NIEMAN REPORTS COVERING SEXUAL ASSAULT Contributors The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University www.niemanreports.org publisher Ann Marie Lipinski editor James Geary Michael Blanding (page 34 and 42) is a senior fellow at the senior editor Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis Jan Gardner University. His work has appeared in Wired, Slate, The Nation, The Boston Globe Magazine, and other publications. His most editorial assistant recent book “The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Eryn M. Carlson Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps” design was named an NPR Book of the Year in 2014. Pentagram editorial offices Uri Blau (page 8), a 2014 Nieman Fellow, is a One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, Washington-based investigative journalist for MA 02138-2098, 617-496-6308, Haaretz. He took part in the Panama Papers [email protected] reporting project and is a grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Copyright 2017 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Periodicals postage paid at Naomi Darom (page 12), a 2016 Nieman Boston, Massachusetts and Fellow, is a visiting researcher at Boston additional entries University’s Elie Wiesel Center. She is a contributing writer at Musaf Haaretz, the subscriptions/business weekend magazine for Haaretz in Israel. 617-496-6299, [email protected] Subscription $25 a year, Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian (page $40 for two years; 14) are co-founders of Cannabis Wire, a news add $10 per year for foreign airmail. outlet that covers the global cannabis industry, Single copies $7.50. and co-authors of the 2014 book “A New Leaf: Back copies are available from The End of Cannabis Prohibition.” Martin is the Nieman office. the national cannabis reporter at BuzzFeed Please address all subscription News and an adjunct professor at the Columbia correspondence to: University Graduate School of Journalism. One Francis Avenue, Rashidian is a fellow at Columbia’s Tow Center Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 for Digital Journalism, where she researches the and change of address information to: relationship between publishers and platforms. P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108 ISSN Number 0028-9817 Sara Morrison (page 22) is a staff writer at Postmaster: Send address changes to Vocativ in New York. She has been an assistant Nieman Reports P.O. Box 4951, editor at Columbia Journalism Review and Manchester, NH 03108 a writer for Boston.com. Her work has also appeared on Poynter and The Atlantic Wire. Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published in March, June, Ricki Morell (page 28) is a Boston-based September, and December by journalist who has written for The New York the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street One Francis Avenue, Journal, WBUR’s CommonHealth website, and Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 The Hechinger Report. MARK BLINCH/REUTERS The rights of accusers versus the rights of the accused have become a flash point in debates over sex assault, providing challenges for reporters Contents Winter 2017 / Vol. 71 / No. 1 Features Departments The Israeli Press Under Pressure 8 cover Live@Lippmann How reporters are covering Former Kansas City Star journalist watchdog a combative administration Lewis Diuguid 2 By Uri Blau Covering Sexual Assault 34 Washington Post reporter Reporting on rape and sexual David Fahrenthold 4 Why Cannabis Coverage assault cases challenges journalists Needs to Be a Serious Beat 14 to build trust with sources and Niemans@Work 6 As more states legalize cannabis, the avoid injecting bias into the story Assessing earthquake recovery in Nepal, importance of in-depth reporting grows By Michael Blanding amplifying community radio in South By Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian Africa, gathering whistleblowers in Serbia storyboard Re-Starting the Conversation 22 Shifting the Focus 42 nieman journalism lab News outlets are encouraging a higher Establishing an emotional connection Connection and Customer Service 40 level of discourse in comments sections is a key to powerful short documentaries What declining trust in banks says By Sara Morrison By Michael Blanding about declining trust in news outlets By Joshua Benton Better Than Words 28 Attuned to the power of visuals, designers Books 50 are changing the way news is presented “Journalism After Snowden: The Future By Ricki Morell The cannabis of the Free Press and the Surveillance State” beat encompasses By Clay Shirky cover: consumer-oriented Allison Colpoys reporting as well as Nieman Notes 54 Excerpts are from “Sexual assault on campus coverage of a fast- shrouded in secrecy” by Kristen Lombardi, growing industry Sounding 56 page 14 Center for Public Integrity; “An Unbelievable Alisa Sopova, NF ’17 Story of Rape” by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica and Ken Armstrong, The Marshall Project; “Proof” by Erin Rhoda, Bangor Daily News Live@Lippmann as good, cleaner than clean, and work five times harder to make it in white America. Anything less was just unacceptable. I have tried to instill that sense of on- the-job excellence as a faculty member since 1982 for a journalism academy that the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists annually provides, as a faculty member from 1991 to 2007 for the Maynard Institute for Lewis Diuguid: “Harness the best Journalism Education’s Editing Program fellowship, and with every young person I that our diversity has to offer” encounter on the job, at church, in the com- The former Kansas City Star munity, in journalism schools nationwide, and at journalism conventions. It’s needed reporter on the challenges now more than ever. Here’s why. It’s about more than newspapers, magazines, radio, of being a black journalist, television, and new media journalism. The well-being of the United States, our democ- the value of integrity, and racy and good government in all countries depends on uncompromising quality being the importance of mentoring maintained in journalism. That’s because people in this country and elsewhere de- pend on accurate, honest, ethical, and time- ly reporting and writing so that they can make the best possible decisions in our free society. That’s at the core of the philosophy, existentialism. ewis w. diuguid was seat at one of the many tables so that I could When we fail to do our jobs properly as selected by the Nieman class of enjoy a “free” dinner. journalists, we make existential victims out 2017 for the Louis M. Lyons Award All of the canons of ethics in journalism of a population of people who depend on a for Conscience and Integrity in were still swirling in my 21-year-old head free press for good information. So when Journalism in recognition of his from the University of Missouri School of we don’t do our jobs right; when we are Lcommitment to excellence in journalism as well Journalism, the world’s oldest (established unethical; when we lack integrity; when we as his work as a newsroom leader and role mod- in 1908) and (wait for it) still the best school are not honest; when we let racism, sexism, el for young journalists. Diuguid spent nearly of journalism on the planet. So I declined. homophobia, classism, or elitism into our 40 years at The Kansas City Star as an editor, The host of the dinner was shocked that I copy; when we succumb to pressure to get a columnist, and editorial board member, dis- said no to the free meal. I said I would take story first instead of getting it right, we hurt tinguishing himself as a relentless advocate for a seat by the door and wait to take notes on our country and all of the people in it. newsroom diversity who used his voice to draw what the speaker had to say so I could return I [often think of] a story that singer, ac- attention to social inequities, write about civil to the newsroom to write my story for the tor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte rights, and highlight systematic injustices. This morning newspaper. shared at a National Association of Black essay is adapted from his Lyons Award accep- When I returned to the newsroom, I Journalists convention after a big civil rights tance speech: wrote the story, and it ran the next morn- victory. Everyone was jubilant except the ing, and I still refuse free meals, gifts, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Belafonte there are two virtues—conscience other potentially compromising things. said he asked Dr. King why he also wasn’t and integrity—that should never be sub- Strict ethics rules and being above even the happy. King replied, “I fear that we are inte- tracted from the ethical practice of journal- appearance of a conflict of interest caught grating ourselves into a burning building.” ism in order for our now embattled industry up to The Kansas City Star-Times, proving His concern back in the 1960s was that and each of us to maintain an unimpeach- me correct in my early commitment to do- white America was on fire with racial hatred, able credibility. But all of that is constantly ing the right thing in this profession. with war, with social and economic inequal- being challenged now and corrupted. In my career, I have stood up to numer- ity, with sexism, with elitism, with classism, I think back 40 years ago to one of the ous ethical challenges for myself and many and with homophobia, just to name a few, first stories I covered for The Kansas City voiceless others without thinking about and Dr. King was right then just as he would Star-Times as a young general assignment the consequences. I owe that uncompro- be today under Donald Trump’s occupa- reporter and photographer.