sense-maker role is not

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 69 Words & Reflections

a commentator role necessarily. It is more self-interested groups will fill Forum Organizer: A community’s news reportorial. It involves finding facts this space to control the information institutions, new or old, can serve as and information that, as good sense flow about critical points. public squares where we citizens can making does, makes the tumblers click. monitor voices from all sides, not just Empowerer: It is about mutual em- those in our own ideological affinity Investigator: Journalists also must powerment—journalists and citizens. group. If newspeople imagine that their continue to function as public investi- The citizen is empowered by sharing goal is to inspire and inform public gators, in what many call the watchdog experience and knowledge that informs discourse, then helping organize this role. Journalism that exposes what others—including the journalist. The discourse is a logical and appropriate is being kept hidden or secret is so journalist is empowered by tapping function. We all have a primary vested central, so essential, to a democratic into experience and expertise beyond interest, as well, in this public forum government that its importance is his or her formal and official sources. being built on a foundation of accu- fundamental to the new journalism It starts with recognizing that the racy. There is little value in arguments as well as the old. And some ele- based on pseudo-facts and rumors. ments in our media culture are Reportorial news institutions are less likely to provide it, precisely well suited to build a public forum because it is fundamentally a on reliable information. reportorial function grounded in The important idea is this: In verification. We do not see much the future the press will derive Role Model: The new press, espe- of it in the fast-paced journalism cially those tied to legacy brands, of affirmation or the interpretative its integrity from what kind if they survive, will inevitably and propagandistic partisan-audi- serve as a role model for those ence-pandering of the journalism of content it delivers and the citizens who want to bear witness of assertion. It is less likely to quality of its engagement, themselves and operate at times come from a blogger largely of- as citizen journalists. Inevitably fering opinion. The press stands not from its exclusive role as people will look to journalists as an independent prosecutor of to see how their work is done, sorts, and by the power of its a sole information provider emulating what they see and like searchlight, it shapes, not simply or intermediary between and altering what they do not like. follows, agendas, whether it is Some news organizations have uncovering public malfeasance in newsmakers and the public. gone so far as to set up classes an exposé or shifting paradigms. for citizen journalists and to enlist them in their newsgathering. We Witness Bearer: This is the moni- applaud that. But we also need toring function of journalism, which consumer or citizen is a powerful something more than that. Journalists is less prosecutorial than the watch- partner in this process, someone to be must understand that their conduct is dog or investigator function. There listened to and helped, not lectured at. public, not just their stories. are certain things that occur in any The end result of this is a continuing community that should be observed, conversation. Virtually all of these functions have monitored and scrutinized. In this existed previously. But now they must new era, a diminished press cannot Smart Aggregator: We need a smart become more dynamic. It is not enough be everywhere. So a critical step, at aggregator that patrols the Web on for news operations to simply have a minimum, is to identify those places in our behalf and goes beyond what story each day on what they consider a community that must be monitored computer algorithms or generic ag- the most important subjects. They for basic civic integrity and to show up, gregator websites can offer. The idea need to understand what purpose and by having a presence, tell those of the “walled garden,” in which a each story serves for the audience, in power they are being watched. If news organization offers only its own what service it provides or questions it resources do not exist, then the press reporting, is over. Smart aggregators answers. If it offers no service, it is a must find ways to create and organize should share sources they rely on, the waste of resources and time to a more networks of new technology and citizen stories they find illuminating, and demanding proactive news consumer. sentinels to ensure that this monitor- the information that informed them. A story of limited or incremental value ing occurs. Here lies a potential for In the same way that the press is an is a sign that the news operation is the creation of new partnerships with authenticator and a sense maker, the not offering much service. citizens, new bonds that can energize aggregation it engages in should save Journalism, in other words, is not communities. If the press does not people time and steer them to trusted becoming obsolete. It is becoming help create these, it is possible that sources. more complex. 

70 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Books

Measuring Progress: Women as Journalists In ‘The Edge of Change’ the perspective is forward-looking, even if many of the challenging issues of the past endure for female reporters and editors.

BY KAY MILLS

The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press Edited by June O. Nicholson, Pamela J. Creedon, Wanda S. Lloyd, and Pamela J. Johnson University of Illinois Press. 321 Pages.

In reading “The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press,” I found myself thinking about how much progress women have made since the mid-1960’s when I was told that the Chicago Daily News wasn’t hiring me “because we already have four women.” And trust me—that was a lot of women in one newsroom in those days. I am almost certain they never said words like those to any man who they weren’t hiring because they already had 40 others. Or there was the time when a newsmagazine bureau chief asked me what I would do if someone I was covering ducked Early on, female journalists were typically limited to covering stories about women; in into the men’s room. 1937, a group of them listened to Republican National Committee member Marion Martin Ask any woman journalist of my outline plans for organizing Republican women. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. generation and her stories will be much the same. Yet, with perseverance, we broke through. What comes through in category from the previous year. In continue to derail career advance- this book is how many of the women we 1971, 22 percent of daily newspaper ment. Women with children still meet in its pages, along with numerous journalists were women. This doesn’t feel great pressure to accom- others who became newspaper editors seem like enough progress to have modate and juggle (I long ago and publishers, helped other women made in nearly four decades, especially stopped calling it balance) home to progress as well. at a time when there are far fewer and family demands. Conse- Still, it can be disheartening to read newsroom jobs. quently, flexibility or lack thereof about women’s circumstances in news- So what does this mean for the in a particular boss or workplace rooms today, and doing so reminded news business and for its consumers? or day-care arrangement often me that we should be further along Sandra Mims Rowe, former editor can be more career-defining now than we are. In 2005, women held of The Oregonian and a past ASNE in crucial years than any other more than half of the nation’s profes- president, summed it up this way: factor. That, along with whether sional jobs. Yet in the American Society there is positive encouragement of News Editors (ASNE) employment [Even though increasing oppor- in the workplace and the pres- survey in 2009, women were 34.8 per tunities for women] is a defining ence of successful role models, cent of newsroom supervisors and 37 social change of the last 50 years markedly affects the number of percent of newsroom employees, and … many of the same questions women who stay in the pipeline those figures are down slightly in each and issues I faced 25 years ago for promotion.

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When I wrote the book, “A Place in sort out. Our elitism is apparent a tougher job now, but somebody’s the News: From the Women’s Pages to readers who have responded got to do it and news organizations to the Front Page,” in the late 1980’s, by leaving us. that ignore half the talent pool by not I tried to spell out the different per- doing what is necessary to attract and spective that women bring to covering Hiring more diverse newsroom promote women make it even harder the news—not better, but different. staffs is an obvious way to reach on themselves. Many women (not all) see stories more communities, but too many Generational change fascinates me, in ways many men (not all) do not. news organizations still don’t get and among young people I know today In what topics they choose to cover, it. Many women do. Among them I find a high level of concern for social in how they decide to tell the story, are Sandy Close of the Pacific News justice. This is reflected in the pages and in their commentaries, men and Service and the New America Media of “The Edge of Change,” through women display different approaches. young women who don’t give up on Gender can also play a role in reporters objectivity while also demonstrating gaining access to or trust of sources. their empathy in the stories they write In Muslim countries, for example, and the photographs they take. women reporters have an access that The book has some important career men often lack—to interview women. advice as well, including this from With more women in management Pam Luecke of Washington & Lee today, they are now able to affect the University and a former newspaper style of newsroom operations. They executive: tend to be more consultative than authoritarian—although certainly You must always remember that successful male publishers and edi- your career path is for you to set. tors are opening their ears to a wider It’s not something that happens range of ideas than “back in the day.” to you; it’s not something that As Diane McFarlin, publisher of the others draw for you. When you Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune and encounter a brick wall, rather also a former ASNE president, put it: than stand there and curse at it, “Now Gen X and Y employees expect make a right turn and explore a greater role in decision-making, so a some other avenues. more consultative style of leadership is required.” Luecke is not saying run away from In addition, blogs and online social the challenges, but think about other networks have conditioned readers ways you can make things work for you. to expect more interaction. One way Today’s generation of women to connect, wrote Donna Reed, who Association, and Sharon Rosenhause, journalists faces challenges—not is vice president for news and mul- retired managing editor at the (South necessarily the ones my generation timedia strategy for Media General Florida) Sun-Sentinel. Rosenhause, faced, though some endure, such as in Richmond, Virginia, is to rely on who chaired ASNE’s diversity com- the demands of juggling of work and “our own instincts.” We should do mittee, believes women assumed family. “Given the progress that has this, she said: much of this leadership in promoting already been made,” asked pioneering diversity because of their own history Washington Post reporter Dorothy … not just as journalists but also of “second-class citizenship, a history Gilliam, “how much further do we as siblings, children, parents, of not being listened to and of being push? My answer: a lot further.” homeowners, apartment dwell- disrespected.” We are, as the book’s title declares ers, and grocery shoppers. We’re Women who are in news manage- so aptly, still only on “the edge of people, too. For years we’ve pro- ment today face enormous challenges change.”  fessed total neutrality about life as news media fracture and reader- in order to appear to be perfectly ship turns online or off completely. Kay Mills is a longtime newspaper objective observers. Baloney. In Julia Wallace, editor of The Atlanta journalist and the author of several the process of sticking to the Journal-Constitution, quotes another books including “Changing Channels: strict separation of community female editor as saying, “How come The Civil Rights Case That Trans- and newspaper, we’ve abandoned when the guys were in charge, they formed Television” and “A Place in important connections. We’ve could just put out a good newspaper? the News: From the Women’s Pages to lost touch with what people really Now that we’re in these jobs, we’re the Front Page.” want newspapers to help them supposed to save the newspaper.” It’s

72 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 NIEMAN NOTES Returning Home to Sri Lanka to Face Difficult And Delicate Questions in Perilous Times ‘In the capital’s cafés and elegant drawing rooms open criticism of the state was soundly rejected on the funny logic that war must be won at all costs.’

BY SUVENDRINI KAKUCHI

fter living in Japan for decades, I returned to my native Sri Lanka in A2007 for a new job. It was no ordinary homecoming. I moved to the capital city of Colombo to be director of the local office for Panos South Asia, an institute that aims to foster democratic, just and inclusive societies by working with the media. I re- mained there for nearly three years, working with local journal- ists at a time when a civil war was devastating the nation. It is only now, months after I returned to my home in Tokyo that I have realized just how unprepared I was for my stay in Sri Lanka. At the time of my assignment, I had spent about 25 years—or more than half my life—in Japan. Yet Sri Lanka—with its natural beauty, my childhood friends, former journalist colleagues, and an army of relatives, with whom I had remained in close touch over the years—was not unfamiliar to me. No, what I’m referring to is how unprepared I was to be part of a society that was in the throes of a violent ethnic conflict spanning more than three decades. Having been out of the country for most of those years, I had been spared the horror of the military shelling and the Sri Lankan journalists display portraits of colleagues who have been killed. ground battles that consumed Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/The Associated Press. the daily lives of civilians in the

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north. And in the rest of the country, armed struggle for a separate Tamil on themes such as respecting diversity grinding uncertainty faced people who state in the north that ended with and minority rights did not contribute worried endlessly about falling victim the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of to easing the baseless criticism. Friends to the terrorist bombs that destroyed Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militant group in cautioned me as they read stories filed public places from time to time. May 2009 after several failed attempts by local journalists who had joined I was not unaware of these hardships at a negotiated peace. The war was the patriotism bandwagon, and, as and I felt great empathy for my family, bloody on both sides, with the United was the norm, portrayed any whiff of friends and fellow Sri Lankans, but the Nations estimating the death toll at dissent against the war as a Western hard truth was that I had not grasped 80,000 to 100,000. conspiracy. Stories suggested that the emotional complexities that had When I arrived in Colombo, the international calls for a peaceful end developed during a long period of public overwhelmingly supported to the war amid the rising number of war and how they affected ordinary the government’s promise to finish fatalities were aimed at upsetting the citizens, such as the generation born off the Tamil Liberation militants security of the country, a viewpoint after 1983 that has never known peace. militarily and as quickly as possible. readily supported by a hard-pressed This meant acknowledging media cen- Mainstream media—newspapers and public waiting eagerly for the quick sorship as well as self-censorship, the television—leaned heavily toward end to the war that the government rising appeal of nationalism, the ugly state policy. The few media outlets promised. polarization between ethnic groups, that highlighted possible peaceful I now wonder if I could have done and a public wariness toward foreign things differently. For instance, there entities and their local partners that were endless discussions between were mainly civil society organizations like-minded groups on whether we advocating a peaceful solution. Just a year into my work, should talk of “development” instead of “peace.” Which word would ease A History of Conflict I discovered that I had the pressure from the authorities, we wondered. Would it have been wise The island of Sri Lanka lies like a been labeled a “terrorist to stop referring to the “rights” of delicate pearl in the Indian Ocean sympathizer”… minorities and use the more subtle with just 18 miles of sea separating expression “expectations”? Or is it best the northern end of the country to throw caution to the wind and face from the Tamil Nadu state in India. intimidation head on? Such questions Historically, Sri Lanka was ruled by are pertinent for journalists especially three kings. A Tamil king presided alternatives to a military onslaught today when they face the prospect over the Hindu north, and Sinhala in the north or gross human rights of toeing the line to save their jobs kingdoms dominated the southern and violations were not popular. A large in paternalistic hardliner regimes central regions of the island. British number of the Western-educated or, in capitalist nations, becoming colonization united the country for English-speaking elite that dominates mouthpieces for wealthy owners who more than 100 years until Sri Lanka Colombo had thrown their support are taking over economically strapped obtained independence in 1948 and behind the war. In the capital’s cafés news organizations. These situations installed a parliamentary democracy. and elegant drawing rooms open criti- demand new survival tactics and a Sri Lanka has seen many periods cism of the state was soundly rejected serious debate on the crucial issues of ethnic rioting, including attacks on the funny logic that war must be facing journalists in nations that by Sinhala mobs on Tamil civilians. won at all costs. prohibit the press from presenting Seventy-five percent of the 21.5 million evidence or controversial opinions residents of Sri Lanka are Sinhala, 14 A Question of Language while espousing the view that a free percent are Tamil who share cultural press is a detriment to nation-building. similarities with southern India, and 8 Just a year into my work, I discovered Against such a backdrop, determining percent are Muslims who speak Tamil; that I had been labeled a “terrorist how journalists can best meet the other ethnic minorities make up the rest sympathizer,” a slogan that was eas- challenge of remaining true to the of the population. Under the majority ily slapped on anybody considered values of their profession is of utmost rule of democracy, some elections have to be opposed to the state war. One importance.  threatened minority aspirations for reason for this unwanted title was equal language and cultural rights. my sympathies, expressed openly, for Suvendrini Kakuchi, a 1997 Nieman Several key political decisions, such as a negotiated settlement. In addition, Fellow, is the Tokyo correspondent creating a Sinhala Buddhist state, have the fact that I have a Tamil name for Inter Press Service news agency. been particularly traumatic, especially raised suspicions among the Sinhala She spent nearly three years as the for the Tamil-speaking minorities. majority. My insistence on conducting director of the Sri Lankan office of These ethnic tensions led to a violent workshops and seminars for journalists Panos South Asia.

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1951 politics better than any journalist,” of Ideas: Lessons from Indonesia” what Seigenthaler told The Tennessean. “He he has learned from his experience in was one of the fairest yet toughest public diplomacy and how the United Simeon Booker received the Con- men I ever knew.” States could do a better job promoting gressional Black Caucus Foundation’s democracy. In the book, published this 2010 Phoenix Award for lifetime 1959 summer by the Hoover Institution at achievement this past September. Stanford University, Hughes writes Booker, who was the first black reporter that “it is the war of ideas and words on the staff of The Washington Post, Wallace Turner, a Pulitzer Prize- that will ultimately determine whether spent more than 50 years working winning investigative reporter, died moderate Islam, with which the United for Johnson Publishing Company, September 18th in a hospital in States has no quarrel, will prevail over publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, Springfield, Oregon. He was 89. Islamic extremism, whose perversion during which he covered the civil Raised in Missouri, Turner earned a of Islamic faith is the problem.” rights movement. His stories about the journalism degree from the University His book draws on Emmett Till murder in 1955 became of Missouri before moving to Oregon. his years as a foreign a rallying point for the movement. In Turner and William G. Lambert, his correspondent in 1961, he joined the first contingent of colleague at The Oregonian, shared Indonesia. In 1967, Freedom Riders leaving Washington. a Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting Hughes won the After they were met with extreme in 1957 for their exposé of vice and Pulitzer Prize for violence in Birmingham, Alabama, corruption by municipal and union I n t e r n a t i o n a l Booker went to the home of a civil leaders in Portland. The series led to Reporting for his rights leader. When Attorney General investigations across the nation into coverage of the 1965 Robert Kennedy called to check in with organized crime; in 1957 Turner testi- coup attempt in the leader, Booker told him what had fied before a U.S. Senate committee Indonesia that led happened. Kennedy arranged to have about corruption. to the deaths of hundreds of thousands a plane take the riders to safety in He joined The New York Times in of people. A professor of international New Orleans. “That,” Booker recalled 1962 and worked there for 26 years, communications at Brigham Young in Ebony magazine in 1991, “was serving as bureau chief in San Fran- University, Hughes writes a nationally probably the best reporting I did in cisco and Seattle. Among the stories syndicated column for The Christian my journalism career—explaining to he covered were the shootings of San Science Monitor. He spent 24 years Kennedy what had happened.” Booker Francisco Mayor George Moscone and at the Monitor, including six years as retired in 2007. Supervisor Harvey Milk and the search a correspondent in Africa and nine as in the Seattle area for the so-called the paper’s editor. During the Reagan 1954 Green River Killer. administration, he directed the United Turner wrote extensively about the States Information Agency’s Voice of Mormon Church’s ban on ordaining America. Wayne Whitt, retired managing black priests, which was rescinded in editor of The (Nashville) Tennessean, 1978. Turner’s obituary in The New 1968 died September 15th in Nashville. He York Times quoted Gene Roberts, was 86. NF ’62, who covered the civil rights A graduate of the University of movement for the Times, as saying, Jerome Aumente was a guest on Alabama, he worked for United Press “Wally probably did more than any New York public broadcaster WNET’s for 14 months before joining The single person to change the Mormon “The Open Mind” to discuss new Tennessean as a reporter in 1946. policy on race.” media, citizen journalism, and the He cultivated sources from all walks Turner was the author of two books, dangers faced by international jour- of life. Among the many stories he “Gamblers’ Money: The New Force nalists. He wrote in an e-mail that covered were moonshine whiskey in American Life,” published in 1965, he would like to hear reactions from raids and the floor fight at the 1968 and “The Mormon Establishment,” Niemans about “my suggestions on Democratic National Convention. As published the following year. the program for creation of a Civilian a columnist, he urged that county He is survived by his wife, Pearl, Communication Corps similar to the and city government be merged into two daughters, and a granddaughter. CCCs of the 1930’s, only focused on a single metropolitan system, an idea the opportunities to train and support that became a reality in 1963. 1962 citizen journalism and tap into the In 1976, Whitt was named managing talent pool of seasoned journalists, editor, serving 13 years under John retired journalism educators, etc. as Seigenthaler, NF ’59, now chairman John Hughes discusses in his new trainers/mentors.” His e-mail address emeritus. “He knew the city and its book “Islamic Extremism and the War is [email protected].

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Investigative Reporter Craig R. McCoy Honored With I.F. Stone Medal

Craig R. McCoy, who has exposed injustice and corruption during almost three decades as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer; is the 2010 recipient of the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence. Established in 2008, the I.F. Stone Medal honors the life of investiga- tive journalist I.F. Stone. The award, administered by the Nieman Foun- dation for Journalism at Harvard and its Nieman Watchdog Project, is presented annually to a journalist whose work captures the spirit of independence, integrity and courage that characterized I.F. Stone’s Weekly, published from 1953 to 1971. During his acceptance speech at the award ceremony in Boston in October, McCoy noted that he and Nieman Foundation Curator Bob Giles, NF ’66, presents the I.F. Stone Medal to Craig his father had been faithful readers R. McCoy, right, of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Photo by Lisa Abitbol. of I.F. Stone’s Weekly. “Still today, I recall vividly my amazement at the powerful information he [Stone] would pull out of Congressional a team that uncovered problems in rial leadership at the Inquirer, his reports and other documents,” he said. Philadelphia’s criminal justice system, employer since 1982, for maintain- McCoy remembered, too, a talk by including abysmal conviction rates ing a commitment to investigative Stone at a synagogue in Philadelphia and a massive number of fugitives. reporting in the face of financial that he and his father attended. The Following publication of the team’s pressures as the paper emerges from audience was angry about Stone’s investigation, the Pennsylvania bankruptcy. Investigative reporting writings concerning Israel. McCoy Supreme Court ordered a host of is, McCoy said, “expensive, time- noted, “Izzy was courtly, persuasive— reforms. consuming and fraught with legal and he didn’t back down an inch.” From 2003 until 2009, McCoy risks and the possibility of reader The same can be said of McCoy, repeatedly dug into the activities of and advertising backlash.” according to the journalist who one of Philadelphia’s most powerful The 2010 I.F. Stone Medal Selec- nominated him for the award. politicians, state Senator Vincent J. tion Committee was chaired by “There are several things about Craig Fumo, whose aides referred to McCoy journalist and author John R. (Rick) that bring to mind I.F. Stone,” the as “the jerk.” In 2009, Fumo was MacArthur, president and publisher nominator noted. “He is undaunted found guilty on 137 counts of cor- of Harper’s Magazine. The committee by a complex story. He has a strong ruption and is now in federal prison. also included Robert Kaiser, associate sense of civic right and wrong. He is McCoy also participated in inves- editor and senior correspondent for ingenious at penetrating the official tigations that documented how The Washington Post, and Patricia fog. And he is very, very persistent Philadelphia’s child-welfare agency O’Brien, NF ’74, a journalist, novelist … America would be a more just, had failed to protect a child who and author. The group made their less corrupt country if every city had died of starvation and uncovered selection from recommendations a Craig McCoy. Unfortunately, such an arrangement in which the head presented by distinguished journalists journalists are rare.” of Philadelphia’s largest charity for who, by design, remain anonymous A member of the newspaper’s historic preservation used his position and serve for just one year.  investigative staff for the past 12 to avoid taxes. years, McCoy most recently headed McCoy paid tribute to the edito-

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He will be at Vilnius University Having joined The Virgin Islands 1977 in Lithuania as a Fulbright specialist Daily News as a reporter in 1959, for the fall 2011 semester, and he Walker was editor of the paper from has been invited to do programs in 1976 to 1977. While living in Puerto Jose Antonio Martinez-Soler Mozambique, Thailand and Poland Rico, he worked for The San Juan Star stepped down on October 1st as CEO in upcoming years. and eventually became the managing of 20 Minutos, the publication he editor of that paper. He frequently founded in 1999 that is now the most 1970 wrote social and political commentary widely read newspaper in Spain. He as well as stories on international will continue to serve on the board travel for The New York Times, The of the company, which is owned by James N. Standard, the former Washington Post, and other newspa- Norwegian publisher Schibsted. executive editor of The Oklahoman, pers in the U.S. In his long career as a journalist, died October 12th at a hospital in “He never masked his courage in Martinez-Soler frequently challenged Oklahoma City. He had been treated the face of adversity, and his pen was government authority and was often for cancer, according to the obituary mightier than his sword,” said longtime rebuked for his words. In 1976, he was in the newspaper where he worked friend Clive Banfield in an obituary kidnapped and tortured after writing for 35 years. He was 70. posted on the St. Thomas Source an article critical of the Civil Guard. A former Oklahoma Newsman of website. “He earned his reputation as Twenty years later, he was fired from the Year, Standard began his news- a gifted writer.” his position as New York bureau chief paper career when he was in high “More than anyone else in the class, for the Spanish state television network school as a copy boy at the Arkansas Ron worked at keeping all of us—not by a newly elected prime minister who Gazette in Little Rock. He attended just the Washington contingent—in was still displeased over a question he the University of Arkansas but before touch with each other, an increasingly had asked while covering him on the graduating left for a full-time job in difficult task as the years rolled on and campaign trail. Texas. At the age of 20, he was hired people moved about,” said classmate “I also have been a journalist both in as an obituary writer by The Oklaho- Dan Rapoport. the Franco dictatorship and in democ- man and the afternoon Oklahoma City Walker is survived by his wife, racy, before founding newspapers and Times. During his reporting career, Diane, and two sons. companies, and I assure you that I he covered police, courts and the truly appreciate how much freedom statehouse. After President John F. 1972 of expression is worth,” Martinez-Soler Kennedy was assassinated in November said in his farewell speech, delivered 1963, he was sent to Dallas and found to the Schibsted media directors at himself standing only a few feet from John Carroll will receive the 2011 a meeting in Estonia. “For freedom, Jack Ruby when Ruby killed suspected William Allen White Foundation’s like oxygen, is most valued when it assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. national citation from the University is lacking.” In 1975 Standard was named manag- of Kansas in February. The university’s ing editor of The Oklahoman and the William Allen White School of Jour- 1980 Oklahoma City Times. After the two nalism & Mass Communication has papers merged, he was named executive presented the award annually since editor, a position he held for six years 1950 to honor outstanding journalistic Jan Collins’s book “Next Steps: A before becoming editorial page editor service. Practical Guide to Planning for the in 1990 and writing a weekly column During a career that began in the Best Half of Your Life” (Quill Driver called Jim Standard’s Oklahoma. After early 1960’s when he was a reporter at Books) won a 2010 Merit Prize in the retiring in 1995, he began a career in the Providence (R.I.) Journal, Carroll National Mature Media Awards, an the ministry. has been editor of The (Baltimore) awards program for books, magazines, He is survived by his wife, Jodie, Sun, the Lexington Herald-Leader, marketing and educational materials three sons, three stepchildren, and and the Los Angeles Times, which for older Americans. Coauthored with three grandchildren. received 13 Pulitzer Prizes during his attorney Jan Warner, the book helps five-year tenure. readers develop a detailed plan—and 1971 In e-mail correspondence with the necessary documents—for success- Nieman Reports, Carroll wrote, “Word ful aging and retirement. of the award came out of the blue, Ronald Walker, a reporter and and I was thrilled. It feels good to be 1981 editor who worked in the Virgin recognized, of course, and it’s given Islands and Puerto Rico for much of me occasion to marvel at the work his career, died on November 23rd in of William Allen White. They don’t Robert Cox has been made “an Florida. He was 76. make ’em like that anymore.” Illustrious Citizen of the Autonomous

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Lewis Nkosi, the First Black South African Nieman Fellow, Dies at 73

Lewis Nkosi, one of South Africa’s Nkosi, who was orphaned as a boy, Joyce, and D.H. Lawrence. leading writers and the first black arrived in Cambridge at age 23, an His other novels are “Underground South African journalist to be a especially young age for a Nieman People” and “Mandela’s Ego,” which Nieman Fellow, died September 5th Fellow. Recalling that time during a was on the short list for the South in Johannesburg after a long illness. celebration in 2008 of the Nieman African Sunday Times Fiction Prize He was 73. Foundation’s 70th anniversary, Nkosi in 2007. In addition to fiction, Nkosi As a young journalist in the 1950’s, said, “I needed a whole lot of moth- wrote plays, including “We Can’t Nkosi was part of a new generation ers. I was very thin and the wives All Be Martin Luther King” and of blacks who exposed the injustices of the Niemans fed me and made “The Rhythm of Violence,” as well of apartheid. Writing in the legendary an enormous effort to build me up.” as dozens of essays about African Drum magazine, Nkosi characterized After his Nieman year, Nkosi estab- literature and politics published in his country’s racial policies as “terribly lished his journalistic credentials in a number of collections. sick” and its citizens as “terrorized” the U.S. and in England. He taught During a memorial service in by security police. at universities in both nations as well Johannesburg on September 8th, His decision to accept a Nieman as in Zambia and Poland. Nkosi was remembered for his Fellowship in the Class of 1961 rested His 1986 debut novel “Mating “laughter, naughtiness, and then, on a wrenching choice. The South Birds” was banned by the apartheid suddenly, depth.” His twin daughters, African government would not give government and praised worldwide. Louise and Joy, 39, recalled “wild him a visa to come to Harvard unless Several critics compared its style and jazz records as bedtime lullabies,” he surrendered his citizenship. He narrative structure to “The Stranger” trying to teach their father to swim, decided it was worth it to escape by Albert Camus. During a discussion and how he tried to teach them to apartheid and to study with journal- at the 70th anniversary celebration speak isiZulu. ists from around the world. He said in 2008, Nkosi said the novel’s pen- In addition to his twos daughters, later that “the pull of Harvard and etrating psychological analysis owed Nkosi is survived by his wife, Astrid the Nieman Foundation was such a lot to his education at Harvard and Starck.  that I felt I had nothing to lose by classes that introduced him to the coming to the United States.” works of William Faulkner, James

Lewis Nkosi, next to Hodding Carter III, NF ’66, at the celebration of the Nieman Founda- tion’s 70th anniversary in 2008. Photo by Tsar Fedorsky.

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City of Buenos Aires,” in recognition historic photographs court. In addition, the nation’s leading of his role as editor of the English- as well as contem- bookstore chain refused to carry the language Buenos Aires Herald in the porary shots by book. One of the justices, Presbitero 1970’s. Faced with government censor- Wilkins, highlights Velasco, Jr., sued her for libel on the ship, Cox was one of the few editors the restoration of eve of the book’s release. willing to report on the new military classic yachts and “Shadow of Doubt” was published dictatorship and “the disappeared”— the people who sail by Newsbreak, the online news and the thousands of people, mainly young them. current affairs magazine. Vitug, who men, who were kidnapped and killed in was the magazine’s editor in chief, death camps. The government briefly 1986 is now chairwoman of its advisory imprisoned Cox and he was forced to board. She writes that, during the flee Argentina in 1979. term of President Gloria Macapagal In an interview with his former Gustavo Gorriti was honored by Arroyo, loyalty to the appointing power paper, Cox said that, despite the threats, the Ibero-American New Journal- became more important than merit in he always wanted to return to Buenos ism Foundation (FNPI) with the the president’s selection of justices for Aires during his exile. “I wanted to CEMEX+FNPI New Journalism Prize the Supreme Court. tell the world what was happening in in recognition of his outstanding career Alfred A. Yuson, in his review in Argentina and continue to do what as an investigative journalist. In a the Philippine Star, described the book the Herald was doing—saving lives,” statement, FNPI praised the Peruvian as one of the “tipping points in our he said. “The Herald, this newspaper, journalist for “boldly tackling difficult national narrative brought about by saved lives. When you are doing all cases of coverage, such as those relat- heady journalism.” He added, “It had these things you are not thinking about ing to authoritarianism, corruption, to take [Vitug], a veteran of investiga- the consequences or even the effects drug dealing and conflicts” that have tive reportage, whose credibility as a of what you are doing. You just do affected Peru. journalist is beyond question, to pry what you think is right to do.” He is Gorriti was forced to leave his open the curtains veiling a sanctum now writing a weekly column for his country after being detained by the sanctorum.” old newspaper, picking up where he government in 1992. He moved to During remarks when the book was left off 30 years ago. the United States and then to Panama launched in March, Vitug said, “If where he became the deputy director of there is any sadness I feel, it’s a tiny 1983 La Prensa. He has written extensively core of profound sadness that, in our about the Shining Path guerrilla group society, we seem not to understand the in Peru. A former president of the meaning of independence, the value of William Marimow, editor of The Press and Society Institute, Gorriti is research, and the role of journalists. Philadelphia Inquirer since 2006, also the founder and director of IDL- There is such a thing as heeding the returned to the reporting ranks this Reporteros, a nonprofit investigative call of our profession—to shed light fall to focus on investigative stories. journalism team. on dark corners.” “There’s a purity about working on a good story—and an exhilaration, too,” 1987 1988 Marimow wrote in an e-mail about the new position. “Being in the reporting ranks, once again, is a reminder that Marites Dañguilan Eugene Robinson’s unearthing stories that require scrutiny Vitug faced a host new book is “Disin- is the essence of our work.” of challenges in get- t e g r a t i o n : T h e Marimow, who joined the Inquirer ting her book, Splintering of Black staff in 1972, won two Pulitzer prizes “Shadow of Doubt: America” published as a reporter—the first for Public Ser- P r o b i n g t h e in October by Dou- vice in 1978 and then for Investigative Supreme Court,” bleday. It examines Reporting in 1985. published and dis- what he has identi- tributed. She often fied as four distinct 1984 tells that story when segments of the she gives talks to various groups black community, from the “Transcen- because it illuminates so well what is dent” class of wealthy blacks to the Ivor Wilkins is the author of “Clas- happening with independent publish- “Abandoned” class trapped in poverty. sic: The Revival of Classic Boating in ing in the Philippines. At the last What this segmentation has done, New Zealand,” which was released in minute, the original publisher and Robinson argues, is minimize the October by Random House New distributor refused to move forward influence and unity of blacks as a Zealand. The book, illustrated with with the book because it criticizes the group.

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 79 Nieman Notes

“There was a time when there were no longer serve as effective counter- reviewed plays for the paper, usually of agreed-upon ‘black leaders,’ when there weights to the corporate state. This productions at smaller theaters or of was a clear ‘black agenda,’ when we leaves the poor, the working class, and shows Kevin wasn’t able to fit into his could talk confidently about ‘the state even the middle class without an schedule. Our paths seldom crossed, of black America’—but not anymore,” effective champion. Hedges, a former and on the rare occasions they did I he writes in the book’s opening chap- foreign correspondent for The New never got around to telling him how ter. “With implications both hopeful York Times, looks at Tsarist Russia, much of an influence he had on me, and dispiriting, black America has Weimar Germany, and the former which I regret. (He died in 1994.)” undergone a process of disintegration.” Yugoslavia to offer a historical context After stints covering politics and Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning to his analysis of what has happened then TV, Aucoin was a feature writer Washington Post columnist, is also in the United States. He is a columnist for nearly a decade before his latest the author of “Coal to Cream: A for Truthdig and a fellow of The Nation assignment. “Now that I’m reviewing Black Man’s Journey Beyond Color Institute. theater full time,” he wrote, “I’m struck to an Affirmation of Race” and “Last by how much stronger—and bigger— Dance in Havana: The Final Days of 2000 the Boston theater scene is than it Fidel and the Start of the New Cuban was in the 1980’s. And I sometimes Revolution.” wonder if there’s a 10-year-old kid out Deborah Schoch is a senior writer there reading my reviews and maybe 1996 at the California HealthCare Founda- developing an interest in theater or tion Center for Health Reporting, writing or both. Hope so.” which recently launched a new website Ying Chan wrote the introduction to showcase its reporting projects. 2002 to “Investigative Journalism in China: The nonprofit center, funded by a Eight Cases of Chinese Watchdog Jour- grant from the California Health- nalism,” published in April by Hong Care Foundation and based at the David J. Lynch sent an update Kong University Press. The book tells University of Southern California’s about his job change: “I am now a the stories behind some of the most Annenberg School for Communica- senior writer for Bloomberg News in intensive investigations undertaken by tion and Journalism, partners with Washington, D.C., working as part Chinese media. They include the case newspapers throughout the state to of the economics team. I’ll be writ- of a peasant woman left disfigured by provide coverage of California health ing about the intersection of politics local officials and her husband’s family, policy issues. In its first two years the and economics for the news wire and the acceptance of bribes by journal- center has produced 18 projects and [Bloomberg] Businessweek magazine, ists at the state-run news agency, and almost 200 articles with 31 newspapers and I’ll be making occasional appear- the government’s cover-up of SARS. in the state. Schoch wrote that she is ances on Bloomberg Television. In addition to introducing the case “convinced it offers a solid new model “I had a great 16-year run at USA studies, Chan, the director of the for journalism around the globe.” Today [USAT] and was fortunate to University of Hong Kong’s Journalism have some really life-changing expe- and Media Studies Center, provides a 2001 riences. I spent about half my time succinct history of journalism under overseas, opening bureaus in London Communist Party rule and details and Beijing. I covered wars, financial some of the repercussions reporters Don Aucoin, The Boston Globe’s crises, natural disasters, and just have faced for reporting the truth. new theater critic, wrote an e-mail plain old good stories in more than about his new assignment: “Taking 50 countries. ... 1999 over as the Globe’s theater critic feels “But the financial crisis took its like I’ve come full circle in a couple of toll on USAT. I lost three weeks of ways. When I was a 10-year-old kid pay to involuntary furloughs in 2009 Chris Hedges in Ashland, Massachusetts, I worked and when Gannett, despite being argues in his new as a paperboy, delivering the Globe. consistently profitable throughout book “Death of the As I walked from house to house, I the crisis, dipped into my pocket for Liberal Class,” pub- would usually have my nose buried in an additional week of pay this year, lished in October by the paper, often because I was reading I said ‘enough.’ Nation Books, that Kevin Kelly, the Globe’s superb theater “I wasn’t really sure what to expect the press, the uni- critic. I learned a lot about writing and when I started my job search. But versities, the labor theater from reading Kevin. fortunately, it turned out that there m o v e ment, the “When I got to the Globe in the late is a market for middle-aged financial Democratic Party, 1980’s, my first job was on the night writers. Joining Bloomberg seemed like and other pillars of the liberal class copy desk. But on my nights off, I often a terrific opportunity to be part of a

80 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Nieman Notes young organization that is clearly on It’s called ‘When the 2003 the upswing—as USA Today once was. Luck of the Irish “As for the more important part Ran Out’ (Palgrave of my life, my wife Kathy continues Macmillan) and it Frank Langfitt moved from his job freelancing and working as a ghost- tells the story of how as an NPR business correspondent in writer. And our sons—Jack, 14, Patrick, Ireland over the past Washington, D.C. to cover East Africa 11, and Declan, 9,—keep us busy and quarter century for NPR. He is filling in for current entertained. went from rags to Nieman Fellow Gwen Thompkins. “Also, along with starting my new riches, and halfway Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Langfitt is job, I put out a new book in November. back again …” focusing on nine countries, including

Fondly Remembering Françoise Lazare, a Journalist for Le Monde Since 1988

By Thierry Cruvellier

Françoise Lazare, NF ’98, Lazare reported on lifestyle died on October 15th in issues, “without ever giving Paris, France, after battling up on what she regularly a brain tumor discovered demanded: the right to ‘live during her Nieman year. normally,’” her newspaper She was 45. colleagues wrote. She sailed She had been a reporter for a month on a boat- with the French daily news- hospital on the Amazon paper Le Monde since 1988. River and traveled deep One of her colleagues at below the earth’s surface Le Monde said Lazare was to report on copper mines wearing her Nieman class in Chile. T-shirt the day before she Since 2009, she had passed away at the hospital. written for Le Monde’s Lazare’s first article in Le literary section, where she Monde appeared when she Françoise Lazare had an “independence of mind, a devastating shared her love of foreign was working as an intern wit, and strong character ...” literature, including Korean at The Wall Street Journal and Albanian authors. She in New York in 1987. At 22, she was the tumor appeared. was still working a few days before already writing about the collapse of Lazare graduated from the pres- she died, her newspaper colleagues U.S. investment banks. “A passion tigious Institute of Political Sciences wrote. for news, the quest for information, in Paris before studying at Johns “Aside from her unceasing jour- a taste for faraway places, her inde- Hopkins University in Washington, nalistic activity and a few other pas- pendence of mind, devastating wit, D.C. It was there that her passion for sions—like painting—Françoise felt a and strong character were the engine journalism was born. After six years pressing need to gather her numerous of what should have been a beautiful working for the business section at friends regularly,” her obituary stated. course, a successful personal life, and Le Monde, she joined the foreign “All those who got to know and like a brilliant journalistic career,” wrote affairs desk for three years. This is her, or who simply came across her, her colleagues at Le Monde in her when “she wrote her best reports, will keep the memory of an excellent obituary. for instance foreseeing before all journalist and a strong personality, a In September 1993 a truck crashed her colleagues the collapse of the charming woman, warm and always into her car while she was on vaca- Albanian regime due to the ‘pyramid curious, who never—never—stopped tion with a journalist friend in New scheme,’ or co-writing a memorable loving life.”  Iberia, Louisiana. Her friend died at profile of ‘George Soros, a speculator the scene and Lazare spent a week and a philanthropist,’” the obituary Thierry Cruvellier is a 2004 in a coma. A year later, she returned in Le Monde stated. Nieman Fellow. to work, and a few years after that, While fighting the brain tumor,

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 81 Nieman Notes

Sudan and Somalia. 2007 in September, he joined the Atlanta He sent an e-mail in October about bureau of The Wall Street Journal. He his new assignment: “So far, very is now a staff writer and is covering interesting job. First trip was four Eliza Griswold’s politics and breaking news across the days in Mogadishu, stark, fascinating book “The Tenth South. and a little harrowing. Parallel: Dispatches “Julie and the kids are having lots From the Fault Line James Scott of fun. Julie gets to be a full-time mom Between Christian- received the 2010 for a change. Our neighbors include ity and Islam” was Rear Admiral Sam- five Kenyan kids roughly the same age published in August uel Eliot Morison as Katie, 9, and Christopher, 6. They by Farrar, Straus & Award for Excel- play games in the yard and converge Giroux. The tenth lence in Naval Lit- on one house every Friday for movie parallel is the line erature for his book night, which usually features pizza, of latitude 700 miles to the north of “The Attack on the ice cream, and the Disney Channel. the equator. More than half of the Liberty: The Untold On the weekends, we take our Toyota world’s 1.3 billion Muslims and 60 Story of Israel’s station wagon on self-driven safaris percent of its two billion Christians Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy out of town. live within that region. During the Ship,” published in 2009 by Simon & “I am off to Egypt with the family course of Griswold’s travels in Asia Schuster. right now for a break before what I and Africa over a period of seven years, The book explores the Israeli attack imagine will be a long, hard slog in she concluded that the major force on the spy ship U.S.S. Liberty that Sudan in advance of a referendum on shaping the future of the world’s killed 34 Americans and injured 171 secession that could spark a renewed religions is what’s happening inside others, an attack that remains highly civil war.” Christianity and Islam, not between controversial 43 years later. Scott them. attended the awards dinner in New 2005 York City on November 1st with his Cameron McWhirter left his job as father, John, a damage control engineer an enterprise and watchdog reporter on the Liberty who was awarded the Henry Jeffreys has assumed the for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Silver Star for his efforts to prevent editorship of The New Age, a national that he had held since 2003 when, the ship from sinking. English-language daily newspaper based near Johannesburg, South Africa. Jeffreys was previously the editor of the Cape Town-based Afrikaans- language Die Burger. He left this position earlier in the year. While he was in between newspapers, he worked in the development field, serving as executive director of the boards of the Urban Foundation and the National Business Initiative. Jeffreys struck an optimistic tone in the announcement of his hiring: “I am very passionate about the jour- nalistic media. It is a cornerstone of our constitutional democracy and a custodian of the right to freedom of speech—in my view the most basic and important of entrenched rights we enjoy as citizens. It gives a voice to millions of citizens who are often ignored by the influential and power- ful elites.” Paige Williams, NF ’97, center of back row, now teaches narrative nonfiction at the He is a former deputy and politi- Nieman Foundation. Her students include fellows Abdul Waheed Wafa and Deb Price, cal editor of the Johannesburg daily and, in the front row, Florence Martin-Kessler, Rob Rose, and his affiliate, Janice Kew. Beeld, where he started his career in Photo by Jonathan Seitz. the 1980’s.

82 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Nieman Notes

2009 growth in drug-resistant infectious calls from members of Congress and diseases, were the first to report a regulatory agencies asking how to U.S. case of extremely drug-resistant access all five parts. We know there’s Margie Mason was among the tuberculosis. “Well constructed, easy legislation moving through Congress winners of the 2010 Science in Society to follow, and doesn’t beat you over on the use of antibiotics in agriculture, Journalism Awards sponsored by the the head with numbers” was how one and we’ve heard our series has been National Association of Science Writ- judge characterized the series. Another helpful.” ers. Mason and Martha Mendoza, who singled out the “worldwide coverage, are reporters for The Associated Press, multiple sourcing, and overall story D. Parvaz has joined Al Jazeera collaborated on the five-part series arc.” English (AJE) as an online journalist “When Drugs Stop Working.” It tied In an e-mail, Mason, who worked working out of the network’s headquar- in the science reporting category with on the project as a Global Health ters in Doha, Qatar. She was previously Charles Duhigg’s “Toxic Water” series Fellow at the Nieman Foundation, a columnist and editorial writer for in The New York Times. wrote, “The stories ran on front pages the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which Mason and Mendoza, who visited around the country and we saw at shut down during her Nieman year, four continents to research the startling least a dozen op-ed pieces. We had and a 2010 Wolfson Press fellow at

The Nieman Foundation’s 2010 Annual Report Highlights Collaborations

The Nieman Foundation’s many partnerships and collaborations and the value these relationships bring to working journalists worldwide is the theme of the foundation’s 2010 Annual Report, now online. High- lights include:

The foundation and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting launched a partnership to support interna- tional reporting initiatives. Nieman Reports teamed with the center on publication of “Brutal Censorship” by Fatima Tlisova, NF ’09, in the Fall 2010 issue. The center is underwriting fieldwork projects for the foundation’s Global Health Fellows and will help place their stories with major news organizations. It also will send jour- Journalism. Loch Adamson, NF ’11, forced his early release. Hollman nalists to Harvard for discussions on is the inaugural fellow. The Reynolds Morris of Colombia was able to underreported international stories Foundation also renewed support for obtain a visa to travel to the United and provide an annual workshop the Nieman Fellowship in Community States after his application had ini- for Nieman Fellows on innovative Journalism, which has been offered tially been denied by the U.S. State reporting strategies. The collabora- at Harvard since 2005. Department, causing an outcry from tion kicked off in October with a fellow journalists around the world. campus event titled “International Thanks to the collective efforts of Journalism 2.0: Bringing Home the journalism organizations, human With contributions from journalists Global Water Crisis.” rights groups, and many concerned who are innovators in all media, Nie- individuals, two journalists were able man Reports, the Nieman Journalism With a generous grant from the to join the Nieman class of 2011. J.S. Lab, Nieman Storyboard, and Nie- Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, Tissainayagam had been unjustly man Watchdog Project continue to the Nieman Foundation introduced sentenced to 20 years in prison in Sri thrive and guide discussions about a Nieman Fellowship in Business Lanka before international pressure the future of quality journalism. 

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 83 Nieman Notes

the University of Cambridge. Parvaz reported on her new assignment in an e-mail: “Having previously worked in The Murrey and Frances Marder Fund print and only dabbled in online work, I was excited about getting into the The Murrey and Frances Marder Fund supports the Nieman Foundation’s Web side of things at an intriguing Watchdog Project, which is aimed at encouraging independent, aggressive international network. … My job is reporting on regional, national and international policy issues. The project’s engaging, challenging and fun. I get website, www.niemanwatchdog.org, was launched in 2004. It includes articles to report stories, do analysis pieces, by academic experts, journalists and activists in various fields, or interviews and write profiles, all while learning with them, pointing reporters and editors to important lines of inquiry and all there is to know about Web produc- sources. Increasingly, mainstream news organizations and bloggers cite and ing—something all reporters should link to stories on the site, and growing numbers of reporters and editors know more about because learning turn to it on a regular basis. how stories are packaged for the Web In addition to promoting better press coverage, Nieman Watchdog means crafting smarter pieces for Web showcases excellent journalism and hosts a blog in which journalists take readers. The newsroom itself, which part. Murrey Marder is a 1950 Nieman Fellow. combines TV and Web operations, has a truly amazing mix of people with a The following is an accounting of expenditures for the fund from July 1, strong sense of camaraderie. … 2009—June 30, 2010: “The Europe-to-Gulf-state move would make a fascinating case study Beginning Balance at 7/1/09 $137,599 for anyone who has never made a Income major geographic and/or cultural Endowment distribution $139,798 transition. Yes, it’s hot, and boy is it Interest $1,445 different. But then, different was what Total Income $141,243 I was hoping for in choosing to work here. … It is, in some ways, a rather Expenses conservative place, and yet, I’ve never Travel, lodging, meals, miscellaneous $228 been in a city where people are so Editors’, writers’ and interns’ fees $170,066 open to hearing new ideas. Website hosting and maintenance $706 “So, fellow Nieman alumni, should Total Expenses $171,000 you find yourselves in Doha, drop me a line. I can take you to the Iranian Ending Balance at 6/30/10 $107,842 Souq with the best Persian food this side of the Gulf, show you the buzzing hive that is the AJE newsroom and who knows, maybe we can talk each nalism issues in South Africa, and to In addition to Knight, who will be other into renting some dune buggies write as much as possible.” teaching the primary seminar and and hitting the sands.” workshop, several Nieman fellows serve Gary Knight will be the director of on the program’s advisory board: Rod- 2010 the Program for Narrative and Docu- ney Nordland, NF ’89, Terri Lichstein, mentary Studies being established in NF ’97, Charles Sennott, NF ’06, and January 2011 at Tufts University’s Insti- Hopewell Rugoho-Chin’ono, NF ’10. Janet Heard is assistant editor, tute for Global Leadership. Students head of news, at the Cape Times in will learn the history and principles Hopewell Rugoho-Chin’ono was a Capetown, South Africa. Prior to mid- of documentary work and engage in finalist in the features category for a August when she started her new job, fieldwork, creating visual, audio and Rory Peck Award for his documentary she had been executive editor of the written essays and histories. These film “A Violent Response,” about the Weekend Argus, also published by projects will be published on the pro- post-election violence and human Independent Newspapers. She wrote gram’s website and in the media and rights abuses that occurred in 2008 in an e-mail, “My brief is to also help will be housed in an archive available in Zimbabwe. Most of the film was build online and social media synergies to scholars and the public. Students shot undercover after the govern- in the newsroom and to assist with the will have the opportunity to learn from ment barred him from reporting on bigger picture, training and mentoring working journalists, scientists, aid the election and called him a “state reporters and special assignments and workers, anthropologists, politicians security risk.” investigations. I also hope to continue and other non-academics throughout One of the judges said, “We have my blog, get involved in broader jour- the year. to applaud Hopewell for working in

84 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Nieman Notes

Zimbabwe during that period, when it was so difficult and so dangerous and very few people were able to get any pictures out at all.” The annual Let’s Talk award honoring freelance camerawork Nieman Reports enjoys hearing from you! in news and current affairs feature films is sponsored by the Rory Peck Trust, an organization that provides With social media, staying in touch is easy. help to freelance newsgatherers and  their families worldwide. Like us at Facebook.com/NiemanReports

 2011 Track us via Twitter. We tweet @NiemanReports

Hollman Morris is the recipient  E-mail us at [email protected] of the 2011 Nuremburg International Human Rights Award. As a documen- tarian and television journalist, Morris has frequently covered the violence and corruption in Colombia on his program “Contravía.” In awarding the prize, the jury wrote that Morris “has made vis- ible the victims of the horrible armed conflict prevailing in his native country Colombia, and in his TV programs has given them a voice. In addition, some of his journalistic research has stopped impunity for horrific violations of human rights. Investigators, judges and prosecutors have used his work as evidence. He has paid a high price Share ideas about topics to cover. for his perseverance in reporting on human rights violations.”  Suggest stories. Visit us online with your tablet. www.niemanreports.org

Nieman Fellowship Submissions Sought for Nieman Foundation Application Deadline Journalism Awards Nieman fellowships are awarded The Worth Bingham Prize for The Taylor Family Award for to midcareer journalists of accom- Investigative Journalism honors Fairness in Newspapers encour- plishment and promise who come investigative reporting on stories ages fairness in news coverage by to Harvard University for a year of national significance where the daily newspapers in the United of study, exclusive seminars, and public interest is being ill-served. States. The application deadline special events. The application The application deadline is January for the award is January 21. The deadline for U.S. journalists for the 14. The Nieman Foundation will cash prize is $10,000 for the 2011-2012 academic year is Janu- present the Bingham Prize, which award recipient and $1,000 for ary 31. More information about includes a cash award of $20,000, each of the top two finalists. The the Nieman Fellowship program is on April 14. For more information, application can be downloaded at available at www.nieman.harvard. visit www.nieman.harvard.edu/ www.nieman.harvard.edu/taylor- edu/nieman-fellowships/.  worth-bingham-prize/. family-award/. 

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 85 Letters to the Editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR VietNamNet: Responses to a Fall 2010 Nieman Reports Article After Nieman Reports published “An American Observes a Vietnamese Approach to Newsgathering” in our Fall 2010 issue, we received several letters raising concern about the context and content of the article. After reviewing this correspondence and speaking with the article’s author, we decided to remove this story from our website and we explained why in a message that we put in its place:

Sam Butterfield portrayed his summer internship [at VietNamNet] through personal observations. However, we now believe that his experience should have been placed in a broader context. Had this been done, this story would have more fairly represented for the reader the general practices of VietNamNet and provided a truer sense of the limited van- Shorenstein Center on the Press, I have observed at length the opera- tage point out of which he wrote. Politics and Public Policy to grant tions of VietNamNet and have had Since he does not read or speak a fellowship to the editor and CEO dozens of conversations with Tuan. Vietnamese, he worked on Viet- of VietNamNet, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Everyone in this news organization NamNet Bridge, the news orga- who was described to us as a leading recognizes that it has not yet achieved nization’s English-language voice for change in Vietnam. During the standards to which it aspires, website that is considerably the time he spent with us at the but it has come remarkably far in smaller than the Vietnamese Shorenstein Center, he demonstrated its dozen years of existence. And it site. Due to this circumstance, he his commitment to improving the is using its resources to bring those was not qualified to characterize quality of Vietnam’s journalism. standards to the rest of the country, the entire news organization Tuan has nurtured his staff of for example, with the construction in the way his story suggested. 300 journalists in a variety of ways. of the country’s first stand-alone This year and last, for example, he graduate school of journalism that Now we are sharing some of the words took more than 50 of his journal- has begun in Ho Chi Minh City. It we received in response to the article. ists to Europe so that they would will open in 2012 with a curriculum better understand Western culture modeled on that of U.S. graduate and journalism. Next year, he will programs. Tuan is also planning a To the Editor: bring a similar-sized group to the first-of-its-kind media research and United States. Two years ago, the studies institute to be located in Nha The VietNamNet described in Nie- Shorenstein Center hosted a smaller Trang, where journalists, scholars, man Reports’s Fall 2010 issue bears no group of his journalists for a week, media specialists, and policymakers resemblance to the news organization exposing them to top U.S. report- can meet to share ideas. that I have come to know over the ers and editors. In Vietnam, he has Vietnam lacks a tradition of jour- past several years. VietNamNet is hosted a large number of visiting nalism education and does not have a pioneering news outlet. In 2006, American journalists and scholars, a fully free press. The government the head of the Kennedy School’s asking in return that they conduct licenses its news outlets and moni- Vietnam program urged the Joan workshops for his reporters. tors their activities. Nevertheless,

86 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 Letters to the Editor

VietNamNet’s intrepid reporting on cited with clear sources. to be a comprehensive story about land use, environmental degradation, VietNamNet is one of the most journalism in Vietnam or about this foreign affairs, and other subjects widely read online newspapers in news organization. Its intent was to has won it a large public following. Vietnam, and everyone who works illustrate the great disconnect that Published online, VietNamNet has here understands that the press serves I witnessed between my American about six million daily readers. Some the public interest and our content notions of journalism and what I officials have criticized its report- needs to be independent, accurate, observed in this newsroom, and ing while others have commended objective and unbiased. All the I stand by my description of how VietNamNet for bringing neglected products of VietNamNet—from news content was borrowed from other problems to light. VietNamNet has to investigative reports to the “hot publications. also been a proponent for a new press topics” we raise in online discussions Along with two other American law that can serve as the foundation with legislators, researchers, business students, who were also under for a more independent press. managers, and the public—must meet contract there as summer interns, None of this information was these standards. I worked with Tuan Anh Nguyen, contained in the broadside attack Stories published on VietNamNet a senior official at VietNamNet. He on VietNamNet that appeared in the or VietNamNet Bridge have been asked us to help the editorial staff last issue of Nieman Reports. It was double-checked, with their sources learn from strategies related to social portrayed there as trafficking in sex and origins clearly shown to readers. networking and online publications and news stories that originate with Any use of common nouns instead such as The Huffington Post. For other news organizations. The author of specific names is a way of para- example, we were asked to analyze of that article is a college student, phrasing, and this practice, while Huffington Post’s model and present who described himself as being a certainly not encouraged, is limited our findings to a board of editors, consultant to VietNamNet, but he did on VietNamNet Bridge and does not as well as research and explain not actually work on its news content. happen on VietNamNet. how Twitter, Facebook and The He interned for several weeks with Butterfield cannot speak Vietnam- New York Times’s “Times People” the English-language publication of ese so he could not make judgments help to facilitate user interaction VietNamNet that is produced as a about VietNamNet. It is also clear that with content, enable readers to feel service to foreign readers. Its content he misunderstood his role and duties more in command of their viewing is a compilation of stories that have during his internship at VietNamNet. experience, and bolster traffic by appeared in VietNamNet and other He sought this internship and it was spreading links to content around the Vietnamese news outlets.  granted based on an introduction Internet. Based on our research, we from a journalism professor; we did created templates for possible use on Thomas Patterson not invite him to act as a consultant or VietNamNet’s website using Adobe The Bradlee Professor of Govern- strategist. VietNamNet invites lead- InDesign. We showed those templates ment and the Press at Harvard ing journalists and scholars to work as part of a two-hour presentation University’s Shorenstein Center as consultants and strategists—not we gave to members of the editorial on the Press, Politics and Public university students.  staff about how VietNamNet could Policy. use various social media strategies Le Hai Yen and Bui Viet Lam to increase traffic and enhance its Le Hai Yen was Butterfield’s super- visibility on the Web. To the Editor: visor at VietNamNet, and Bui Viet It is true that I neither speak Lam is a senior editor at the news nor read Vietnamese so my work First, it is necessary to make a clear organization. was limited to VietNamNet Bridge, distinction between VietNamNet and the organization’s English-language VietNamNet Bridge. Sam Butterfield’s division. The documents I signed comments were based solely on Sam Butterfield, author of “An Amer- describing my work there—two his subjective view of VietNamNet ican Observes a Vietnamese Approach contracts, one when I arrived, one in Bridge, an English-language site that to Newsgathering,” responds: mid-July, were written in Vietnamese, is only a very small part of our news so I do not know what my formal organization. VietNamNet Bridge During this past summer I spent title was at VietNamNet. It was is a portal that collects and filters nearly two months living in Hanoi always my understanding that my information from VietNamNet and and working under contract at role there was to work on multimedia other newspapers in Vietnam—these VietNamNet. The essay I wrote and Web strategies and that is what are then translated into English for for Nieman Reports was based on I did, along with editing stories at international readers and they are my experiences; it was not meant VietNamNet Bridge. 

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 87 End Note

END NOTE Unforgettable Characters Encountered in Covering the Civil Rights Movement ‘Looking back on these people who are larger than life, I wonder: In fiction, who would believe them?’

BY WAYNE GREENHAW

hroughout decades as a voices echoing in the night like A Writer’s Beginnings newspaper reporter, mostly a hymn in praise of freedom. I covering the civil rights listened to the words of George I had been hired by the sports Tmovement in the South, I have Wallace, Martin Luther King, editor at the News when I was 15, been a witness to history. I cov- Jr., civil rights attorneys Morris after undergoing spinal surgeries ered marches, trials, speeches Dees and Chuck Morgan, and and being confined to a body and midnight gatherings with Alabama Attorney General Bill cast for six months. Bedridden, protesters on their knees singing Baxley. I fought loneliness by reading “We Shall Overcome” in whispery Despite all that came after, Victor Hugo, Mark Twain, Ernest what I remember most Hemingway, and others. Instead vividly is an image from of emptiness, my world was more than 50 years ago. filled with excitement: French One picture stays with revolutionists, boys floating down me, haunting and inform- the Mississippi, and bullfighters ing my writing about the in Spain. I was thrilled with the movement that shook our magic of written words. nation. Days before my In a magazine, I read an article 16th birthday, in 1956, I about San Miguel de Allende in was riding home one night Mexico called “How to Live in from my part-time job Paradise on $100 a Month.” At at The Tuscaloosa News the Instituto Allende profession- with a photographer when als taught writing. Descriptions we came upon a mob of the Spanish colonial town put on University Avenue. me on the narrow cobblestone Whites were protesting streets. I pictured myself as a a young woman’s attempt student there. to become the first black In my first job as a part-time student at the University sports reporter I wrote two- of Alabama. The angry paragraph summaries of Friday crowd stopped a car. Men night football games. If I wrote beat it with sticks. They one word too many, my editor climbed on the bumpers, slashed it. If I used an unneces- jumping up and down. sary adjective, a scowl covered In the darkness I saw his face. On Saturdays I wrote the face of a small black headlines for sports stories going boy framed in the back in the Sunday paper, learning window. His eyes were the true weight of simple words. huge with fear. Although I dreamed of writing books. the mob let the car pass Learning the art of self-discipline, after a few minutes, the I awakened early every morning boy’s frightened face was and wrote for several hours. I seared into my memory. composed a bad 150-page novel

88 Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 End Note that thankfully disappeared “Fighting the Devil in Dixie: long ago. Now and then I would How Civil Rights Activists unfold the article about Mexico Took on the Ku Klux Klan and read it again. Finally, in the in Alabama,” being published summer of 1958, after graduat- in January by Lawrence Hill ing from high school, I rode Books, I realize that I finally four trains from west Alabama put to use the novelistic ele- to San Miguel, where I attended ments of the real-life drama the writing center. In an old that I was immersed in for so cantina veterans of World War many years. In my new book, II and Korea bragged about the action unfolds through a being writers, but all they did cast of characters including a was drink and talk. young man who is one of only Returning to the United five black lawyers in Alabama in States, I showed my stories to the mid-1950’s, a white lawyer professor Hudson Strode, who in Birmingham who becomes an selected me for his illustrious ardent crusader for equal rights, creative writing class at the a white farm boy who grows up University of Alabama. Being to create the Southern Poverty admitted to his class was a prize Law Center, an ambitious in itself. Later I won an essay politician who spews violent contest. The $50 check made racism and later becomes a me believe I could be success- born-again progressive, and a ful. In the next three years I Wayne Greenhaw, in 1965, the year he began covering the young state attorney general managed to sell two stories civil rights movement for the Alabama Journal. who prosecutes the bomber of to pulp magazines. An article the Sixteenth Street Baptist about Mexico sold for $100. Church in Birmingham. It was enough positive reinforcement cage where defendants were once held Looking back on these people who to keep me trying, a quality Strode before trials. are larger than life, I wonder: In fic- called “stickability,” his top criteria After a year of reporting, I began tion, who would believe them? How for beginning writers. waking early to write before going to could you create a group of courageous the office. Since the days of studying Harvard graduates who came South A Witness to History in Mexico and with Strode, I yearned to report what was happening in civil to write fiction. In 1966, my first rights? Who would believe that these In 1965, after I was hired as a reporter novel, “The Golfer,” was bought by J.B. young people would stay the course for the Alabama Journal, Montgomery’s Lippincott. In it, my protagonist, a after they were called names and were afternoon newspaper, by managing young white professional golfer, meets attacked, beaten and arrested? But they editor Ray Jenkins, who had just a young black who has more natural did. Like the lawyers and the politician, finished his Nieman year, I was soon talent than he. However, both realize they kept moving ahead. As American assigned to cover civil rights. Dr. that in the segregated world the black Civil Liberties Union attorney Chuck Martin Luther King, Jr. was in and man will never have the opportunity to Morgan, who had toiled in the civil out of town, meeting with reporters participate in the sport. After rewriting rights movement for years, told a at the integrated Albert Pick Motel. the manuscript, following suggestions group of students at Harvard in the At Freedom City—several dozen tents of Tay Hohoff, a marvelous teacher who spring of 1973, “The people who were in a Lowndes County pasture—Stokely had been Harper Lee’s editor on “To guarding our Southern way of life said, Carmichael organized the Black Pan- Kill A Mockingbird,” it was published ‘If we give ’em an inch, they will take thers. I wrote about the leaders and in the fall of 1967. a mile.’ … Well, they gave us an inch, described demonstrations. Much of I continued to study the craft of and we took a mile.” His voice and this reporting was done as a stringer writing. In my early years I thought others resonate throughout the pages for The New York Times or the Los fiction was the ultimate. Later I deter- of “Fighting the Devil in Dixie.”  Angeles Times or one of the weekly mined that if a writer worked hard newsmagazines. All the while, I knew and delved deeply into his subjects, Wayne Greenhaw, a 1973 Nieman that some day when I wrote a book I nonfiction was equally rewarding. The Fellow, now lives in Montgomery, would make use of this information, creative writing techniques I learned Alabama, and San Miguel de such as the way a courthouse built by in Mexico and from Strode could and Allende, Mexico. slaves in Hayneville looked and smelled should be used in nonfiction. and felt and the six-by-six-by-six-foot As I think back on my 22nd book,

Nieman Reports | Winter 2010 89 NIEMAN REPORTS NIEMAN

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