Vol. 54 No. 3 NIEMAN REPORTS Fall 2000 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

4 Narrative Journalism

5 Narrative Journalism Comes of Age BY MARK KRAMER

9 Exploring Relationships Across Racial Lines BY GERALD BOYD

11 The False Dichotomy and Narrative Journalism BY ROY PETER CLARK

13 The Verdict Is in the 112th Paragraph BY THOMAS FRENCH

16 ‘Just Write What Happened.’ BY WILLIAM F. WOO

18 The State of Narrative Nonfiction Writing ROBERT VARE

20 Talking About Narrative Journalism A PANEL OF JOURNALISTS

23 ‘Narrative Writing Looked Easy.’ BY RICHARD READ

25 Narrative Journalism Goes Multimedia BY MARK BOWDEN

29 Weaving Storytelling Into Breaking News BY RICK BRAGG

31 The Perils of Lunch With Sharon Stone BY ANTHONY DECURTIS

33 Lulling Viewers Into a State of Complicity BY TED KOPPEL

34 Sticky Storytelling BY ROBERT KRULWICH

35 Has the Camera’s Eye Replaced the Writer’s Descriptive Hand? MICHAEL KELLY

37 Narrative Storytelling in a Drive-By Medium BY CAROLYN MUNGO

39 Combining Narrative With Analysis BY LAURA SESSIONS STEPP

42 Literary Nonfiction Constructs a Narrative Foundation BY MADELEINE BLAIS

43 Me and the System: The Personal Essay and Health Policy BY FITZHUGH MULLAN

45 Photojournalism

46 Photographs BY JAMES NACHTWEY

48 The Unbearable Weight of Witness BY MICHELE MCDONALD

49 Photographers Can’t Hide Behind Their Cameras BY STEVE NORTHUP

51 Do Images of War Need Justification? BY PHILIP CAPUTO

Cover photo: A Muslim man begs for his life as he is taken prisoner by Arkan’s Tigers during the first battle for Bosnia in March 1992. He was later thrown from a third- story window during interrogation. [Haviv describes taking this photo on page 54.] Photo by Ron Haviv/SABA. 52 The Perils of Growing Comfortable With Evil BY BRENT STAPLES

54 ‘Basically We’re Alone. Left Up to Our Own Wits.’ A PANEL OF WAR PHOTOGRAPHERS

58 Dying to Get the Story BY MARY KAY MAGISTAD

59 Journalists Learn How to Protect Themselves in War A PANEL OF INSTRUCTORS

62 Words & Reflections

63 Questions Crime Reporters Sometimes Forget to Ask BY JOHN PAINTER, JR.

66 Dead Men Talking BY KEN ARMSTRONG

68 An Indictment of the Washington Press BY MICHAEL GARTNER

69 Harper’s Magazine: A Survivor! BY ROBERT MANNING

71 Can Journalism Be Fair? BY PHILIP MEYER

72 Freelancers Confront New Challenges BY ANNE DRISCOLL

75 International Journalism

76 Journalism in Transition in South Africa BY MATHATHA TSEDU

77 A Story of Courage in South African Journalism BY DENNIS CRUYWAGEN

79 In Zimbabwe, the Independent Press Struggles to Survive BY DAVID KARANJA

82 Imprisonment and Torture of Journalists in Zimbabwe BY MARK G. CHAVUNDUKA

84 Lessons Learned in Africa BY WILSON WANENE

86 Top 10 Underreported Humanitarian Stories DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS

88 From Darkness Into Blinding Glare BY SUSAN MOELLER

89 Coverage of AIDS in Africa BY SUSAN MOELLER

3 Curator’s Corner

91 Nieman Notes

91 Reading Between the Lions BY JUDITH STOIA 92 Class Notes

End Note Howard Simons’ Legacy Lives On BY MARCIA SLACUM GREENE Curator’s Corner The Nieman Foundation’s Unfinished Business

By Bob Giles

n my first morning in Lippmann House, I was given zations in the journalistic community, through the contribu- a thick green folder with lots of information to be tions of the fellows, through a global outreach and through Oquickly absorbed. Inside was a memo from Bill the network of former Nieman Fellows is at once challeng- Kovach addressed “To My Successor.” ing, exciting and humbling. “You poor man,” I thought. “You gave 10 years of your life To a considerable extent, the Nieman Foundation’s abil- to creatively enlarging and improving the Nieman program ity to help raise the standards of journalism has been and on the day you retired you did not know the identity of enhanced by the reach and potential of its Web site as an your successor.” invaluable place to engage the Nieman family and the larger Bill’s memo began, “Congratulations. You’ve just begun world of journalism in a continuing discussion about the one of the greatest jobs in the world of journalism. As you state of journalism. know you’ve also inherited an important mandate—‘to The mission to promote and elevate the standards of promote and elevate the standards of journalism’—at a journalism is a purpose the Nieman Foundation shares with crucial time in the history of journalism.” the larger journalistic community. We are but one of many As I read Bill’s note I wondered how many different leading journalism organizations and foundations that are versions of passing the mantel had been played out in the striving to understand deeply held public concerns about transition from one Curator to the next. Bill served as acting journalistic practices. The public is troubled by the blending Curator during the last months of Howard Simons’ life and of entertainment and news and by what it observes when then was named his successor in June 1989. television enables viewers to watch reporters at work. When In a warm remembrance published in the Summer 1989 asked, members of the public willingly provide examples of issue of Nieman Reports, Bill wrote, “There is a special sense reportorial arrogance and insensitivity and a failure to fully of loss here at the Lippmann House. An enormous energy is grasp the details as well as the nuances of stories. That this missing…. Howard found a way to preserve the unique distrust of the press and its practices is a matter of significant character of the program while at the same time infusing it concern has been amply documented in a myriad of ways— with a new vitality and sense of mission.” through surveys, conferences, studies, focus groups, con- Bill is missed in much the same way, not only at Lippmann versations with readers and viewers. House but throughout the university. He has built on the In my recent work with The Freedom Forum, with its legacy of Howard Simons, engaging the prestige of the particular focus on fairness, I have developed a deep respect Nieman Foundation to speak forcefully and authoritatively for the public’s sophisticated understanding of how the for journalism. behavior of individual journalists influences their percep- At the Nieman reunion last April, Harvard’s President, tions of fairness in the news media. The public’s definitions Neil Rudenstine, spoke tellingly of Bill’s work. “No one of what is fair and what is not fair are broader and deeper represents the ideals of the Nieman Foundation more pow- than those voiced by many journalists. When asked about erfully than Bill Kovach…. He has consistently pointed out fairness, journalists tend to talk about accuracy, balance and the dangers of recent mergers between entertainment and lack of bias. Readers and viewers mention racial and cultural media organizations. As Chair of the Committee of Con- insensitivity, overdependence on unnamed sources, reluc- cerned Journalists, he has begun and sustained a national tance to correct errors, and words reporters use to character- dialogue dedicated to strengthening the core values of a ize individuals in stories. responsible free press…. The Nieman Foundation, under As I have listened to reporters talk about fairness, and as Bill, has become a kind of conscience for the press.” I have participated with the American Society of Newspaper Bill also built on the vision of Jim Thomson and Howard Editors and the Associated Press Managing Editors in a Simons in enlarging the participation of international Nieman number of projects focusing on the performance of the Fellows, who now comprise half of each Nieman class. The press, I am reminded of the enduring commitment of jour- international fellows bring a global dimension to the Nieman nalists to do better, even though actual improvements don’t experience and to the Harvard community. In many cases, always live up to this expression of commitment. they are journalists who have struggled to practice their craft To each of those journalists and friends who has written under repressive regimes in countries where a free press is to me in recent weeks, I have offered this wish: As I pursue a fragile, emerging concept. the obligation to continue the direction Bill Kovach and his The state of journalism will forever be the unfinished predecessors have established, I invite you to engage in our business of the Nieman Foundation. The opportunity to work through your thoughts and ideas about ways the participate in the discussion through the pages of this Nieman Foundation might even more effectively advance magazine, through conferences and seminars, through part- the special purpose we share. nerships with other Harvard institutions and leading organi- This is an invitation to all of our readers, as well. ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 3 Narrative Journalism

Mark Kramer, who directs a narrative journalism conference each year at Boston University, opens our series of articles by asserting that “narrative writing is returning to newspapers.” The reasons are as simple as the lure of storytelling and as complex as the business environment in which newspapers struggle to survive. In this issue, newspaper writers and editors, television correspondents and anchors, journalism professors and physicians write about narrative’s revival in the telling of news. Their words speak of possibilities, but also warn of the need for caution.

New York Times editor Gerald Boyd (’81 NF) writes that the Times, in its 15-part series designed to tell the story of how race is lived in America, deliberately chose a narrative presentation: “We thought race was far too complicated to handle any other way.” Roy Peter Clark, who teaches writing at the Poynter Institute, hopes the divide will narrow between those who embrace narrative and those who cling to the Five W’s and the H. Thomas French writes about his work in serial narratives at the St. Petersburg Times in which a news story developes drama and character more familiar to books.

Formerly a St. Louis Post-Dispatch editor, now Stanford journalism professor, William Woo (’67 NF) worries that narrative writing—which by its nature subordinates ideas to drama and conflict and requires superimposing a storytelling order on facts—might steer journalists away from their job to “just write what happened.” A panel of journalists, moderated by Atlantic Monthly senior editor Robert Vare (’97 NF), addresses such concerns. Then The Oregonian’s Richard Read (’97 NF), who won a Pulitzer Prize for his narrative series “The French Fry Connection,” describes why narrative journalism is not as easy to execute as it might seem. Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Mark Bowden traces the journey of his narrative series “Black Hawk Down” from the newspaper onto the Internet, where even more avenues for storytelling were found. Rick Bragg (’93 NF), The New York Times’s Miami bureau chief, contends that narrative can be “the most effective way to tell even a hard news story,” and he shares examples from his coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone, looks through the lens of celebrity journalism and worries that invention might be replacing interpretation.

The use of narrative in television news has its own rationale and methods. Ted Koppel explains why he uses the approach of a storyteller to entice viewers to stay tuned. ABC News correspondent Robert Krulwich describes how he tries to get his stories to stick in peoples’ minds. Atlantic Monthly Editor in Chief Michael Kelly laments that the camera has usurped the writer’s descriptive mission. And Carolyn Mungo, a local TV reporter in Houston, shows how narrative can still find a home on the six o’clock news.

Writing a book reminded Washington Post writer Laura Sessions Stepp of the value of connecting narrative with analysis and information. University of Massachusetts professor Madeleine Blais (’86 NF) introduces her students to narrative nonfiction books to prepare them as journalists. And Fitzhugh Mullan, a physician and writer, infuses a health policy journal with narrative writing. ■

4 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism Narrative Journalism Comes of Age Some find it hard to accept. Others embrace it.

By Mark Kramer

arrative writing is returning to newspapers. No one has added Editorial interest in narrative has been Nup the reallocated column- inches to quantify this change, but nev- stimulated in the course of a search for ertheless there are many signs of the remedies to widespread current business increasing interest: problems: declining or stagnant newspaper •The Associated Press has expanded circulation, aging readership, and decreased its booming enterprise section to minutes spent reading papers. 20-plus world-wandering writers who are given time and space to develop the evocative stories they has recently joined the distinguished want to help reporters approach sto- find. ranks of MacArthur Fellows. ries narratively. 3 •Each fall, at a conference I help orga- •An e-mail discussion group on non- Editorial interest in narrative has nize at Boston University, about 800 fiction narrative, moderated by Jon been stimulated in the course of a self-identified newsroom renegades Franklin (author of “Writing for search for remedies to widespread cur- come together to learn more about Story,” two-time Pulitzer-winner, rent business problems: declining or narrative journalism from the likes science writer at The [Raleigh] News stagnant newspaper circulation, aging of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Mark & Observer), attracts 350 reporters, readership, and decreased minutes Bowden, The Wall Street Journal’s who pay $20 a year to join the non- spent reading papers. The list of anti- Barry Newman, and the Poynter stop conversation. dotes has affected the look and content 1 Institute’s Roy Peter Clark. of many papers over the past decade. It •5,000 reporters each year attend the “I’m not sure there’s more narrative includes running more service pieces Poynter Institute’s National Writers in papers,” says Bruce DeSilva, who, as up front, more USA Today-like micro- Workshops, which emphasize, in the AP’s News/Features Editor, heads stories, more color printing, investing sessions across the country, not just the enterprise squad. “But when we do in sleeker page design, more celebrity getting the story right, but also tell- one at AP, the play is phenomenal. and sports reportage, fuller TV sched- ing stories engagingly. We’re also getting a lot of play for short ules, and companion Web sites offer- •Papers have, for years, run probing narratives.” ing updated news and interactive ser- “series”—multi-day sequences of This issue of Nieman Reports, on vices. Narrative is on this remedy list articles presenting facets of a large narrative journalism, shoulders a too, because it engages readers; in this topic. Now, scores of papers are touchy topic. It aims at the heart of the age of mega-corporate media satura- publishing “serials,” many-part dra- profession, as it targets how news tion, Web sites and workaholism, read- 2 matic reconstructions of events. people pursue reporting and writing. ers still are attracted to stories in which •A few dozen papers now identify The basic assertion is simple—news- people’s lives and decision-making are and free up reporters with a papers might both improve coverage vividly portrayed. storytelling knack, who not many and retain more readers by employing When you pause to consider the list, years ago might have been kept on storytelling techniques to convey news. narrative is the “which-one-doesn’t-fit?” routine assignments. But a discussion of this assertion leads item; it alone moves newspapers to- •Narrative journalists win prizes. to discomfiting questions about mis- ward deeper coverage, toward fulfill- Many have won Pulitzers. One of sion and practice and chain-of-com- ment of the civic mission that distin- National Public Radio’s innovative mand—most likely, some editors on guishes the worthy profession. This narrative practitioners, David Isay, any paper won’t be able to or won’t distinction makes narrative journalism of special interest to many editors and reporters, even as it raises questions 1 This year’s conference will be held December 2-3 and will include speakers such as journalist about the skills and roles of reporters Tom French and author Tracy Kidder. More information can be found at www.bu.edu/narrative. and editors who might try it out. 2 Some of the finest newspaper narrative serials can be found at www.inkstain.net/narrative/. An unofficial “narrative movement” 3 This discussion takes place at [email protected]. has coalesced. Into it has tumbled a

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 5 Narrative Journalism small band of itinerant newspaper writ- 10 and instead began something like ing them into the pleasurable illusion ing coaches, the often-lonely editors this: “‘Does your leg feel damp?’ Mrs. of immediacy. And narrative also opens who push their papers toward narra- Rosalie D’Amato asked her husband more material for reporting—the re- tive, a cluster of reporters who have after awakening suddenly in their vealing, nuanced lives of not just the mastered the art of serial-writing and Duxbury home at approximately 4:15 prominent, but of ordinary citizens. won professional recognition, a few this morning….” Dull but crucial stories can be invigo- foundation leaders and conference Editors and reporters, even those rated. For example, tradeoffs involved planners who bring these parties to- more open to narrative, often fear man- in spraying pesticides in restaurants gether, editors of the hand- might be more readable in an ful of anthologies, a few article that includes a scene name brand authors of Almost any news story can benefit portraying an exterminator’s book-length literary jour- visit than by simply quoting a nalism who have crossed from a morsel of narrative, dry report, and a narrative ap- over to aid and abet, and because sensory reports engage proach enables such coverage most important, the grow- readers, drawing them into the proactively, even when there’s ing ranks of reporters ex- no new pesticide study to re- cited by the possibilities of pleasurable illusion of immediacy. port. such assignments. In sum, there’s no mandate Discussion among them to crowd away crucial news or moves beyond recitation present every blizzard from of the virtues of storytelling to the on- dated irrelevancy, having pursued for the perspective of a 90-year-old shov- the-job realities of adding narrative cov- years a mission of sorting out the ur- eler, and every fire from the perspec- erage. Satisfactory narrative won’t end gent, the essential, the basic. They don’t tive of a weeping child clutching a up in print until editors and reporters want some commercial fashion, or- singed blankie. But narrative moments have come to some understanding dered by management, to push them add a lot. Narrative articles and serials about some basic issues, such as: to absurdly personalize plain ol’ news. are powerfully engaging. But both ex- These editors voice concerns, as well— pose editors and reporters to testing, •On what sorts of stories they’ll use the more so after recent fabrication and demand honing, of their skills. An narrative techniques scandals—that in assigning narrative, editor who accepts the vision of a Page •The process of reporting for narra- they’ll hand away the ability to check 1 that fascinates readers by moving in tive on factuality, as only reporters on the close to stories with human moments •Who among them should write and spot will have sensed and seen events. will lose sleep and gain a worthy life of who should edit such copy. These fears run contrary to the ballast hard labor. of tradition, which tilts toward deper- Once narrative is assigned, those sonalized, sober accounting, and to- writing and editing it will come up ward the prevalence of editorial good Reporting for Story against the limitations of the custom- sense. ary “news voice.” And finally, while the Perhaps more to the point, the pros- It’s surely different, reporting for editing is under way, questions of what pect of writing narrative exhilarates story as well as for fact. It means paying to edit for—the “mission” questions— many reporters and editors, but also attention to what Tom Wolfe terms the are bound to surface. makes them nervous. It exposes their “status life” details about people—the Here’s a closer view of these steps in craft to individual scrutiny. It’s undeni- clues to emotion and character and the process of bringing a narrative ar- ably more fun to write, and to read, class in their outfits, turns of phrase, ticle into a paper. that “Clowns stumbled, lions pranced, even their desk clutter. It means recog- and a glittering trapeze artist swooped nizing, while reporters are still in the over the crowd as trumpets blared field, potential story-tracks through Defining Narrative-Worthy Sousa marches yesterday. Bella the events and identifying the set scenes News Clown has led his Big Apple Circus that might lead readers through the back into town again…” than it is to general muddle of information. It also Some months back, Boston Globe read “The annual visit of the Big Apple means doing richer background re- editors urged staffers to include more Circus commenced yesterday. Accord- search, so that narrative foreground “feature ledes” in their stories. An in- ing to spokesman Joe Doakes, this year’s can be used emblematically. Narrative house parody passed among some re- show includes the featured clown, touches in shorter assignments need porters there, a mock news story that Bella, as well as lions, costumed tra- not take more reporting time; they just didn’t arrive at its banner-headline- peze artists, and a live circus band.” require more attention—a finer- worthy burden—“a tidal wave over- Almost any news story can benefit grained, heads-up apprehension of the whelmed all of New England and part from a morsel of narrative, because events at hand. of New York State”—until paragraph sensory reports engage readers, draw-

6 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism

Who Should Write and Edit mind when reporting is presenting the bal skill. It enables sending reporters Narrative? story artfully, so the audience might where needed, like police officers sent especially enjoy it, and so it might to changeable beats. In both cases, the Heads-up apprehension implies resonate with the profound nature of workers’ probity and devotion to duty personnel with the skills to discern the event. To the contrary; the fire count, intelligibility counts, but elo- and comprehend character and orga- story that results reads like a memo to quence and imagination will be con- nizational structures. There’s no ques- an insurance clerk: trolled, if present, by the superior of- tion that reporting for story engages A __ alarm fire at __ destroyed a __. ficer on duty. News voice is intentionally reporters’ and editors’ erudition, so- There were __ fatalities and __ inju- bland, nonjudgmental, quirk-free, re- phistication, discernment, even their ries. According to Fire Chief __, the sponsible and sober, a useful presence wryness, more than conventional re- blaze started at __ o’clock and was interested in names and affiliations and porting for fact does. And that might caused by __. Damage is estimated at times and numbers. It’s the voice of the prove a challenge to some. Obviously, __. town crier who once shouted “All’s reporters who have the knack, edited Newspapers do also run features on well” through the night. by editors who have the knack, should fire-displaced families, backgrounders If “style is personality,” as the rheto- be the ones to work narratively. That on firehouse life, even occasional spot- rician Richard Lanham says, readers requires an evolving, candid assess- light articles on the politics of fire chief may detect little companionability in ment of skills and consequent tamper- selection. But let’s consider the default that persona. The news voice does not ing with shifts, protocols of assign- fire story itself, because its voice is acknowledge the readers’ savvy or ments and story quotas. Adjusting the diagnostic. know-how or sophisticated compre- chain of command so it’s receptive to Reporters are sent out to get the hension of motives, people, organiza- narrative is sensitive business, as old information crucial to the orderly run- tions or the world. It always starts ex- hands—and some young old-hands, too—just plain don’t see the world narratively. Narrative touches in shorter assignments Infrastructure changes will help re- needn’t take more reporting time, just more porters working with narrative avoid attention—a finer-grained, heads-up conflict with editors averse to such work. In-house writing coaches, em- apprehension of the events at hand. powered editorially, have helped re- orient some newsrooms. A few report- ers will move away from assigned shifts and beats and function more indepen- ning of the city, nation and world. They planations from scratch. Its job is to dently. As this happens, the differen- are neither artists nor social workers, record, explain, to create a record, tials in reporting time and role may nor need they be. They’re guardians of report—hardly to entertain. For all its create in-house tensions needing tact- the city and, as such, given special civic utility, the news voice also limits ful resolution. However, a paper that (albeit shrinking) protections under the newspaper as good company for makes clear that reporters might reli- the law. They’re trained to spot situa- readers. That tradeoff can be moder- ably do narrative journalism will have tions and facts that perturb civic life ated by narrative, without threatening its pick of able employees. There’s no and to present them in order of degree the crucial mission of newspapers. mystery to the ways in which such of urgency—lucidly if possible. They reorganization can occur: It’s been also laud events that reinforce and done in Eugene and Raleigh and in improve civic life. The bureaucratic Refreshing the Mission of many other cities, and consultants can “report” tone springs from a whole- Newspapers sketch and smooth the road. some tradition—that the press has a vested duty to guard the population. The role of “entertainer” troubles Reporters and editors have serious many reporters, I suspect for at least News Voice and Narrative business to pursue, and that mindset is two reasons. First of all, it involves Voice reflected in the official edge to the dealing with non-official consider- newspaper voice. ations—acknowledging the idiosyn- At some newspapers, changes such Its very “personalitylessness” makes cratic natures of people (who are then as these can loom large. Reporters and the voice so handy—and thrifty. It can not merely citizens) and situations editors are trained to report, in the be imitated by any reporter (unlike the (which are then not merely fire sites). almost military sense that a police lieu- personal voices each reporter might Effective storytelling requires just that tenant might mean, ordering a patrol- use describing the same fire to buddies and not just for a feature lede’s few man to report facts about a house fire, at a tavern down the street from the paragraphs. pronto, excluding all trivia. The last newsroom) and it can be deployed to Still more alarming, narrative jour- thing on a police officer’s or reporter’s good effect by writers of moderate ver- nalism requires an unofficial ambition

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 7 Narrative Journalism to make and hold personal contact Advertisers have long since stepped with readers. It seldom demands first …a paper that away from the bland voice of civic pro- person—at least that’s only called for bity and explored the “civic emotion in the occasional pieces about a makes clear that set” adventurously in making personal reporter’s unique experience (in one reporters might contact with audiences. Advertisers recent serial, a reporter recounts do- reliably do these days (Super Bowl ads on TV are nating his kidney, over his family’s ob- an example) stay in touch with audi- jections, to an old friend). But a narra- narrative ences by kidding around with personal tive writer must always set out to sculpt journalism will fragility, by mocking lesser pieties, edg- the reader’s experience, from the first have its pick of ing toward titillating taboos, in short, to the last paragraph, and to handle by admitting non-Hallmarkian, all-too- that control artfully and genially. In able employees. human truths everyone knows any- this sense, narrative can be seen as a way—by belching on camera, then sell- method of engaging readers by por- ing sneakers. traying the stories of events. To date, not many news organiza- Hardboiled reporters don’t routinely and its business interests part ways. No tions have thought much about the seek to engineer the sequential emo- editor wants to abandon readers. personality of their publications, in tional responses of readers. They don’t That “given” about readership may spite of financial hardships brought mess much with their readers at all. be minimized. Narrative stories, in gen- about by not doing so. Until the “narra- Storytellers do. The two roles are in eral, use various “emotion sets.” One tive movement,” no one has taken the conflict. But the conflict has often been that works well in newspapers can be news voice toward emotional engage- resolved, even by some of those hard- termed a “civic” emotion set; other ment with readers (at least since the boiled reporters. There’s a compro- “emotion sets” that might work well in days of yellow journalism), except for mise voice that Tom French [See his books, or perhaps in The New Yorker, the odd story that shares outrage or article on page 13.] and Jon Franklin where writers can appropriately play warms the heart. The obvious and con- and Roy Peter Clark [See his article on even with the concept of voice itself, tinuing casualty of this tardiness has page 11.] know how to use, and it’s on may be termed “private” emotion sets. been the Sunday Magazine. Its poten- display in their effective serials. “Private” emotion sets are as various tial for adding substance and fascina- A useful narrative voice for newspa- as the inventiveness and natures of the tion and varied comprehension to pers puts to work shared social knowl- writers who use them. They obviously newspapers has dissipated in awkward edge, to the extent that such knowl- can include emotions that might alien- features while the number of Sunday edge is our common, ever-developing ate newspaper readers—godless rage, Magazines has shrunk. heritage. That’s more easily done in impassioned piety, bitterness, preju- Engaging readers more deeply by papers (such as The New York Times, dice, arrogance, shrillness, sneakiness, presenting a braid of human stories is The Wall Street Journal, or weeklies hazy softness—the list is instinctive and among the feasible remedies for news- such as The Village Voice) with delim- endless and subtle, and outside the papers’ circulation woes. Any editor ited readerships. But it’s been accom- mission of most newspaper stories. On who has run a successful serial will plished admirably in one-paper-for-all their individual authority, book writ- assert that it builds and binds reader- cities as well. The sense that writer and ers such as Tracy Kidder or Joan Didion ship. By understanding the aspects of it reader are sharing an understanding may freely include levels of explana- that make them uneasy, editors can that the subject at hand might not be tion that upset readers, that cleave in- decide when to say “no,” and so find party to is the gist of the powerful stead of bind community. their ways forward to offering readers literary device called dramatic irony. “Civic” emotions are community- good storytelling while improving news With it, a writer gains the freedom to integrative. They include patriotic feel- coverage. ■ put his or her whole intelligence into ings, love of children and aged parents, play while making readers feel in-the- respect for education, anger at crimi- Mark Kramer is professor of journal- know. nals, praise for the charitable and job- ism and writer-in-residence at Bos- It’s a given of newspaper narrative providing, sorrow for the dying and ill, ton University. He is a former Bos- that the reporter can’t reliably address gratitude toward police and fire fight- ton Phoenix columnist and the peculiar sensibility of any sub-group ers, rage at corruption, and many other contributes to many newspapers. He of readers and still address all readers. feelings. It is, in fact, a rich set of has also written three books of A story for everyone, slow or knowing, emotions, and everyone in town can literary journalism (“Three Farms,” naive or sophisticated, politically cor- share in them. They draw a town to- “Invasive Procedures,” and “Travels rect or bigoted, pious or doubting, gether. I don’t slight work with this set with a Hungry Bear”), co-edited the can’t go just anywhere the writer wants of emotions. They’re quite sufficient anthology “Literary Journalism” without insulting or puzzling or bor- for the craft of building intense, grip- (Ballantine ’95), and directs a con- ing some sector of readers. At that ping, revealing, accurate, useful and ference on narrative journalism snag, a paper’s mission to explain to all rewarding narratives. each December at Boston University.

8 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism Exploring Relationships Across Racial Lines Narrative was the vehicle selected for this reporting journey.

By Gerald Boyd

ome days I thought we were crazy. Thus, each story had to be original and We had embarked on one of The Narratives, we instructive in its own right. SNew York Times’s most ambitious believed, would We explored a variety of possibili- projects—to tell the story of how race ties, and we sought a mix that included is lived in America. It was a project that help readers linger racial situations that many people ex- would take more than a year, involve and get a close-up perience as well as those less common. more than three dozen reporters, edi- Institutions, for example, such as tors and photographers, and result in a view on how those churches, the military, schools and the 15-part series that would appear in the of different races police were obvious to us, provided we Times during a six-week period that were relating. could find cooperative subjects. We began in June. wanted to see how race relations were I wondered often about what we at the top of the economic ladder and had gotten into, in part because of the at the bottom. And we wanted to see approach we’d chosen. We had con- ary nut graf or two, we wanted to let how they impacted the media and the ceived the series as a set of narratives readers decide for themselves what business world and how they were that portrayed how individuals were conclusions they wanted to draw about experienced in areas that we wouldn’t relating across racial lines. These indi- the state of race relations in this coun- automatically consider, such as a former viduals whose lives we would enter try. We thought race was far too com- plantation in the South or at an histori- would be black and white, Cuban- plicated to handle any other way, and cally black college. American, Mexican-American, Domini- the more we reported, the more con- As Joseph Lelyveld, the Executive can-American, Asian-American, vinced we became that this was the Editor, told readers recently in explain- wealthy, poor, bureaucrats, soldiers case. We learned that where race is ing our mission: “Public discussion of and even journalists. Generally speak- concerned, there are no easy explana- race today is pretty cautious and ing, they were average Americans, tions. Attitudes are shaped by a variety unrevealing. Race relations seem to be whose lives were impacted by race al- of influences—background, experi- undergoing fascinating changes, most daily, although they rarely thought ences, income, peer pressure, fears though, and we wanted to report on of it that way. It was these daily, per- and families. the experiences of ordinary Americans, sonal experiences that remained largely This made it hard. to tell the story of how race influences ignored by the media. And our approach had its share of their daily lives.” Narratives, we believed, would help problems. First we had to find the right The choice of race as a subject of a readers linger and get a close-up view people in the right situations who were major Times’s examination had been on how those of different races were willing to expose their lives and think- an easy one. Time and time again, as relating. ing to the scrutiny of a ubiquitous we discussed what issue the Times From the start, we had opted to reporter and then to millions of people. might take on, we found ourselves talk- focus on relationships, hoping to bring They had to trust our reporters enough ing about race. And while the face of new dimensions to the story of race in to allow them enormous access, and race was changing, it was still mired in America. Much had already been writ- yet, at some point, the reporters had to a striking truth: that much as W.E.B. ten about race—from the impact of push them hard to share views many Du Bois had argued 100 years ago, “the institutional racism to the role race were uncomfortable talking about. problem of the 20th century is the played in public policy and in areas At the same time, we could not rely problem of the color-line.” such as welfare, education, affirmative just on what our characters said about The acquittal of O.J. Simpson action, police brutality, and criminal race. We had to see how they related to brought that truth into sharp focus. justice. We wanted to offer something people of other races and see it repeat- Everywhere we looked blacks and different. edly. Because this meant committing whites saw the verdict in starkly differ- We also wanted to produce a series enormous time and resources, we knew ent terms—in newsrooms, universities, that engaged readers, surprised and there would be limits on what we could police stations, and other workplaces even challenged them. Instead of re- print and to what even the most enthu- where whites and people of color en- ducing our conclusions to the custom- siastic reader would want to endure. gaged each other. This represented a

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 9 Narrative Journalism paradox and it fascinated us. discussed more positively. Or when a Hispanic, one Native American, and Once we decided to tell the stories white reporter said that some black nine white; 14 photographers, two of relationships as narratives, the truly immigrants did not have the same “ra- black, three Hispanic, and nine white. hard work began. Often we struck out cial baggage” as American blacks, could The graphics team was headed by an after spending months pursuing a par- he see how some Americans blacks Asian-American.) In the end, our diver- ticular subject. We had worked to get might regard that characterization as sity was our strength, but it generated access on one HBO show, only to be derogatory? much probing of our own views and told months later that the main charac- We also used such sessions to try to experiences about race. ters of our story would not be inter- understand what our reporting was The editing model we adopted ested. We then focused on another missing. Why did a dark-skinned Cu- stressed that there were no right or show, this time successfully. What ap- ban-American have such a distrust of wrong views and that the most impor- peared an obvious relationship worth examining—two federal workers in a city such as Washington, D.C.—never At times, our efforts to force reporters back happened because months of efforts to get access failed. Corporate America again and again met with skepticism and even refused to open its doors, despite re- outright resentment. peated inquiries at dozens of compa- nies in all parts of the country. We were able to get access to the New York City Police Department, a critical story in police? Why did his friend, a light- tant part of the process was honesty. So the series, only after the executive edi- skinned Cuban-American, have such a we talked and talked about what we tor and the writer of the article paid a resentment of blacks? The black Cuban were finding, trying at best to under- visit to Mayor Rudy Giuliani. had been stopped by police who stand what it represented and what Access was only the first step in the pointed a gun at him shortly after he was behind it. And we disagreed a lot— process. After spending months in the arrived in Miami; the white Cuban had black editors vs. other black editors; field determining where and how they been robbed by blacks while delivering Hispanic reporters vs. white editors; could get close to willing subjects, re- beverages in Liberty City. black vs. white editors. porters filed memos on what they saw We could have stopped our report- Once, for example, we spent hours as possible angles. Then they went ing at this point, but we didn’t. The arguing about what was critical to our back into the field to determine if, reporters returned to the field and story on hip hop. What exactly did we mean by “hip hop”? How much should we focus on a white character instead We thought race was far too complicated to of a black character? Should the black character be representative of lower- handle any other way, and the more we income blacks or could he be from the reported, the more convinced we became that suburbs? Such discussions went on this was the case. constantly as we struggled time and time again with what we were trying to say and why. Gathering information for the nar- indeed, their impressions and judg- reported further. We then repeated ratives was complicated by other fac- ments about access held up. After addi- the earlier process, a new draft, an- tors. We suspected as we started our tional reporting, they were asked to other meeting, more questions, and research that blacks and other people file outlines and first drafts, which be- further focusing. Finally a rough draft of color would find it easier to talk came the focus of a meeting with a was submitted, and after additional about race and their relations with team of editors. review and discussion, the writing and whites. That proved to be the case, It was during these sessions that we editing of the final draft took place. although talking did not necessarily began to shape and focus each story. We knew from the start of the project mean that they were willing to share “What does this story say about race?” that the editing structure would be a their deepest feelings. To understand we would ask. We also attempted to major challenge—for both reporters how they really felt we had to observe help reporters understand some nu- and editors alike. After all, we all had how they related to whites and talked ances in their impressions that might our own attitudes about race and they with family members and friends. To- be unfair. For example, we asked why varied considerably given our differing ward the end of the reporting, we con- a reporter described a black drill ser- racial and ethnic backgrounds. (The fronted them with any inconsistencies geant as “unthinking,” even though his team working on the series included we had seen and heard. educational achievement was higher seven editors, four white and three For the most part, whites were much than his white counterpart, who he black; 16 reporters, four black, two more guarded. That presented a differ-

10 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism ent challenge. It was only after we had invested considerable time that they The False Dichotomy and were willing to open up. To capture their deepest feelings, we had to inter- view them again and again. Narrative Journalism At times, our efforts to force report- ers back again and again met with skep- ‘Good writing and good reporting reinforce each other. ticism and even outright resentment. But by challenging some of their initial Period.’ impressions, we were able to create a much more complete picture. As one reporter, Dana Canedy, wrote later of By Roy Peter Clark her experience in reporting a piece on black and white columnists at the Ak- ron Beacon Journal: “I initially had a decade ago, I learned a valuable tacks on narrative journalism come negative reaction to my white charac- lesson from then-editor Geneva from a variety of sources: editors who ter and struggled to understand why. A O v e r h o l s e r , o n e t h a t I ’ v e a p p l i e d fear fabrication scandals; reporters who In the end, I decided it was because he to many problems since. “Avoid the can’t pull off the narrative style and was macho and insensitive more than false dichotomy,” she said. It turns out would rather “diss” it or dismiss it than anything else. This is a man who once that after this kind of alert, one discov- learn it, and time-starved readers who described his wife in a column, with- ers that the false dichotomy infects say they want their news fast and to the out her knowledge, as having the li- every issue important to journalists. It point. bido of man. diminishes our conversations, limits Pro-narrative pugs are also in this “His views on race troubled me, too. our options, and divides us into camps, fistfight. Among them are Thomas He considered being pulled over by setting one orthodoxy against another; French, a Pulitzer Prize-winning story- the police for weaving in traffic similar all of this violates the interests of those teller for the St. Petersburg Times, and to racial profiling. we serve. “So I spent a weekend hanging out How often do we see it happen? with his family, riding in his minivan to A false dichotomy his kids’ basketball games, admiring •Give readers the news they want. the new swimming pool in his back- No, give them what they need. of the moment is yard, chatting with his wife over iced •Graphics are the answer. No, writ- one that pits tea in their living room. It worked. I ing is the answer. narrative against came to see him as a loving father with •This is a writers’ paper. No, it’s an an adorable family. And watching him editors’ paper. traditional shoot baskets during halftime with a •Investigative journalism. No, civic methods of news young black girl on his daughter’s team, journalism. writing. I realized that he may be naive about •Longer stories. No, shorter stories. race, as one of his colleagues suggested, •Concentrate on writing. No, report- but certainly not hateful. I could re- ing. spect that. After all, none of us has all •Improve quality. No, focus on prof- Don Fry, an affiliate of the Poynter the answers when it comes to race.” its. Institute. Both men revile the inverted Would I do it again? Right now, I’m pyramid; they talk and write about it as not sure, as I recall how draining emo- These debates take on the fervor if it were the source of all evil in jour- tionally and physically the project has and parochialism of religious and cul- nalism, a form so at odds with natural been. tural wars, the journalistic equivalent storytelling that it ties knots in the Yet I and others here emerged with of pro-choice vs. pro-life, or phonics thread of potential yarn-spinners. a greater understanding of the racial vs. whole language. I love these two men as though they divide that runs through this country, In the end, common territory is rarely are brothers, but when it comes to the including how deep and complex it found, often because the will to dis- French/Fry perspective on the inverted remains. And we learned that it can be cover it amid the tyranny of the false pyramid, I can declare, with all respect bridged with hard work and honesty, dichotomy vanishes in the death of and without equivocation, that, to use when and if we want to. ■ listening. The ideology of opposing my father’s favorite euphemism, they views overtakes the necessity of having are full of donkey dust. Don and Tom, Gerald Boyd is deputy managing a shared mission. think about what you’re saying—that a editor, news, for The New York Times, A false dichotomy of the moment is particular way of telling a story is evil. and a 1981 Nieman Fellow. one that pits narrative against tradi- What’s next, an attack on the sonnet or tional methods of news writing. At- a harangue on the haiku? There is no

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 11 Narrative Journalism such thing as a bad story form. Perhaps and true: setting scenes, developing To encourage good writing absent we could all agree that a particular characters, effectively using dialogue, this kind of orthodoxy does not mean approach is misapplied or that it is and establishing point of view. To cre- the journalist lacks standards. Clear poorly executed. But as long as it is ate vicarious experiences for readers lines can be (and should be) drawn kept short, the pyramid serves the pur- or viewers, writers transform the fa- between fiction and nonfiction. No pose of writer, editor and reporter should add to a reader, and is experiencing story events or details that a revival in the new age of ‘Who’ becomes character. did not occur. Nor should online journalism. a story ever intentionally This false dichotomy of ‘What’ becomes plot. fool the audience. An im- information and narrative ‘Where’ becomes setting. plied contract exists be- can be framed anew, trans- ‘When’ becomes chronology. tween reporter and reader formed into a spectrum of that a reliable version of useful possibilities from ‘Why’ becomes motive. reality is being rendered which all good news writ- And ‘How’ becomes narrative. with care and honesty. ing can emerge. As Cana- Some might argue that dian journalism scholar not having a writing ortho- Stuart Adam describes it, this doxy is another form of spectrum extends from the civic to the mous five W’s and the H. “Who” be- idolatry in disguise, a kind of “pen- literary, from providing a list of evacu- comes character. “What” becomes plot. theism.” So be it. If such open- ation shelters to featuring dramatic sto- “Where” becomes setting. “When” be- mindedness must have a name, then ries about escapes from the hurricane. comes chronology. “Why” becomes I’ll worship at the altar of pragmatism, In adapting the literary theory of motive. And “How” becomes narrative. the spot next to tolerance as among the Louise Rosenblatt to the uses of jour- Master storyteller David Finkel of great virtues. Pragmatic journalists have nalism, I argue that the reading or The Washington Post speaks of report- dozens of tools and forms on their viewing of news is either informational ing for detail, reporting for the senses, workbenches. or experiential. It all relies on language and reporting cinematically, as if one Depending upon the needs of the that either points you there or lan- were holding a camera up to the story audience and the importance of the guage that puts you there. Most news to film a documentary. Where will the news, the writer can choose to use a telling will be informational and ex- camera be pointed? At the beads of neutral voice or a passionate one, a planatory, striving for clarity, direct- sweat on the forehead of the witness? headline-grabbing lede or a blurb, the ness, comprehensibility, relevance and At the 12 frowning jurors? At the statue obit or the “brite,” the pyramid or the utility. Writers who work well in this of blind justice on the courthouse steps? nut graf. The clearest news story re- mode have a keen sense of audience, Those are the decisions that reporters quires as much craft as the most pow- who take on the narrative style must erful narrative. make as they convey news to their If we focus on the needs of those we Reporting with readers and viewers. serve, instead of debating the methods civic clarity is a To all ye who enter this craft, I say, we use, we’ll all be better off. Embrac- abandon the false dichotomy of writ- ing the false dichotomy while aban- journalist’s ing and reporting. Good writing and doning our overriding mission is not primary duty, good reporting reinforce each other. only foolhardy but shortsighted. ■ which leaves plenty Period. Recently, we in the business have Roy Peter Clark is a writer and of room for the been acting as though the only cheat- teacher of writing at the Poynter telling of ‘real’ ers in American journalism are the prac- Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. stories. titioners of narrative. In fact, narrative He is the founding director of the writers such as Walt Harrington, Tom National Writers Workshop and French, Anne Hull, Mark Bowden, Tom author of “Coaching Writers.” Hallman, Jon Franklin, Isabel Through his writing and coaching, Wilkerson, and many others never need Clark has helped to reinvent the are able to transcend jargon, set a steady to “pipe” a story because of the power nonfiction newspaper serial. In pace, eliminate clutter, compile lists, of their direct observation. Each of 1999, his serialized novel was syndi- take care with numbers, and also dis- them engages skillfully in the practice cated by The New York Times to 25 cover and communicate the impact. of immersion reporting, gaining direct newspapers. Reporting with civic clarity is a access to events as they unfold and the journalist’s primary duty, which leaves characters involved. The cheaters are plenty of room for the telling of “real” more likely to be reporting from their stories. And narrative strategies are tried desks or their heads, or not at all.

12 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism The Verdict Is in the 112th Paragraph In a narrative serial of a murder trial, news is differently defined.

By Thomas French

he idea was simple but subver- ing and falling action—could be ap- sive. Neville Green, my editor at plied just as powerfully to daily jour- Tthe St. Petersburg Times, called nalism. Was that true? Valessa’s case one day and pitched it. There was a would allow us the chance to find out. murder case in Tampa. Valessa It would also give us an opportunity to Robinson, a 15-year-old girl from an test some hallowed assumptions about upper middle class suburb, was ac- newsgathering. cused—along with her boyfriend and In the months before the trial, in another friend—of killing her mother between other assignments, we edu- and then fleeing across the country cated ourselves on the case. We read with the mom’s ATM card and minivan. the court file, interviewed anyone who After a dramatic chase and shootout on would talk to us; Sue and Anne even a lonely stretch of Texas highway, the rented a minivan and retraced the route three of them had finally been arrested. that Valessa and her two friends had The case struck a nerve with our taken on their flight from Florida to readers, many of whom recognized Texas. When Valessa’s boyfriend went their own families in the details sur- Valessa Robinson and her mother, Vicki. to trial first, we used it as a dry run, rounding the crime. The victim, 49- Photo by Theresa Goscinski, courtesy of the imagining how we would render each year-old Vicki Robinson, was a divorced St. Petersburg Times©. day’s action and how it would differ real estate agent, trying to raise two from a typical trial story. When the teenage daughters and make a new life third teenager who’d been arrested for herself. For years she and Valessa The truth was, I was terrified. For changed his plea and agreed to testify had waged the usual parent-teen the past 15 years, I had been assigned for the prosecution, we interviewed battles; then Valessa had become ob- to serial narratives here at the Times. I him at length, looking for details that sessed with the new boyfriend and the had written about police investigations, could be woven into our daily cover- conflict had escalated. A few months high school students, preschool chil- age. later, Vicki was dead, her body found dren, Southeast Asian immigrants, the Slowly our strategy took shape. Early stuffed in a garbage can, and Valessa love life of an exorcist. But in each of on, we decided that our primary focus and the boyfriend were in jail. these projects, I had been given months, would not be Valessa and the boy- Neville’s proposal: When the case sometimes even years, to immerse friend, not even Valessa and her mother, went to trial, why not cover it like a myself inside the lives of my subjects but Valessa herself. When in doubt, serial narrative? Write it live, but treat and then try to capture some of what I our eyes would be turned toward her. each day’s story like the latest chapter found on paper. The other people in the story, espe- in an unfolding saga. No news ledes. Anne and Sue had also written serial cially Vicki Robinson, were all undeni- No nut grafs. No concessions to the narratives; one of Anne’s projects, ably important. In the end, though, conventions of traditional newswriting. chronicling the struggles of Mexican Valessa was the one whose behavior Just pure storytelling, delivered within migrant workers, was a Pulitzer finalist was the most inexplicable, the one the constraints of a daily deadline. this year. Both of them knew what it whom everyone craned to see when- Neville wanted three writers for the was like to assemble something so ever she stepped into court. She was project. Aside from me, he was asking massive—some of the serials we’ve the mystery at the heart of it all, the Sue Carlton, our veteran courts re- published are book length—and find a unanswered question that drove the porter in Tampa, and Anne Hull [Hull, way to make it read. story. a 1995 Nieman Fellow, now works at Now Neville was daring us to try it We also decided that we weren’t The Washington Post], one of our na- without a net. going to hold anything back in the tional reporters. For years, he had heard me telling writing. If the judge or one of the “What do you think?” Neville said. other reporters that the techniques lawyers let something controversial slip “Sure,” I said, gulping. used in serials—dialogue, scenes, ris- out in an offhand moment—the kind

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 13 Narrative Journalism of casual comment that reporters some- thought, always, in terms of scenes— to write with authority. Anne, who has times keep out of their stories, for fear scenes that could open and close the a gift for muscular, dead-on observa- of alienating sources—we were going different sections, scenes that defined, tions, energized every chapter with her to put it in. Those kinds of moments scenes that could anchor the entire descriptions. One passage, where she were exactly what we were after. We day. We also kept an eye out for the sketched a portrait of the unruly halls weren’t just going to show the action daily title. With narrative, good titles of the courthouse, was so electric it in court; we would also let readers are extremely important; they can set a made me laugh out loud with pleasure. overhear what was being said in the tone, frame the action, invite the reader As someone who loves story me- hallways, in the defense attorneys’ of- into the story. chanics, part of my job was to come up fices, even in the bathrooms outside One of our more effective efforts, I with an outline for each day’s chapter. the courtroom. think, came early in the sec- We wanted it all. ond week of the trial, on the One other decision was critical. With day when the prosecution the permission of Paul Tash, the played an audiotape of newspaper’s Editor and President, we Valessa’s alleged confession agreed to let the events unfold in the to her mother’s murder. As stories the way they unfolded in court. the jurors heard Valessa’s If Valessa stood up late one afternoon voice, describing matter-of- and announced she was ready to tes- factly how she had stabbed tify, we would not describe that mo- her mother, they looked ment until late in that day’s story. What- across the courtroom and saw ever the “news” of the day was, it would Valessa listening along. On be revealed gradually. the tape, she was talking In the final weeks before the trial, about all the blood that had we went into overdrive, finishing two poured from her mother’s lengthy chapters that gave the back- throat; at the defense table, ground of the case and established she was dressed, for the first some of the themes we thought were time during the trial, in a soft most likely to be played out in court. white sweater. These two chapters were published We couldn’t prove that her just as jury selection began. Then we lawyers had purposely saved plunged into the live reporting and this outfit for the day the ju- writing. rors would hear the tape. We The trial lasted for two weeks. At didn’t have to. Staged or not, first, Sue and Anne and I tended to the juxtaposition—the shock- clump together, with the three of us ing red of the blood, against sitting in court at the same time. As the the virginal cast of Valessa’s days wore on, though, we learned to clothing—encapsulated the spread out. One of us was always in the tension of the entire case. Valessa Robinson in court. Photo by Jamie Francis, courtroom, taking notes on the case as Our title for that chapter was courtesy of the St. Petersburg Times©. it was presented to the jury. Often, “The Girl in White;” the photo though, the other two were off some- that ran underneath it where else, pursuing the rest of the showed Valessa crying, her lead attor- Early every afternoon, usually by the story. We hung out with the lawyers ney comforting her like a surrogate end of lunch, I took whatever we had during lunch breaks and after hours; mother. and broke it down into sections, with a we sat in the halls and listened to the Luckily for us, we had lots of help: a clear beginning, middle and end. (At tears of Vicki Robinson’s mother (who researcher, a transcriber, a designer, a that point, some of these sections were also is Valessa’s grandmother). One team of extremely patient copy edi- just guesses, based on our understand- morning, I met with Charles Robinson, tors, plus two of the paper’s most re- ing of what would happen later that Valessa’s father, at dawn and rode with sourceful photographers. As for the day.) I pushed for us to start each him as he drove to court, talking about writers, we tried to take advantage of installment quietly, with some small his daughter. our individual strengths. Sue, a terrific moment or scene, then let the action We thought of each day as a chapter reporter who knew everything about take off, ranging inside and outside the unto itself, with its own emotions and everyone on her beat, down to the courtroom and back and forth between rhythms, crescendos and revelations. names of the lawyers’ pets, had aston- those who were on hand to support We looked for flashes of insight, mo- ishing access; many people would talk Valessa and those who had come to ments that went against the grain, to her, and no one else. Also, her ency- mourn Vicki. glimpses beneath the surface. We clopedic knowledge allowed all of us Usually these outlines had to be

14 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism revised. Things changed; some parts of claustrophobic room, closing in on a wanted to see what we could pull off the plan simply didn’t work. But by decision. The verdict itself was revealed under a daily deadline. Would we be early evening, we always had a fairly on the third jump page, in the 112th able to organize each installment with detailed blueprint for the writing. We paragraph. any coherence or resonance? Would all divided the sections among the three Some people in our newsroom, see- the chapters hang together and read of us, then hurried to our computers ing the story, were aghast. Our readers, like one flowing story? The answer, we and wrote. Usually we turned in our however, were enthralled. Although found, was yes. sections just in time for our first dead- we had braced for an outcry from You’ll notice that I haven’t told you line at 9:30 p.m.; then, we would huddle people who preferred a more tradi- the verdict. I also haven’t revealed what over printouts and polish feverishly tional approach, in the end we re- happened to the boyfriend or to the until the final edition deadline at 12:30 a.m. (or whenever the copy desk told us enough). In the months of preparing for the story, we had worried endlessly about how to weave our different writing styles into one unified voice. But on deadline, when we were throwing it all together, there was almost no time to think about it. Something interesting happened, though. Without knowing it, we began to take on traces of one another’s voices. Knowing that Anne would hector me into cutting any verb she considered substandard (“too cheesy,” she’d say), I automatically worked harder on my word selection. Knowing that I would tell her to stop trying to cram too many points into each section, Anne automatically be- gan to write her parts more simply. Somewhere late in the first week, we realized that somehow we had all be- gun writing in a hybrid voice. Assistant Public Defender Dee Ann Athan urges potential jurors to leave their opinions Each day’s story was anywhere from outside the courtroom. “Can you be a clean slate for Valessa?” she asked one during 2,000 to 3,000 words. Each started on questioning. “I’m Valessa’s voice.” Photo by Tony Lopez, courtesy St. Petersburg Times©. the front page, then jumped inside, usually to a double-truck. Throughout the trial, we stuck to our original deci- ceived hundreds of calls, letters and e- other defendant, why Vicki Robinson sion to never give away the day’s action mails, praising the coverage. A grand was killed, whether Valessa was telling at the top. We did publish a brief daily total of two readers complained that the truth on the audiotape. Those an- summary of the testimony, but it was we’d buried the news. swers are best left to the series itself, presented as a sidebar, on the jump. In What did we learn? First, I think it’s which can be found on our paper’s the text of the stories themselves, we clear that we have more freedom to Web site, at www.sptimes.com. simply let events roll forward. experiment than we realize, especially The story is far more compelling The biggest test of this approach in a story like this, in which the case than my attempt here to explain it. As came with the verdict story. We opened was covered exhaustively on TV and always, narrative is its own best argu- not with the verdict, but with a scene the Internet. By the time our readers ment. ■ from a department store the evening picked up the paper, many of them before, where the defense lawyers already knew the crux of the previous Thomas French, a reporter for the St. shopped for a new outfit for their cli- day’s action. We wrote our chapters Petersburg (Fla.) Times, was ent. (How they presented Valessa in accordingly. awarded the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for court turned out to be one of the more The second lesson—the lesson that Feature Writing for a seven-part fascinating elements of the case.) Then sticks with me—was that narrative holds serial narrative. we took the readers through the final possibilities that we have only begun hours of deliberations, the two sides to explore. True, it’s great to have weeks waiting in the corridors of the court- or months to write; there are many house, the 12 jurors locked in their advantages to that kind of time. But we

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 15 Narrative Journalism ‘Just Write What Happened.’ Imposing a narrative structure doesn’t always work.

By William F. Woo

any years ago, in his book “Pub- want to explain the why and the how other sources for answers to the end- lic Opinion,” Walter Lippmann and the implications of the event and less questions with which he probed Mdistinguished truth from jour- to provide background, context and my reporting. Finally, with deadline nalism. His conclusion was not a happy detail. In other words, they want to do looming, he asked for my lede. Never one for journalists, and it remains par- much more. having studied journalism or written ticularly difficult—and cautionary—for That is, even though the absolute anything more than a one-paragraph those who would write in the narrative truth is beyond them, good journalists obituary set in agate, I confessed miser- form. want to organize and present the facts ably that I did not know what one was. The function of truth, Lippmann so readers can apprehend a reliable Lyle regarded me kindly. “Bill,” he said, was to bring hidden facts to light picture of reality. The journalist says, said, “just write what happened.” and set them in relation to one another “These facts and the way I set them So there in four words was Lyle’s to produce “a picture of reality upon down tell you what went on when the Law: Just write what happened. Sooner which men can act.” By “act,” I infer school board met last night, or when or later, he made it a lifetime’s lesson him to mean making the political, eco- two cars collided on Route 21, or when for all of his reporters. nomic, social and personal decisions the plant shut down and moved to Lyle was not an epistemologist, but that are a part of the lives of free people. Asia. You can depend on it.” his mandate to just write what hap- pened requires a journalist to make a expedition into the reality of the event …if journalists imagine that all they need for at hand—the school board meeting, the fatal out on Route 21, the closing of an effective narrative is to apply to their the shoe factory. Unless you under- reporting the sequence and elements of stand the what of the event, and can ‘storytelling,’ they are mistaken. explain it in words that neither add to nor subtract from its meaning, you can never give readers a usable picture of reality. Never mind giving them the Without having such a picture of reality Many reporters and editors know truth. provided, these decisions cannot be about Lippmann, the journalist-phi- I said at the outset that Lippmann’s made with any confidence. losopher, but unless they worked long concept was particularly difficult for The function of journalism, ago for the Kansas City Times they journalists who would write in the nar- Lippmann went on, was that of “signal- probably have not even heard of an rative form. Certainly it does not pre- izing events.” Here, the dictionary leads Assistant City Editor named Ray Lyle clude them from doing narrative sto- me to conclude he had in mind making who trained a generation of reporters. ries that are powerful, honest and a joy events known clearly or drawing atten- Lyle was unshaven, profane, cigar chew- to read. Some very good journalism is tion to them. In a simpler way, I think ing (and spitting), and I wonder if he done that way. But if journalists imag- of Lippmann’s signalizing as the ways went to college. Certainly, he was as ine that all they need for an effective in which journalists take care of who, different from the urbane, Harvard- narrative is to apply to their reporting what, when and where. educated Lippmann as anyone could the sequence and elements of When I said that Lippmann’s formu- imagine. Yet Lyle’s Law, as I call it, “storytelling,” they are mistaken. Lyle’s lation was an unhappy one for journal- offers journalists a way of achieving Law tells you why. ists, I wasn’t implying that journalists Lippmann’s objective of assembling Narrative derives from the Latin assert a special claim on the truth. facts into a picture of reality upon which “narrare,” to tell the particulars of an Good reporters and editors understand people can act. event. that the whole truth is always beyond On a December night in 1957, I was In this sense, narrative journalism them and that even fragments of truths a young reporter struggling over a com- coexists easily with Lippmann and Lyle. are not easy to capture and represent plicated obituary that would be my first Telling the particulars is telling what accurately. But good journalists, too, story on Page 1. For hours, Lyle had happened, and the narrative form is are unsatisfied with merely “signaliz- made me call the family, the police, the one way to do it. But it is a limited way, ing” who, what, when and where. They coroner, the fire department, and many fraught with difficulties. 16 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism

One trouble is that narrative jour- nalism is not regarded as merely con- If we allow ourselves to simplify the reality for veying the particulars of an event. Jour- nalists know it as a form of writing the purpose of storytelling, then we run the aimed at storytelling. It is usually se- risk of turning it into a cartoon or caricature. It quential and anecdotal, so as to intro- might be entertaining, but it is scarcely a duce real people and their actual expe- riences. By its nature, it subordinates reality upon which anyone can act. ideas (particularly those involving sta- tistics and facts) to drama and conflict. Since the narrative is aimed at storytelling, it is concerned with begin- Even with individual experiences “this works and that doesn’t” to “it’s nings, middles and endings and plots (those, say, of a single parent striving much too soon to tell, but this is what’s developed through the action and dia- for economic self-sufficiency), the be- happened so far,” but the latter is more logue—just like the well made short ginning may lie in murkiness or contra- faithful to Lippmann and Lyle. And story that literature students study. dictions, and the end of the story may more honest, too. Readers remember stories, journalists not be evident for many years. Writing If you think that these reflections are told. Start them with a scene that what happened is not as easy as it are leading to a rousing reaffirmation holds their attention. Don’t write, “A might seem. of the old pyramid news story, you 17-year-old youth suffered head inju- Lyle’s Law imposes rigorous require- would be wrong. As the linguist Geor- ries yesterday while climbing a hill on ments on reporters who would attempt gia Green pointed out in a report sev- his family’s farm. A female companion to bring their reporting to readers eral years ago to the American Society also fell but was unhurt.” Write, “Jack through narrative. They need to have of Newspaper Editors, the disjointed and Jill went up the hill….” scrupulous professional integrity and structure of the standard or traditional Even in the hands of the most as- also intellectual humility. As reporters, news story often makes it hard to un- siduous and perceptive reporter, facts we are almost always dealing with lim- derstand. In imposing an order on a set gathered are likely to be incomplete, ited knowledge and even the most of facts, the narrative technique is an unconnected and susceptible to many obvious story is often more compli- effort to make stories more understand- interpretations. The narrative strands cated than it appears, the deeper we able—and hence more interesting. necessary to reconcile all these things look into it. If we allow ourselves to That’s all to the good. Journalism badly are not easily handled. This is why simplify the reality for the purpose of needs clarity. frequently the narrative approach is storytelling, then we run the risk of We mislead our readers, however, abandoned once the going gets heavy turning it into a cartoon or caricature. when in the name of producing an and why stories with anecdotal begin- It might be entertaining, but it is scarcely interesting story we superimpose an nings are so full of disposable people, a reality upon which anyone can act. arbitrary order on an incomplete selec- characters thrown away as soon as their For these reasons (and others), I tion of facts and present it as the real- work of getting readers into the story is also am skeptical of the so-called “solu- ity—as the what that happened. In finished. You can think of them as the tions journalism.” Serious problems— doing so I think we also can mislead dusting maids who start a play. If Jack whether social, economic or political— ourselves into imagining—and even and Jill introduced a story about agri- rarely are solved quickly enough for worse, believing—that life divides cultural accidents, we might be left to the rhythms and pronouncements of neatly into beginnings, middles and wonder forever about them once she daily journalism. We may imagine that ends and plots and characters that de- came tumbling after. the story ends, but time has its way of velop as events unfold. Further, though reporters may frame playing tricks with our conclusions. That is not a reality upon which stories in a narrative form, they may Think of penicillin. Not too long ago, journalists should act. It is the way not have been there at the beginning or journalists described it as a miracle novelists and short story writers pro- the end of whatever they’re writing healer. Now we hear constantly about duce their realities about the human about, and perhaps not much of the all sorts of new drug-resistant bugs. condition, but the last time I checked, middle, either. Research can give them Journalists do not write the first we, as journalists, were still supposed an idea of the beginning, and they can draft of history. They write about a slice to be about nonfiction. ■ guess at the end. That, and what they of events from one of many perspec- saw of the middle, might be the best tives of time and space. The good news William F. Woo, a 1967 Nieman they can do. is that sometimes this gives readers a Fellow, was a reporter and editor What, for example, is the story o f t h e useful sense of at least a part of what for 39 years before retiring as editor recent changes in the welfare system? happened. We need, though, to be of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in We might need to wait several genera- careful of the inherent claims we make 1996. Since then he has taught jour- tions to know it well enough to write for our work. Readers (and the editors nalism in the Department of Com- about it in a truly comprehensive way. who assign stories) may well prefer munication of Stanford University.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 17 Narrative Journalism The State of Narrative Nonfiction Writing

On May 6, 2000, the Nieman Foundation and Columbia constructing a central narrative, setting scenes, depicting multidimensional University’s Graduate School of Journalism convened a characters and, most important, telling the story in a compelling voice that the reader will want to hear. panel of journalists to discuss narrative journalism. This Nabokov, it will come as no surprise, had the most illuminating remarks event occurred during a two-day conference focused on about narrative. He wrote, “The term ‘narrative’ is often confused with the nonfiction writing that was part of the 2000 Lukas Prize term ‘plot,’ but they’re not the same thing. If I tell you that the king died, and Project Conference. This project honors the work and life then the queen died, that’s not narrative; that’s plot. But, if I tell you that the of J. Anthony Lukas, who won two Pulitzers, the second king died, and then the queen died of a broken heart, that’s narrative.” for his narrative book “Common Ground,” in which he So then, narrative nonfiction bridges those connections between events explored the personal and political dynamics of Boston’s that have taken place, and imbues them with meaning and emotion. And this school desegregation crisis through the lens of three is the genre of nonfiction writing that Tony Lukas cared so passionately about and so classically embodied in all of his work—in newspapers, magazines families’ experiences. and books. Robert Vare, senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly The current publishing climate for long-form narrative nonfiction, it who teaches a seminar on narrative nonfiction writing seems to me, is a decidedly mixed one. To sum up, one of narrative writers’ at the Nieman Foundation, moderated a panel two traditional sources of support, the magazine industry, has been undergo- discussion about narrative writing in books, magazines ing some unhappy cultural shifts of late. General interest magazines, in and newspapers. Participants on the panel included particular, have been weakened and show few signs of rebirth as a sanctuary Walter Kirn, contributor to Time and literary editor of for the narrative form. On the other hand, prospects for narrative nonfiction GQ, Alma Guillermoprieto, author and staff writer for writers in the other traditional source, book publishing, are exceptionally strong right now, as any glance at the weekly bestseller list over the last five The New Yorker, Michael Kelly, editor in chief of The or 10 years will attest. Atlantic Monthly, and Jack Hart, writing coach for The And in an equally exciting development, newspapers, which are energeti- Oregonian. Edited excerpts from their remarks follow. cally looking for ways to reinvent themselves and halt declining readership in an age of new media and the Internet, are increasingly embracing the narrative form, dedicating more and more space to features and multi-part series that put a premium on storytelling. Robert Vare: Welcome to the third and final panel of the J. Anthony Lukas First, let’s deal with the magazine picture. There are exceptions, of course. Prize Project Nonfiction Writers Conference. Our panel will attempt to assess On occasion, the better regional publications like Texas Monthly and Phila- the health and well-being of long-form narrative writing in the worlds of delphia magazine still manage to publish narrative writing. Outside magazine, books, magazines and newspapers. once you negotiate all that service material about backpacks and hiking boots, is also a fairly reliable source of high-quality narrative with such contributors Each member of this panel, I think it’s fair to say, is deeply committed to as Jon Krakauer, David Quammen, Tim Cahill, and Sebastian Junger. narrative journalism. But each is also fully aware that this most challenging Every once in awhile a national magazine will spring a major narrative of nonfiction forms is also tremendously difficult to shepherd into print. We’ll surprise, like Rolling Stone a few years ago, with this haunting piece by a attempt to explore some of these challenges and also try to raise some key writer named John Colapinto about the tragic life of an intersexual called “The questions: What is the current marketplace for narrative nonfiction writing in True Story of John/Joan,” which recently was published as a full-length book. books, magazines and newspapers? Is there an audience for narrative? And if Then there was Michael Paterniti’s wild cross-country car ride a couple of so, who is that audience? Who are the writers, and what are the publications, years ago with a large chunk of Einstein’s brain encased in formaldehyde in that can be considered standard-bearers of this narrative form? And finally, the trunk of his car, while the Princeton pathologist who had stolen that brain what is the future of narrative writing? What new directions does narrative during an autopsy in the 1950’s rode in the passenger seat. They were on their writing seem to be taking? way to deliver the brain to one of Einstein’s nieces who lived in Berkeley, First, let’s try to get one troublesome piece of business out of the way as California, who by the way didn’t seem at all interested in repossessing this quickly as we can. What do we mean by the term “narrative nonfiction”? And organ. That, too, is now a book, and American road literature will never be is it the same or different from other terms that are in use, like “literary the same. journalism,” or “creative nonfiction,” or “extended digressive narrative And whenever I think of exemplary narrative writing of the last few years nonfiction”? in the magazine world, I think of David Foster Wallace’s dazzling tours de To me these semantic wrestling matches that go on are a complete waste force in Harper’s, in which he relates his angst-ridden experiences aboard a of time. I think what each term suggests is that this is essentially a hybrid form, cruise ship. He takes a seven-day cruise and pays an incredible psychic price a marriage of the art of storytelling and the art of journalism—an attempt to as a result. And then at the Illinois State Fair, Wallace also examines the notion make drama out of the observable world of real people, real places, and real of fun, and poses the question, “Can manufactured fun ever really be fun?” events. It’s a sophisticated form of nonfiction writing, possibly the highest Besides Harper’s and Outside, other magazines that occasionally venture form that harnesses the power of facts to the techniques of fiction— into the narrative arena are Esquire, which has been somewhat revitalized

18 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism under a new editor in recent years, and an unlikely place, but one which has being in the midst of something of a golden age. Anyone scanning the book consistently published high-quality narrative nonfiction over the years, Sports reviews and bestseller lists of the last few years will encounter one example Illustrated. Earlier this month, Sports Illustrated was once again honored at after another of strong narrative nonfiction, from Jon Krakauer’s spellbinding the National Magazine Awards for a feature writing award to the talented Gary adventure tales, “Into Thin Air” and “Into the Wild,” to Jonathan Harr’s Smith, who I think is one of the most underappreciated writers in this country compelling portrait of that Byzantine world of plaintiffs’ attorneys in “A Civil because he’s sort of pigeonholed as a sports writer. But this was a piece that Action.” To Simon Winchester’s fascinating account of the making of the grew out of his examining a photograph of the Texas Christian University Oxford English Dictionary, “The Professor and the Madman.” To Mark locker room before a climactic Cotton Bowl game against Syracuse and the Bowden’s electrifying reconstruction of the battle of Mogadishu in his book, great Jim Brown who was playing for Syracuse. Smith went and interviewed “Black Hawk Down.” [See Bowden’s article about transforming this newspa- everybody who was in that photograph in the locker room and talked to them per series into an Internet narrative on page 25.] To Sebastian Junger’s about how their lives had decisively changed from that moment as they left the disaster-at-sea drama, “The Perfect Storm.” And to the rich portrait of locker room. It was just a brilliant piece of narrative writing. Savannah’s gay subculture in John Berendt’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good But, in general, magazines have been letting down the cause of narrative and Evil,” which, notwithstanding the author’s troubling admissions about for years, as general-interest publications, which were once the driving force playing fast and loose with chronologies and facts, occupied a lofty position behind America’s fascination, you might even say love affair, with this kind of on the bestseller list for a record-shattering five years. writing seem to be making a retreat from long-form storytelling. In the 60’s, Each of these books combines strong commercial appeal with assured 70’s and 80’s general-interest magazines with major national audiences— writing, suspenseful storytelling and provocative insights into human behav- The New Yorker under William Shawn, Esquire under Harold Hayes, Harper’s ior under the most stressful of conditions. Add to these examples two path- under Willie Morris, Rolling Stone under Jann Wenner—all provided fertile breaking books in the literary memoir genre, Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s breeding grounds for narrative writing. Norman Mailer’s “The Armies of the Ashes” and Mary Karr’s “The Liar’s Club.” Those two books certainly touched Night,” David Halberstam’s “The Best and the Brightest,” Michael Herr’s off, for better and, in many cases, for worse, a virtual self-revelation industry “Dispatches,” Tracy Kidder’s “The Soul of a New Machine,” to name just a few in publishing. But I think with all these books we see a very clear demonstra- of the many examples of narrative writing from those years, were all major tion that contemporary readers, despite all the competition for their time, do works of narrative nonfiction that actually originated as magazine pieces. Now and will respond to true tales that are well told. we seem to go the other way where it’s the book contract that initiates the All of these books generated broad, popular interest and, for the most narrative nonfiction, and magazines pick up excerpts from those about-to-be- part, critical success as well, providing substantial rewards not only for their published books. authors, but for the cause of narrative itself. The upshot, I think, is that So I think it would be hard to argue with the conclusion that magazines narrative nonfiction writers today have much less trouble getting their work have essentially abdicated their traditional role as custodians of this form. Part published in books than they’ve ever had in the past. And certainly much less of the reason is certainly economics. For a long time, general-interest trouble than they do in the magazine world. publications have been shrinking, and in some notable cases, dying off On the newspaper front, the last decade appears to have been a healthy and altogether. And of those that are left, few are financially self-sufficient. In even exhilarating time for narrative writing. Many newspapers, though response to dwindling ad pages and correspondingly pinched editorial space, certainly by no means all, are now freeing up their best writers to work on a editors are redefining their magazines around articles that are shorter, faster single ambitious article or series of articles—to devote weeks, and some- and, therefore, cheaper to produce, more reactive to the news. Topicality is times even months, to research and reporting, structuring and conceptualiz- becoming de rigueur. And magazines today are much more unapologetically ing, writing and rewriting. Even in an era of budget tightening, newspaper preoccupied with the worlds of power and celebrity than they used to be. editors seem increasingly willing to subsidize the time and travel costs of these They seem increasingly reluctant to afford their writers the big blocks of projects and to give writers a wealth of space to tell their stories in depth. total-immersion reporting time that are essential to produce ambitious And, I think, for their part, newspaper writers are so eager to break away narrative work. As Richard Ben Cramer, the author of a great piece of political from inverted pyramids and tired feature writing formulas, they seem to be narrative, “What It Takes,” a book about the 1988 presidential campaign, responding to their newfound freedoms with some unusually creative uses of once put it to me in that wonderfully gruff voice of his, “The dirty little secret narrative. And, I think, with the most recent Pulitzer announcements we saw of magazine publishing today is that nobody wants to pay for the reporting. two examples: Kate Boo’s series in The Washington Post about the treatment And that’s why most magazines today aren’t worth a damn.” of the mentally handicapped in group homes in Washington; and J.R. Another factor in the de-narrativizing of magazines has to do with Moehringer’s piece in the Los Angeles Times, a long piece about a Southern changing perceptions about readers and their attention spans. Many maga- community inhabited by the descendants of slaves. Both of these pieces were zines editors have just decided that readers are simply too busy, overloaded shot through with narrative technique. by too many competing claims on their schedules. And that these readers will So, just to conclude, if the 1980’s defined a streamlined razzle-dazzle have neither the time nor the inclination to wade through slow-building, newspaper era of USA Today-style news bites and factoids and charts and dramatically building narrative stories. graphs, where the sidebar became the main event, the hallmark of the last To cite perhaps the most notable case in point of this somewhat unhappy decade has been a growing fascination with long-form storytelling. These trend, I think that The New Yorker, which once virtually owned the narrative newspapers are essentially putting back the word “story” into the term nonfiction field, subsidizing the elegantly written, exhaustively researched “newspaper story,” restoring what newspaper writing had for so many years efforts of its impressive roster of narrative talents—John McPhee, Joe lacked—action, true-to-life characters, point of view, and voice—a lot of Mitchell, Jane Kramer, William Finnegan, and Susan Sheehan. The New those good things and writing techniques that, I think, only the shortsighted Yorker has, with a few exceptions, I think, backed away from publishing think belong exclusively to fiction. journalism that is driven by long-form storytelling. In book publishing, conversely, narrative nonfiction shows every sign of [Edited excerpts from the panel discussion follow.]

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 19 Narrative Journalism Talking About Narrative Journalism

Jack Hart [writing coach for The Oregonian]: We ran a narrative series give a magazine like The New Yorker, when they said, “Tell me about last week about a basketball coach and his problems with crack cocaine. My something I don’t know and transport me,” that kind of open-ended attention girlfriend was at a meeting of women who were putting together an event to they’re now giving to the movie. You’ll rent a movie and check it out, and if honor high school athletes at the local high school, and she said they talked it’s kind of boring, well, you’ll stick with it until it’s time to go to bed. But you about that series through the entire evening. She said, “You know, in five years don’t do that anymore with a magazine. You expect a written article to deliver that I’ve been going to those things, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard anybody much faster and much more sharply, I think, than you used to, or one used talk about a story.” I think there are some universal human themes in good to as a reader. narratives that take real events in the real world and make them meaningful to all of us. In newspaper stories, [these themes] bring in not just the public Robert Vare [senior editor, The Atlantic Monthly]: Some critics suggest affairs-oriented, older readers who are the traditional backbone of the that most of the narrative nonfiction techniques that are in use today differ very newspaper, but attract a much broader audience, maybe the folks who have little from those that were practiced in the 60’s and 70’s by Tom Wolfe, Joan been feasting on “junk narrative,” who finally get a chance to deal with a real Didion, and Gay Talese. Do you buy that proposition? Are we in an era of kind narrative. of an experimentation gap or an innovation gap? Or are writers out there that are really shaking things up and doing interesting things with this form? Or are Michael Kelly [editor in chief of The Atlantic Monthly]: There does seem we really kind of stuck in a revivalist mode at the moment? to be an increase in audience for fiction and nonfiction narrative among younger readers. We have been experimenting on our Web site, Atlantic Walter Kirn [contributing writer to Time and literary editor of GQ ]: It’s Unbound, which is mostly literary in nature, with some politics, but also a my contention that we don’t live in a very experimental time, literature-wise, good deal of writing and talking about writing narrative. It’s very popular with in fiction. How could it be that radical in nonfiction? I mean, the 60’s and 70’s a much younger crowd than reads the print magazine. In fact, it drives were times of invention of meta-narrative. We had Goddard films that took subscriptions to the print magazine at a very interesting clip, like 300 or 400 everything, cut it up into a million pieces, and threw it up in the air. We live new subscriptions each month. These are what we think of as quality in a very conventional time, aesthetically, when it comes to storytelling. I’ve subscriptions, people who actually want to get the magazine, care passion- noticed this in novels, and I think it’s probably true in nonfiction…. I don’t ately about it. know that we have a healthy and confident enough atmosphere in general to Walter [Kirn] talked about people’s hunger to get away from this awful support much real innovation. It’s going to be a while. As Michael [Kelly] said, bombardment of topicality, and to be told what they used to be told: stories once we’re fully engaged in telling stories again for their own sake, and once about things they didn’t already know. And there’s a whole range of stories out the audience has once again been trained to respond to storytelling form, we’ll there. The New Yorker used to own [this kind of story], especially with the have people who shake it up. But a little neoclassicism first wouldn’t hurt. I kind of stuff that Joe Mitchell would go out and do. He would go to a sea turtle wish I could be the one who’s out there in the avant-garde discovering strange farm or would go and spend time with a street corner preacher who was new narrative geniuses. But they don’t seem to be out there, probably because waging a campaign to get rid of vulgar language in New York City, a failed they’re not indulged, and probably because the aesthetic culture of the culture campaign, as it turned out. These were stories that had absolutely nothing to in general doesn’t support them…. do with topicality, had nothing to do with celebrity news in any conventional I think we live in a fairly politically and culturally complacent and sense, and were only nonfiction in the most generous sense of the term. They quiescent time. I don’t think those edges or borders are being pushed yet…. were as much fiction as nonfiction, I think, and stood on their own legs simply A lot of this is a feature of not having great stories to tell. There is not a Vietnam as stories and were, by definition, fresh to everybody. No one knew any of it War going on. You have to seek far and wide to find some of these stories now. before. And the immense confidence that The New Yorker had then to simply There is not a march on the Pentagon or a riot at the next political convention. tell stories and let them stand on the strength of storytelling and the Political convention reporting as a barometer of nonfiction narrative in magazine’s understanding that this would be terrifically rewarded, that’s still general is probably a good thing to look at. You had an entire genre of books true today. that was generated out of going to the convention and telling the story of the What isn’t true [any longer] is that people are given those stories, at least, candidates and the deals, and so on. And just as the political conventions have as often as they used to be. It is much harder, I think, for a writer to go to an ceased to have much of a story to them, so has the writing about them. editor at most magazines now and get a story [assignment] about nothing in Naturally, you can’t detach the storytelling from the stories. And if our stories particular, except, “I want to go to a sea turtle farm and write it up.” I found are less complex and perhaps less gripping and overwhelmingly emotional, as a writer immense resistance by editors in all sorts of areas. Generally, many so will the writing be. That’s a matter of history, not any lack of effort. editors are resistant to anything that could not be packaged as a profile of some sort, centered on one person of news interest. I think magazines, Alma Guillermoprieto [author and staff writer for The New Yorker]: I writers, editors, who recover what Walter was talking about, the sense of want to disagree strenuously. We’re all a bunch of old fogies sitting here, all telling people stories they don’t already know, will be terrifically rewarded. from the previous millennium. And if there is an innovative storytelling form There’s a great audience out there waiting for that. going on, we don’t know about it because we’re not on the Internet. I think the great competitor for the reader’s time is video rental. Aside from the fact that people spend a lot of the time they used to spend reading Walter Kirn: I’m always on the Internet…. I don’t think there is anybody watching a movie at home, the kind of open-ended attention that they used to extraordinary out there. It’s too new. But when the new narrative storytelling

20 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism takes place and revives and gets its wings and gets its strength, it’s going to killed. It’s much easier for a legislator to vote against a sex offender happen on the Internet, I think, not in newspapers. We’re all holding down registration law, if he thinks there are some inequities in it, if it’s called a sex the hatches…. I think there are fantastic stories out there, but we don’t know offender registration law than if it’s called Megan’s Law. Suddenly, he’s voting how to even begin covering them. We don’t know how to begin covering the against a little girl and against the family of a little girl. There are a lot of reproductive revolution, the genetic revolution, and the information revolu- examples of this. You can take a story and use it to help people understand tion. What do we know about political conventions? And there’s all this other or think about a larger issue, or you can take a larger issue and reduce it to stuff, and it’s changing the way the world is going to be. And how do we deal a story or an anecdote. with those stories? And I think that’s one of the dangers of this.

Michael Kelly: I like the idea of some sort of brief return to the Michael Kelly: The Clinton scandals were trivialized, in my estimation, neoclassical approach. I think we’ve done plenty of experimenting in the last by their reduction to soap opera-type stories. I think that a template was 30 years, in magazine writing at least, and I think lately it’s about as much as placed over that set of events in which an affair between an intern and the the reader can bear. I know I can’t read another magazine profile that turns President, and their romantic adventures, and its discovery by a puritanical out to be largely an exploration of the writer’s inner psyche and his deep, deep prosecutor, all of which replaced that which was of real import in the story. inner joy of being in the presence of an actually beautiful movie star lady, at And so I agree that story in its most popular and broad sense often obscures lunch briefly, where she pretends to be interested in him. [See story by important matters that might otherwise be explored. At the same time, I Anthony DeCurtis about narrative celebrity stories on page 31.] We’ve had an wonder what else it is that motivates people. Bottom line, you talk about policy awful lot of indulgence on the part of writers in magazines. And it’s causing driven by anecdotes. Well, we came out of a period in which policy was driven great pain and suffering among readers. by science or research or study groups, and I don’t know that it’s that awful that it be driven by something else for a change. But I do see a way in which Jack Hart: In the newspaper world, I think we are doing some very new journalism gets together to impose broadly appealing narratives on what are things. And it’s not so much with forms, although you see newspaper writers complex and difficult matters that it prefers not to organize in more interesting using indirect characterization now, where Richard Harding Davis would ways, and the result is a Monica Lewinsky affair. have used direct characterization. So there are more modern techniques at work. One of the most exciting stories for me to read lately was on molecular Lori Olszewski [’00 Nieman Fellow and reporter at the San Francisco genetics. It was written by Jon Franklin at The (Raleigh) News & Observer Chronicle]: Jack, you named a couple of writers at your paper and a couple called “To Make a Mouse.” It’s a narrative story of one graduate student’s of writers at other papers who we have all heard of as models on this. And I quest that taught me more about what’s going on in inner cell genetics than just wanted to express a little bit of a concern that I see as a trend in our anything I’d seen in the way of straight-ahead reporting on that kind of thing. business in recent years. We tend to give those [writers] the resources to do Tom Holman has written stories about a mentally retarded boy who moved out a narrative piece. Most papers are only doing a couple of those pieces a year, and got his own apartment. He’s written stories about a deaf and blind woman and it’s a handful of people who get those resources. I say this as one of those who went to go to guide dog school to see if she could get her own guide dog. people who has gotten those resources. But I see that that very process He’s written stories about a man who took his children, who had been raised suppresses the unusual voice, the thing Michael Kelly was speaking of. Before in the inner city, back to see if they could find their rural roots in the there were so many more people contributing to that that you were more likely Mississippi delta. to develop a young talent. I just wondered what you all could offer as perhaps All those stories don’t sound like much of great significance if you just list a better model because I don’t think that the model we’re using is tapping all the topics that way, just like a story about the odyssey of a French fry doesn’t the talent out there. I think most beat reporters are totally overlooked, and we sound like much. [See story by Richard Read about his Pulitzer award- only target a few of the stars at each paper for these resources. winning narrative series about French fries on page 23.] But that’s not what they’re really about. The French fry story was about the Asian economic crisis. Jack Hart: That may be true at some papers. I certainly don’t think it’s true And those other stories were about very universal human themes that were at mine. We do all kinds of writing, some narrative, some not. Very often we tremendously significant. And in terms of the lives of readers, I think, as do a lot of deadline narratives when there’s a dramatic event. About a year and significant as the Vietnam War or any of those other big, high-profile political a half ago, we had a terrible flood in a wilderness valley that killed several stories that some of us lived through in the 60’s. white-water rafters and stranded a number of others, and created the need for some very dramatic Coast Guard rescues. Two young writers jumped in and Audience members were invited to ask questions of the panelists. did a narrative reconstruction with a young editor who was doing her first narrative reconstruction. The accident happened on Tuesday and the story Wendy Kaminer [author and contributor to The Atlantic Monthly and ran in the Sunday paper on A1. At the same time, another team of reporters The American Prospect]: I have a comment, not a question, but I would like was doing a narrative reconstruction of the ordeal of the parents of one of the to hear the panel react to it. I think there is a downside to storytelling and to Mormon missionaries who was taken hostage in the former Soviet Union. journalistic storytelling that hasn’t been addressed and that is the creation of There were a lot of people involved in narrative storytelling that we thought an anecdotally driven public policy. I’m not saying that there’s no important was meaningful for our readers. And you can do a narrative that’s daily, too. role for such stories, even in political writing. Anthony Lewis, I think, does a really good job of alerting people to the inequities of immigration law by Lori Olszewski: But what I’m asking about is how many people get the telling stories about its victims. Maybe even the Elian saga has a silver lining six months or four months, usually, a year? in that it helped Republicans discover the Fourth Amendment. But there are a lot of places where this becomes kind of dangerous. We Jack Hart: Well, thank God, not very many, because we don’t want to fill have sex offender registration laws that are named after children who are the paper with that kind of thing.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 21 Narrative Journalism

Lori Olszewski: How many long-form narratives would you run a year? be New Yorker in Colombia, say, to simply reprint translations of things that have already been written in the United States. And somehow to me that isn’t Jack Hart: Maybe 15. But that’s plenty for a paper our size. a satisfying alternative. And I think what has to happen is that maybe you would like or would be interested in going back and starting writing these pieces and Peter Howe [reporter with The Boston Globe]: One thing that Jack said publishing them and not charging very much for them. Because that’s the only really resonated with me. The Boston Globe is definitely trying to get the way it’s going to happen. That’s the only way you’re going to create some kind narrative wave, usually with considerable success. But the point Jack made of a following. that an inverted pyramid story that’s slightly off is palatable, but a narrative How clear can I make it that this is not a presumptuous thing to say? I want attempt that misses is screamingly awful. It seems like there’s a little bit of an somebody to read me in Mexico and say, “My God, I would want to do that. operating assumption that all narrative writing is good. And certainly there are I would want to write a story like that. I would want to make my living like that.” some examples of bad writing out there. I’d be very interested to hear thoughts Just to create the kind of excitement and the possibilities, and to generate the from some or all of you for tips for avoiding bad narrative writing, examples writers, and the form of looking, and the discipline of looking at things in a you’ve seen, why it went wrong, how it could have been done better. Just nonfiction, honest and disciplined way. I don’t think it’s easy. I think the guidelines for people to keep in mind to make this work. economics are against it. I think we’re poor countries, and this is a rich country. Everything I said before was just to say you live in a very rich country, Michael Kelly: I have some personal expertise in bad narrative writing, and you have that enormous privilege, and that’s what allows you to do what so I could start. When I worked at The Cincinnati Post, I worked for a you do. managing editor who lusted after the Pulitzer with every fiber of his being, every hour of the day. And I was one of those sort of pets in the newsroom who Carol Eisenberg [’00 Nieman Fellow and a reporter at Newsday]: I agree was plucked out to do Pulitzer-worthy narratives. I did four or five of them…. there has been a rebirth of narrative form in newspapers, and that when it And my greatest bad narrative happened when the opposition paper, The doesn’t work, it really doesn’t work. I think you were talking stylistically. As Cincinnati Enquirer, ran a pretty good narrative: 24 hours in the life of the a beat reporter, I’ve also seen people working under very tight deadlines with Greater Cincinnati Hospital emergency room. People were dying and things. what Michael was talking about. [These are writers without] an innate or It was sort of like “ER.” And one of my editors thought we could imitate that disciplined or seasoned feel for narrative, who go into deadline situations and or top it. And I did, with a team of reporters, but I was the proud lead writer; in a very short time attempt to write a narrative form about something that has 24 hours in the life of the Greater Cincinnati International Airport. There is a occurred, recreating dialogue and thoughts. When I know something about flaw that you will quickly get at in this idea: unless a 747 actually crashes on [the topic], I have huge ethical problems with what’s been done. It’s often not that particular day, what you have is what I wrote. Sort of like, “5:02 a.m.— only not good writing, but it’s terrible journalism. We’re also in a different It’s quiet here in terminal C. No one here but Mabel Schwartz, mopping the time speed now. Bill Kovach has a book called “Warp Speed,” and I think floor.” And then a quote: “‘Not much happening,’ said Mabel.” So I don’t competition from the Internet, from cable, has quickened news cycles so know what that tells us about tips to avoid it. But you are right that not all you’re seeing people attempt to do this without a lot of background or narrative writing is good, and when it’s bad, it is simply awful. It’s the reason experience, and sometimes news background, in very quick news cycles, and editors should be scared, I guess. getting it all wrong.

Andreas Harsono [’00 Nieman Fellow and Indonesian freelance jour- Jack Hart: Well, there’s a lot of bad journalism out there, and some of it nalist]: I would like to address the question to Alma Guillermoprieto. When is narrative. It’s been our philosophy that exactly the same ethical standards I came here last year from Indonesia, I was pretty surprised to realize that apply to writing narrative as apply to any other form of journalism. Manufac- there are so many magazines like The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic, etc., tured dialogue is beyond the pale.… Whenever possible we will do observa- here in the United States. Indonesia has no such kind of magazine, not even tional narrative. We’ll be there and see what it is we are describing. I know a single one. Of course, there are smaller, the equivalent of The Atlantic when I’m editing with a narrative writer, the most frequently asked ques- Monthly, but their subscription is pretty small, 1,000 or 1,500. You told us that tion—it is just a drumbeat—is, “How do we know this?” We make every effort in Mexico City there was an effort to set up these kind of magazines, but it failed to explain to our readers how we gathered information for a story. We will, because the market is pretty small and the cost is pretty expensive. This means at the risk of destroying the sort of dramatic force of the narrative, attribute, that a country of 100 million people, of Mexico, or 220 million people in when necessary. I just do not think that slipping into the narrative form Indonesia, cannot afford to have these kind of magazines. My question is relieves you of any of the customary journalistic responsibilities. pretty simple. What can we do? Or perhaps, is it not important to have this kind By the same token, I think a lot of journalists who are seeing new forms of magazine? in their newspapers and in other newspapers are tremendously suspicious of them, and they are rightly skeptical. And they sometimes apply standards that Alma Guillermoprieto: I think it’s tremendously important to write probably ought to be applied to some of the more traditional journalism that stories and to have narrative and to have forums where narrative can take is already appearing, much of which would be found wanting. So I think we place, and that’s why I do it. By the way, similar efforts in Colombia and similar can do good narrative storytelling in newspapers that meets the very highest efforts in Argentina haven’t failed. They’re kind of stumbling along. And I think of ethical standards, the most stringent of standards of evidence, and do them to the degree that they survive, now they’re feeling the biggest hurt in the lack very well. And I guarantee you there will be plenty of bad and ethically wanting of writers of narrative who can provide the kind of sustained, long, well written narrative done in newspapers just as well. The only thing you can do about that material that these magazines could publish. That’s one of the reasons why is to be an extremely intelligent consumer. ■ I’ve begun writing in Spanish and why I’ve begun trying to publish first in Spanish and then in English. Because the economics of the situation are such that it’s much easier for this would-be magazine, would-be Vanity Fair, would-

22 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism ‘Narrative Writing Looked Easy.’ It wasn’t, but with help the writer used French fries to explain Asia’s financial crisis.

By Richard Read

lassic nonfiction narratives have farmer’s field to a a protagonist, a quest, and a set fast-food outlet in Cof obstacles. I had all three in- the Far East. gredients in 1998, although I confess I The rejections didn’t know enough about narrative were disappointing theory to express it in even these most because it all made basic terms. perfect sense to me. The protagonist: me, a freshly French fries were a minted Nieman alumnus, easing back $2 billion Northwest into The Oregonian’s newsroom after industry bound to a magical year at Harvard. suffer as Asian mar- The quest: to explain to our readers kets tanked. The the Asian financial crisis, a looming fries’ main custom- debacle that appeared remote and for- ers in Asia were biddingly technical to most Americans. members of the A potato farmer in Dapu, China, about 240 km northwest of The obstacles: The first one emerged region’s emerging Beijing, guides his cart full of manure along a small plot of land immediately in the puzzled expres- middle class, which and places small piles for fertilization. Simplot hopes to have sion of an editor, when I announced was crucial not only potatoes grown locally for their plant that opened in Beijing in that to tell this story I wanted to follow to economic devel- 1995. Photos by Kathryn Scott-Osler©/The Oregonian. French fries halfway around the world. opment but to the I imagined that the protagonist of growth of democ- this story-behind-the-story was well racy. And after all, anyone—even a worldwide sources of food poisoning. qualified. In fact, my credentials were sleepy morning newspaper reader— A colony of Hutterites, members of a flawed. Sure, I knew a fair amount can relate to a French fry. Germanic sect reminiscent of the about Asia from eight years of report- In time an ally emerged, as happens Amish, turned out to have nursed my ing in the region during its economic to fortunate protagonists, in the form spuds from seedlings. Gaining access boom. And yes, for an English major, I of Therese Bottomly, a managing edi- to the remote colony was tricky, but knew at least something about eco- tor, who rescued my proposal. Soon not as difficult as penetrating the pub- nomics after studying at Harvard with Jack Hart, The Oregonian’s writing lic relations walls around McDonald’s, professors such as Dwight Perkins and coach and Bottomly’s colleague as man- which bought the fries. Ezra Vogel. But I had never tried to aging editor, surfaced as editor for the I rode to port on the French fry write a long-form narrative series, let project. Hart puzzled over the concept truck, which as luck would have it was alone the hybrid explanatory narrative because it didn’t fit the usual narrative driven by a Vietnam veteran. He de- that I proposed. Scene setting, for me, format. scribed Asia during the era before battle- was something I did as a cub reporter There was no main character, un- fields became trade zones. I interviewed in pyramid-style stories from the scenes less it was the inanimate spud. He the ship’s captain and met the vessel in of crimes. advised picking a particular container Hong Kong, encountering drama dur- Heck, narrative writing looked easy. of French fries to follow wherever it ing a storm. I winced when McDonald’s Tom Hallman, the master of the form went. This would at least make the diverted this shipment of fries to in our newsroom, spun out compel- story specific and real. Singapore, avoiding deteriorating con- ling narratives on everything from a On a visit to the J.R. Simplot Co. ditions in Indonesia. But I soon real- salesman who persisted despite cere- French fry factory, I found a batch of ized that the unexpected turn gave my bral palsy to a deputy district attorney fries headed for Indonesia, the nation story a good real-world twist. who prosecuted a drunken driving hardest hit by the financial downturn. Photographer Kathryn Scott-Osler case. But editors twice rejected my A shipping clerk located the growers of and I waded into the dark freezer of a proposal to explain the Asian crisis by this particular lot, using a computer McDonald’s outlet in Singapore to find tracing the path of a potato from a tracking system established to trace our potatoes’ code number marked on Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 23 Narrative Journalism the boxes. We interviewed customers, out to write the story and quickly dis- after having completed the outline of a who were startled by our interest in covered the writing of long-form narra- narrative story, I would need to re- French fries as financial clouds whirled tive journalism can be about as chal- report much of the action. Editors who around this normally placid city-state. lenging as surviving a revolution. Good haven’t worked on narrative projects The French fry narrative began to storytelling can lull you into thinking might not realize the amount of time take form. Still relying on these pota- that narratives are merely a bunch of and effort this re-reporting requires. toes as the story’s connective thread, I color interspersed with facts. Write a The problem is that a writer reporting could explain stark contrasts among piece that way, and you’ll end up with a narrative story doesn’t know what countries in a region that can appear a bedtime story. scenes will ultimately be used. So I homogenous from afar. The story could Hart helped me outline the piece in didn’t know until later to ask the farmer scenes and points. what he wore the day he planted these Each scene had to spuds, or what he taught the colony’s have a point, or we kids that morning in German class. I cut it. Hart also im- returned to the Hutterite colony and posed discipline in spent a day riding a wheat combine limiting the number with the farmer. I asked him so many of characters for seemingly irrelevant questions that he maximum effect. He might well have ejected me into the made sure that we 104-degree field. constantly oriented I struggled especially to write recon- the reader in time structed narrative, the sections in which and place. He curbed we worked to recreate scenes that had my temptation to in- occurred before I entered the French clude fascinating fry factory and began observing events French fry trivia at ev- first hand. I found myself confusing Simplot uses a storage complex in Zhuo Lu outside of Beijing. ery turn. summary narrative, which condenses The storage holds about 3,000 tons of locally grown potatoes, I tried, however events, with dramatic narrative, which and this worker earns about nine yuan per day for hauling crudely, to emulate presents vivid scenes that allow read- potatoes on his back and loading them on a truck. John McPhee. This ers to experience the story with the was a story about characters. These indelible scenes carry French fries, much as the full force of narrative storytelling, show that while French fries are the McPhee once wrote a book about or- whether fiction or nonfiction. Done ultimate uniform global product, the anges. And yet it wasn’t really about well, they pull a reader into a story so worldwide cast of characters produc- French fries. We used the spuds to pull far that he forgets his surroundings ing and marketing them could not be the reader along, but we traveled in- and remembers the point long after more diverse. The potatos’ journey tentionally out on numerous tangents. recycling the newspaper. To create such could take the reader to the heart of the Each digression aimed to teach the scenes, journalists must think like fic- growing Asian crisis. reader something about the global tion writers, considering plot, point of From Singapore, we traveled on to economy, about cur- Indonesia, arriving in time to cover the rency flows, about riots that led ultimately to President the differences be- Suharto’s resignation. In Jakarta, a tween Asian coun- Simplot manager paid a wide-eyed tries or effects of the trucker to drive a fuel tanker through financial crisis on mobs and fires to power a generator people in the United that kept McDonald’s fries frozen. States. Creating The Oregonian, a regional paper, such a meandering lacked foreign bureaus to cover daily trail was full of risks. developments in the Asian meltdown. Go too far out on a But that disadvantage gave us the luxury tangent and sud- of stepping back and putting the finan- denly you can al- cial collapse in context for readers who most hear a reader didn’t follow the breaking news. As say, “Huh? I thought Curator Bill Kovach said during our this was a story Nieman year: “These days, the context about French fries. is almost as important as the story.” Hey Martha, is ‘Jeop- Lola DuPuis has been a Simplot employee for 20 years, sorting I caught the last plane out of riot- ardy’ on yet?” through freshly cut potatoes on their way to becoming French torn Jakarta to head home. Soon I set I discovered that fries bound for McDonald’s worldwide.

24 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism view, atmosphere and tone. That’s chal- own conclusion is far from written. Jakarta’s flaming streets. Jerome Stern, lenging for those of us reared on tradi- I’ve struggled lately to fuse narrative in “Making Shapely Fiction,” says that tional news writing. writing with investigative reporting, a like a child in a tantrum, when you The narrative approach doesn’t fit pursuit that makes French fries seem want everyone’s attention you “make a every story, or even many stories. And relatively easy. Novelists don’t confront scene,” using the writer’s full comple- it raises a new set of ethical issues: By characters who decline to be identified ment of “dialogue, physical reactions, seeing events through the eyes of a or who announce halfway through the gestures, smells, sounds and thoughts.” main character, are we shortchanging book that they won’t participate. At almost three years of age, my daugh- other viewpoints? By arranging plot But daily newspapers can harness ter resorts less often to this form of points and scenes, are we bending re- the power of narrative writing. Con- expression as she learns to summarize ality to fit a preconceived narrative sider the difference between perusing experience in words. But I hope she structure? a traditional news account of a hurri- won’t forget, as I might have, that there If I had written the story you are now cane and reading, or viewing, the har- are virtues in making a scene. ■ reading in narrative, it might culmi- rowing scenes of “The Perfect Storm.” nate with a scene at the Pulitzer Prize The vast gulf between the two ap- Richard Read, The Oregonian’s awards luncheon. [Read won the 1999 proaches contains rich territory for jour- senior writer for international Pulitzer Prize for explanatory report- nalists. affairs and special projects, reported ing for his series “The French Fry Con- For inspiration, I have only to look and wrote “The French Fry Connec- nection.”] There I met McPhee, who to my daughter, who was an infant tion,” which can be read at won a Pulitzer in the same year. But my when I chased potatoes through www.pulitzer.org.

Narrative Journalism Goes Multimedia On the Web, ‘Black Hawk Down’ enhanced its credibility and the readers’ experience.

By Mark Bowden

hree years ago I wrote an ex- the battle through the eyes of the men every day. tended series of articles for The who fought it. The Web site’s rendering of the story TPhiladelphia Inquirer entitled In the three years since, “Black Hawk featured the full text of the series along “Black Hawk Down,” a detailed ac- Down” has become a bestselling book, with photographs, video and audio- count of the tragic battle on October 3, and is on its way to becoming a feature tape snippets of the battle itself and 1993 between elite American Rangers film. Its success has far happily out- interviews with key participants, maps, and the heavily armed citizenry of stripped any of our expectations. But graphics, documents. As the article Mogadishu, Somalia. one of the most remarkable things moves forward, readers can click on a While the battle had been a dramatic about the project, and one of the big variety of these hyperlinks to consult a turning point in U.S. foreign policy, reasons for its ultimate impact, is the map or hear an interview from which I particularly military policy, the full story pioneering way it was presented on extracted a quote or read a document of what happened that day had never the Internet.* Assembled by Editor Jen- that I refer to in the text. Its interactive been told. Eighteen American soldiers nifer Musser of Philly Online, the “Ask the Author” feature nearly wore were killed and 73 were wounded. Inquirer’s official Web site, the daily me out. But the Philly Online display Estimates of Somali casualties num- unfolding of the series in cyberspace offered a powerful glimpse of this bered over 1,000. No American report- during 28 days in November and De- medium’s potential for journalistic ers had been in Somalia to cover it, cember of 1997 drew in hundreds of storytelling, both heightening the ex- even though it was the most severe thousands of readers from all over the perience for readers and significantly combat involving American soldiers world. At its height, the electronic ver- enhancing the strength and credibility since the Vietnam War. I set out to sion of the story was getting 46,000 hits of my reporting. capture both the drama and the impor- tance of the episode and thought the best way to do that would be to write a * “Black Hawk Down” can be found at www.philly.com/packages/somalia/nov16/ narrative account, to tell the story of default16.asp

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 25 Narrative Journalism

to reinterview some of the scores of soldiers I had tracked down. He also obtained from the Pentagon snippets of videotape from the battle itself. We worked together to fashion a narration for the film, and Mills hired a profes- sional voice to read it. I divided my time between working on the docu- mentary and huddling with David Zucchino, my editor, to get the series in shape for the newspaper. We were pushing to get the series in the paper on time and had already decided to begin it without having the last few parts finished. Sometime that fall, Musser stopped by my desk to ask if I had any resource material she could use. “What do you want?” I asked. “Audiotapes, documents, photos, maps…everything you’ve got,” she said. There were plenty of maps, docu- American soldiers in Somalia shield themselves from the wind created by a helicopter as ments and photos in my files. Soldiers it takes off. Photo courtesy of The Philadelphia Inquirer. had been sending me snapshots they had saved from their service in Soma- I’d like to say that I planned it this an entire month it ought to exploit the lia, and Peter Tobia, an Inquirer pho- way. I am an old-fashioned newspaper story in every way possible. King envi- tographer, had traveled with me to that reporter, one who blanched 25 years sioned it as a multimedia event. He devastated country and brought back ago when the editors first announced drew in the Inquirer’s film department, an amazing portfolio. I handed them plans to replace our beloved typewrit- K-R Video, which primarily made short over. As for audiotape, I had piles of it. ers, scissors, paste pots and Wite-Out video clips for Philly Online, and pro- When I began the project the year be- with computers. Five years ago, when I ducer Chris Mills began creating a docu- fore, I had taped my interviews with started working on “Black Hawk mentary film to be aired on the local the soldiers. I eventually stopped, be- Down,” I hardly knew what the Internet PBS affiliate, WHYY, in conjunction cause the sheer number of interviews was, other than some vague techno- with the series. Public Broadcasting made transcribing the tapes too time- logical tide that someday, we were told, had an impressive history of tying to- consuming, but I still had shoeboxes would sweep away the practice of print- gether documentary TV and book pub- filled with cassette tapes at home. I had ing words on paper. By then I figured lishing, and I viewed working on a film even managed to collect bits of audio- to be long retired, if not dead and companion to the series as an exciting tape from the radio transmissions of gone. My only concern for “Black Hawk and different opportunity. soldiers during the battle, sounds that Down” was to report and write it in In those early meetings I remember captured the frenzy and terror of the such a way that it would read like good seeing Philly Online’s editor, Jennifer fight. So I swept all the tapes into a bag fiction, but would be rigorously and Musser, at the table quietly taking notes, and dumped them on Musser’s desk demonstrably true. I envisioned it as a and assumed she had a simple job— the next morning. I expected her to newspaper series for the benefit of mounting the text of the series on the complain. readers in the Philadelphia area and Inquirer’s Web site. To the extent I Instead, she was thrilled. She asked then a book that might reach a broader thought about it at all, I thought the to see my handwritten transcriptions audience. None of us at the Inquirer Web site would give readers who picked of the tapes and began painstakingly foresaw the story’s ultimate reach. up the series in midstream an opportu- studying them, finding and highlight- When we began planning the series’ nity to go back and catch up on the ing some of the most dramatic pas- publication at the Inquirer in the sum- earlier installments, which would be sages, then locating them on the audio- mer of 1997, I never even considered particularly beneficial because the story tapes. I still didn’t have a clear idea of how the story would be presented on was such a long, dramatic narrative. what she planned to do with all the the Internet. Max King, then the To make the documentary, Mills sent material. Weeks before the series was newspaper’s executive editor, and Bob cameramen to Somalia, which I had set to run, as Zucchino and I still worked Rosenthal, then his deputy (now ex- already visited to interview those who to finish it, Fred Mann, the Director of ecutive editor), decided that if the news- fought against American soldiers, and Philly Online, asked me if I would mind paper was going to run a series during dispatched crews around the country answering questions from readers on

26 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism the Internet as it unfolded. Ranjit Bhatnagar—had created an ex- “No, Gene, I’m answering the e- “We’ll probably get about a dozen or traordinary way for readers to experi- mail. If I don’t do this every morning so,” he said. ence the story of “Black Hawk Down.” I’ll never keep up with it.” I agreed. The technology of the Internet, paired For the rest of the month I was The series debuted on Sunday, No- with the creativeness of the editing completely swept up in this Internet vember 16th. The Friday before, I sat team, meant that far more could be phenomenon. The Web site vastly im- with King in his office discussing it. “I offered online to the reader than by the proved the story in several ways. It gave don’t know how this is going to be series in the newspaper. On the Web readers all over the world a chance to received,” said King, who had invested site, the story became part illustrated instantly comment—and correct. Mili- an unprecedented variety of resources book, part documentary film, part ra- tary experts are notably finicky about in the series. “If nobody is interested, dio program. It was all these things and getting the details of weaponry and we’re going to look pretty foolish with more, because it allowed readers (who equipment exactly right, and I was given a series running day after day for a at times became viewers) to explore a great number of helpful corrections. month. But you know what? If a story the story and its source material in any And because the story was mounted in like this doesn’t sell, then I’m not sure way they chose. cyberspace, instead of merely running I want to be involved in journalism any- Those who arrive at the Web site can a correction and apology the next day more.” read the story straight through and on an inside page of the newspaper, He needn’t have worried. Sales of then go back and view the audio, video, we could immediately correct the story. the newspaper jumped by 20,000 dur- photos, etc., or they can click on Readers who pointed out errors re- ing the month the series ran. Every day hyperlinks as they read and just ex- turned the next day to find them cor- my desk with piled with letters and plore at will. All of the source material, rected, with an e-mailed apology and phone messages from excited readers. things usually simply noted in agate in thanks from me. The head of the Inquirer’s circulation a bibliography or endnotes, were on This greatly enhanced the account’s department paid a rare visit to the display. Unlike the maps in the news- credibility. Instead of dealing with the newsroom, asked to meet me and shook paper, those on the Web site, designed reporter as a distant “expert,” and my hand. by Matthew Ericson, were animated. speculating on the reasons for mis- But this turned out to be only the Ericson created one that showed the takes or omissions, readers saw my smaller part of it. Jennifer Musser’s whole plan for how the Ranger raid own eagerness to simply get the story presentation of “Black Hawk Down” was supposed to have unfolded, with right, something which in my experi- was exploding on the Internet. Prior to helicopters flying in over the target ence is the primary motivation of most this series, the most heavily read story house, Rangers roping to the street, reporters. Those who sent e-mail mes- on the Web site had been an account of and trucks pulling up to load up pris- sages offering more information on the death of Richie Ashburn, the Phillies oners and soldiers and drive them away. key points in the story were contacted baseball great and popular TV an- There was a copy of the stirring hand- immediately, by phone or e-mail. nouncer, which had collected 9,000 written letter sent by the American Interactivity helped to break down the hits in a day. “Black Hawk Down” de- commander, General William F. Garri- normal wall of suspicion between sol- buted with numbers higher than that, son, the day after the fight. diers and reporters, and I found myself and with each day it kept growing, to Even more remarkable, when the suddenly offered whole new sources 15,000 a day, then 20,000 a day, then series was launched, was the interac- of information. I struggled to take ad- more. When the number of hits hit tive aspect. Those “dozen” questions vantage of them as the series unfolded 40,000, the Web site’s overworked from readers? They flowed in by the and later spent months plumbing these server crashed, forcing them to go out hundreds daily, from men who had new sources for the book version. It and buy another to handle the de- fought in the battle, from soldiers at also made the process of running the mand. The online division tracked the military bases all over the world, from story memorably fun. Instead of lean- sources of those hits to military bases, appreciative and critical readers. I sat ing back and wondering how the work government offices, universities and for hours every morning while the se- was being received, I was in an arena headquarters for some of the largest ries ran answering them one by one. with my readers, explaining, defend- corporations in the military-industrial Inquirer Managing Editor Gene Fore- ing and correcting the story as it un- complex. These were all places where man, concerned that the final parts of folded. I never had so much fun with a workers, students, soldiers, sailors and the series had not been finished, walked story. cadets were computer literate and had by my desk one morning and an- Credibility was enhanced in another access to high-powered, fast computer nounced how pleased he was to see me way. Stories written in a dramatic, nar- connections. writing away so furiously. rative fashion, as I tried to write “Black The outpouring was easy to under- “Is that the last part?” he asked, Hawk Down,” typically dispense with stand. Whatever the drama and impor- hopefully (no doubt with visions of my the wooden recitation of sources. If tance of the story itself, Musser and her being hit by a truck and the paper you write, “according to so-and-so” in team—designer Ches Wajda, photo being left with its highly popular story every sentence, in the manner of old editor John Williams, and programmer unfinished). wire copy police stories, storytelling

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 27 Narrative Journalism quickly loses its pace and clar- and watch it on screen from a ity. Often writers who avoid variety of angles. He then could this kind of belabored source- click on another hyperlink to noting in the text are accused hear the players involved talk (and in some notable cases about that play in post-game have been guilty) of embel- interviews, or hear coaches lishing the truth, filling in gaps and commentators break it of knowledge with flights of down critically. Such a display fancy, or rearranging time se- could offer the complete sea- quences and other details to sonal history of every player in smooth out the narrative. It’s the game, breakdowns of ev- easy to see why. Without clear ery game played by each team, delineation of sources, even etc. A serious fan could spend careful readers can’t tell where days wandering happily the reporter has gotten the in- through the site. Or imagine a formation, so they tend to be work of history presented com- suspicious of it. Hyperlinks plete with all its source mate- solved that problem. rial, historical reading, back- If a reader, for instance, ground material, commentary wondered how I could possi- and analysis available at the bly know exactly what was in click of a mouse. Such a pre- Staff Sergeant Matt sentation would combine the Eversmann’s head as he slid authority of a book with the down the rope into battle, then entertainment value of a film they could click on the and give scholars not just ad- hyperlink at Eversmann’s name vice on where to go for more and listen to him explaining detailed information, but the what was in his head. That was information itself. In the fu- one of those audio clips Musser ture, I suspect, nonfiction writ- lifted from my interview tapes. ers will routinely consider how In some cases, because of the to present their work with work Mills and his documen- sounds, images and source ma- tary crew had done, there were terial as well as their own well video clips of interviews. Be- chosen words. I know I will cause readers could listen to some of iams, Wajda and Bhatnagar had done never again write a major work with- the hundreds of interviews and view was groundbreaking, and suggested to out doing so. some of the broad documentation that this old typewriter hacker how amaz- Still, the medium is in its infancy, was the foundation for this simple, ing this new media soon will be. Be- and by any standard I’m a dinosaur. fast-paced story, it gave the account cause of limitations in the speed of Whatever uses I can imagine for Internet weight it might not have had, had it run computing and Internet connection, journalism will seem narrow and dated only in the newspaper. Along with the the most “Black Hawk Down” could to those who grow up using comput- finished product, discerning readers offer were tiny windows of video and ers. By definition, creative minds will could inspect the building blocks of small samplings of audio. Imagine what come up with ways of using this new the story, could see how it had been such an experience will be like when medium, combining sound and image assembled. These audio-visual features full-screen color video and audio can and text in ways that we cannot yet not only added to the fun of reading be accessed instantly. Multimedia pre- foresee. ■ the story, but grounded it more firmly sentation of news stories, investiga- in reality. tions, history, sports will offer Mark Bowden, author of “Black Philly Online’s presentation of storytelling opportunities no solitary Hawk Down,” “Bringing the Heat,” “Black Hawk Down” won the Editor & medium can match. and “Doctor Dealer,” has been a Publisher Award for the best journalis- Imagine, just for fun, an Internet reporter at The Philadelphia In- tic series on the Internet in 1997. I have presentation of a Super Bowl. Within quirer for 20 years. He is at work on felt free to brag about it ever since hours of the game’s end, an enterpris- a book to be published in March because not only did I not create it, it ing journalist could combine written 2001 by The Atlantic Monthly Press, didn’t occur to me to do so, and if it accounts of the game with video, so which will debut as an Inquirer had, I wouldn’t have known how to do that as a reader goes back to look at a series and Web page. It is scheduled it. What Musser, Mann, Ericson, Will- key play, he could click on a hyperlink to run in November.

28 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism Weaving Storytelling Into Breaking News ‘A little bit of narrative, like sugar, just makes everything better.’

By Rick Bragg

n Birmingham, Alabama, I had a the prettiest, but it was the most im- One by one they said the same senior editor named Clarke portant, perhaps. thing: this does not happen here. IStallworth who had one basic rule As I sat there in front of my laptop, I of good writing: Show me, don’t tell had no time to craft pretty sentences. I I don’t even know if that is what me. Let me see what you see. Paint me just had to reach into my mind for the pure narrative is supposed to be, but it a picture. Then, I’ll follow you any- sadness I had seen and the irony of the was the best I could do. I found the where, even past the jump. situation, and it wrote itself: images, the detail, the grim, dark color But when you hear people talk about of it, to be just as much a part of hard good narrative writing, they usually OKLAHOMA CITY—Before the news reporting as the body count. talk about year-long opuses and long dust and the rage had a chance to Some time later, on the same story, Sunday features and soft features on settle, a chilly rain started to fall I waited in a hotel in Oklahoma City for section fronts, but in breaking news, in on the blasted-out wreck of what a jury in Denver to decide the guilt or hard stories that must be riveted to- had once been an office building, innocence of Timothy McVeigh. gether on deadline with the telephones and on the shoulders of the small I don’t get shook very easy, on break- jangling and a red-faced editor leaning army of police, firefighters and ing news. I have done it more than half over you, worried about your word medical technicians that sur- my life. But I was nervous then because count and his hypertension, it seems rounded it. of the terrible import the story held. less appropriate, somehow. They were not used to this, if This was a man who had wrecked a city, And the readers suffer. anyone is. On any other day, they wrecked lives. My story had to carry Narrative is not just a pretty lead would have answered calls to that import. It would have failed, oth- that can be cobbled onto a hard news kitchen fires, domestic disputes, erwise. But I also did not want to over- story, or a way to get into a sidebar that or even a cat up a tree. Oklahoma write it, to lend drama to a story al- appears on page A46—far enough back City is still, in some ways, a small ready so dramatic. It would have been in the paper that it will not embarrass town, said the people who live like putting a scary mask on a face the city editor. here. already horribly disfigured. It can be the most effective way to This morning, as the blast So I thought the best thing to do was tell even a hard news story. trembled the morning coffee in borrow a snippet, a snapshot, from All you have to do is convince your cups miles away, the outside every tale of great sadness I had heard boss of that and, while you’re at it, see world came crashing hard onto since covering the story. Let that be the if he wants to buy a crate or two of Oklahoma City. picture the reader saw: snake oil. “I just took part in a surgery where But as the reporting of news be- a little boy had part of his brain OKLAHOMA CITY—After the ex- comes more and more a 24-hour pro- hanging out of his head,” said plosion, people learned to write cess, and the consumption of the facts Terry Jones, a medical technician, left-handed, to tie just one shoe. becomes so arbitrary, it seems like the as he searched in his pocket for a They learned to endure the pieces way to present that news in more tradi- cigarette. Behind him, firefighters of metal and glass embedded in tional mediums would be through pow- picked carefully through the skel- their flesh, to smile with faces that erful, descriptive language. eton of the building, still search- made them want to cry, to cry Because is it really breaking news ing for the living and the dead. with glass eyes. They learned, in when it broke at breakfast, yesterday? “You tell me,” he said, “how can homes where children had played, In perhaps the hardest breaking anyone have so little respect for to stand the quiet. They learned news story I have ever worked on, the human life.” to sleep with pills, to sleep alone. Oklahoma City bombing, The New York The shock of what the rescuers Today, with the conviction of Times allowed me to do a front-page found in the rubble had long since Timothy J. McVeigh in a Denver story on the scene. The story was writ- worn off, replaced with a loathing Federal court, with cheers and ten in less than two hours, because it for the people who had planted sobs of relief at the lot where a had to be. the bomb that killed their friends, building once stood in downtown It is not the best story I ever wrote or neighbors and children. Oklahoma City, the survivors and

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 29 Narrative Journalism

families of the victims of the most Robert Johnson, the famous, al- not be put to death for the drown- deadly attack of domestic terror- most mythical blues man, had ing of her two young sons, and ism in United States history come to Lincoln County, Miss., to instead should spend the rest of learned what they had suspected see Virgie Jane Smith, a young her life in prison, to remember. all along: That justice in a far- woman he had been intimate with, It took the jury two and one-half away courtroom is not satisfac- and a son he had never seen. hours to reject the prosecution’s tion. That healing might come “We were living in my request for the death penalty and only at Mr. McVeigh’s grave. granddaddy’s and grandmama’s settle on the life sentence. The “I want the death penalty,” said house,” Claud Johnson said. jury’s unanimous decision saved Aren Almon-Kok, whose daugh- “They were religious people, and Mrs. Smith, 23, from death row, ter, Baylee, was killed by the bomb they thought that the blues was but left her alone in a tiny cell one day after her first birthday. the devil’s music. People back with the ghosts of her dead chil- Pictures of the baby, bleeding and then believed that. dren, for at least the next 30 years, limp in the arms of a firefighter, “They told my daddy they didn’t her lawyer said. became a symbol of that crime, of want no part of him. They said he “This young woman is in a lake of its cruelty. “An eye for eye. You was working for the devil, and fire,” said the lawyer, David Bruck. don’t take lives and get to keep they wouldn’t even let me go out “That’s her punishment.” your own.” and touch him. I stood in the Mr. Bruck had argued that Mrs. Mrs. Almon-Kok saw the an- door, and he stood on the ground, Smith was so distraught over the nouncement of the verdict on tele- and that is as close as I ever got to deaths of her children, Michael, vision at her mother’s house, then him. Finally, he said, ‘Well, I might 3, and Alex, 14 months, that she went immediately to the site of as well go on.’ He wandered off, did not want to live. But as the her daughter’s death, where she and I never saw him again.” jury’s verdict was read, she was joined by some people who Mr. Johnson has always wondered gasped, and slipped her arm had lost children in the bombing, what would have happened if he around Mr. Bruck’s waist to give by others who had just felt drawn had run across that porch to him, him a quick, firm, hug. there. She said how happy she so that everyone would know he Mrs. Smith, at the center of a was with the verdict, but her face was Robert Johnson’s son. Now, murder case that first drew the was stricken, haunted. the Mississippi Supreme Court sympathy and later the loathing “I cried, and I cheered,” Mrs. ruled that he is the son and legal of the nation, was convicted last Almon-Kok said. heir of…. Saturday of murder. To reclaim a lover who said he did That story was not a pure narrative, I don’t know if I would have read not want a relationship with a certainly, but it married the styles, and that story if it had begun: Today, the woman who had children, the it was written in just a few hours. The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled…. prosecutor contended, Mrs. Smith narrative actually made the writing A little bit of narrative, like sugar, drove to a dark lake on the night faster, because it created a rhythm for just makes everything better. Narrative of Oct. 25 and sent her car rolling the story. And it was powerful. The so- conveys emotion. Narrative shows, not into the water with the two little called nut graf was in the second graph, tells. boys strapped inside in their car which should have pleased even the Sometimes, of course, the editors seats. most narrative-hating editor. simply will not let you weave that color And sometimes, the narrative makes into a straight news story. It was the phrase, “to remember,” the difference between a story that is When I was covering the Susan Smith that added a tiny something, a mental read and one that is merely glanced at. trial, a massive thunderburst came just image, I hope, of that woman sitting in For instance: as the jury announced its verdict, and a her cell, thinking of her dead children. hot, dry spell vanished in a torrential But that is more hoping than writing. JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI—The leg- rain. The thunderburst made the story. end was that if you touched Rob- Got my lead, I thought. After the jump. ■ ert Johnson you could feel the But the lead story in the Times will talent running through him, like probably never have a lead that uses Rick Bragg, a 1993 Nieman Fellow, heat, put there by the devil on a that metaphor—the washing away of is the Miami bureau chief for The dark Delta crossroad in exchange sin, and so on—and the editors in- New York Times. He is the author of for his soul. It is why Claud sisted on a straight lead. This is what “All Over But the Shouting” and Johnson’s grandparents would they got. “Somebody Told Me.” not let him out of the house that day in 1937 when Robert Johnson, UNION, S.C.—A jury today de- his father, strolled into the yard. cided that Susan Smith should

30 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism The Perils of Lunch With Sharon Stone When the Five W’s aren’t appetizing, some reporters stir in a bit of fiction.

By Anthony DeCurtis

Sharon Stone is late for lunch”: ethical problems of narrative writing. own experience, a well-known “new That cloying, made-up lead is how However typical or even inconsequen- journalist” once interviewed me for a “an Esquire writer I once met tial such fudging may be—and in the piece that ran in a prestigious publica- summed up the phony sense of drama, end, who cares if Sharon Stone was tion and, in the course of our conversa- the elevation of the mundane into seem- having lunch or was punctual?—it’s tion, casually mentioned that certain ing significance, that is so much a part wrong. It’s remarkable that this needs aspects of the story would be handled of narrative feature writing, particu- to be pointed out, but the most funda- by composites. Envious of the breezy larly when it involves celebrities. Of mental element of the journalist’s pact aptness so often displayed in the work of this writer and that school, I smiled and thought, “Ah, so that’s how they do …the most fundamental element of the it.” As the career of Janet Malcolm has so capably shown, reporting is a dream journalist’s pact with the reader is that what when you simply allow yourself to make you’re reporting in your story actually up both the quotes and the context. happened—whether you are covering a Those excesses, however, don’t mean that the assault on objectivity presidential campaign or a day in the life of wasn’t long overdue. Any narrative story a movie star. If you make stuff up, even of length involves so much interpreta- little stuff, how is anyone to believe anything tion and editorial shaping that “objec- tivity” becomes not merely a slippery you say? ideal, but an inappropriate one. I pre- fer terms like “honesty” and “fairness.” To me, it’s perfectly acceptable to write from a particular viewpoint or ideo- course, in my writing for Rolling Stone with the reader is that what you’re logical stance, as long as you make and other glossy publications, I’ve reporting in your story actually hap- clear in the piece that you’re doing so, turned that trick a time or two. It’s an pened—whether you are covering a and you represent counterpositions alluringly easy route to take—partly presidential campaign or a day in the fairly. Readers then are reminded that out of genuine enthusiasm, partly out life of a movie star. If you make stuff up, what they’re encountering is your read- of a desire to engage the reader, and even little stuff, how is anyone to be- ing of events and personalities—which partly out of an effort to drum up you- lieve anything you say? is always true, in my opinion, even in are-there immediacy. The willingness to meddle with real- so-called “objective” reporting. In my Such writing is a little silly, to be sure, but is it ethically compromised? Obviously not, assuming that the writer The pervasive feeling is that no one is playing was, in fact, having lunch with Sharon by the rules any longer. You may want to take Stone and that she was, in fact, late. But the high road, but your competitors (and their don’t believe everything you read. I’ve had plenty of conversations with writ- numbers are legion) are surely entertaining no ers who wouldn’t hesitate to say, “Well, such scruples. I was meeting her at a restaurant late in the afternoon for coffee, but I thought it would sound cooler if I described us as having lunch together.” Or, “She ity is the inevitable result of the assault view, all writing is a kind of criticism. wasn’t really late, but I thought it would on objectivity that has characterized Anyone who’s ever worked with tran- better capture her air of diva hauteur if the past 40 years of journalism, par- scripts running into tens of thousands I set the scene as if she were.” ticularly in magazines, and particularly of words knows that it often just makes So, now, we’re getting into the real among writers of a literary bent. In my more sense to condense the repeated

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 31 Narrative Journalism instances in which a subject comes up crux of my work, and it rarely involves the other way, or even encourage such into one clear statement—or one con- breaking news or any of the strictures embellishment. The pervasive feeling fused statement if that was ultimately involved in reporting of that kind. When is that no one is playing by the rules any the subject’s state of mind. As an edito- you’re writing about popular artists, longer. You may want to take the high rial judgment call, that seems no differ- “how” is almost always far more impor- road, but your competitors (and their ent to me than determining which part tant than who, what, when, where and numbers are legion) are surely enter- of a quote you’re going to use verbatim why. How do they go about doing the taining no such scruples. Editors are and which you’re going to paraphrase— work they do? How did they get to sweating in the heat of vanishing read- erships and the pressure of the cultural predominance of television and the For better or worse, there is an art to Internet. They’ve got their eyes on the constructing a long, narrative piece, and a glittering prizes that ambitious narra- tive pieces rake in year after year. So if certain amount of artifice is unavoidable in those quotes seem uncannily perfect getting to the heart of the matter. or that vignette almost otherworldly in its evocative power, it’s far more con- venient to believe that such gems are merely quotidian miracles of the sort and how exactly you’re going to para- where they are? How do they move in strong reporting can sometimes per- phrase it. Obviously, in matters that the rarefied worlds they occupy? How form. Why ask questions that might involve legal issues or government do they handle the strange, unsettling make your budding star reporters—or policy, it’s essential to present the transitions their lives often go through? you yourself—uncomfortable? Those subject’s language as rigorously accu- This is what my readers want to know, same editors are, of course, shocked— rately as possible—regardless of how and rendering those processes requires shocked!—when scandal breaks out. repetitive, unfocused or irrelevant it as much interpretive skill as conven- The vast majority of journalists are may be. In other contexts, the writer’s tional reporting ability. honest, of that there can be no doubt. own discretion can play more of a role. But interpretation is not the same as But few of the dishonest ones who Conversations have an emotional character that raw transcripts never capture. Invariably, people who are Any narrative story of length involves so much shown transcripts of their own speech interpretation and editorial shaping that are stunned at how inarticulate they ‘objectivity’ becomes not merely a slippery seem, even if, as a listener, you would judge those people verbally adept. ideal, but an inappropriate one. I prefer terms Reading someone’s words—or even like ‘honesty’ and ‘fairness.’ your own words—can be excruciating. It is a vastly different experience from hearing someone speak, and bridging that yawning gap is a critical part not invention, and once the wall of objec- were caught in recent years have suf- merely of narrative journalism, but of tivity crumbled that distinction grew fered any meaningful consequences. intelligent editing. For better or worse, more difficult to maintain. Writers, ea- As long as that remains the case, there is an art to constructing a long, ger to escape the grind of daily newspa- careerists and cheaters will run the risk narrative piece, and a certain amount per writing or routine magazine pro- of falsifying aspects of their stories for of artifice is unavoidable in getting to files, yearn for the freedom to stretch, the significant gain and glory to be had. the heart of the matter. long for the professional cachet that And, regardless of her actual dining Most journalistic conventions are comes from being known as a literary schedule, the gorgeous Sharon Stone, based on news reporting, where con- journalist. Book contracts, movie deals, her heels clacking as she enters the tent—narrowly defined as the Five and television appearances beckon. So room and all eyes stare, will endlessly W’s—is the ultimate measure of a when the golden opportunity arises, be late for lunch. ■ piece’s worth. But the “content” of the it’s tempting to give that key scene the sort of pieces I typically do is a more manufactured oomph that lifts it from Anthony DeCurtis has written for complicated matter. When I tell people the dreary realm of mere reporting Rolling Stone, where he is a contrib- about a story I’m working on, whether into the shimmering world of artistic uting editor, for 20 years. He is the it’s traveling with U2 or spending a expression. And if that means reorder- author of “Rocking My Life Away: night in the studio with the Wu Tang ing events or supplying a few telling Writing About Music and Other Clan, the question I’m invariably asked details spun from air, what’s the harm? Matters,” and he holds a Ph.D. in is, “What was it like?” Conveying that The industry’s nasty little secret, un- American literature from Indiana far more nebulous reality is the very fortunately, is that editors often look University.

32 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism Lulling Viewers Into a State of Complicity ‘The approach of a storyteller seemed more apt….’

By Ted Koppel

oone Arledge, the legendary broadcaster who invented ABC’s The approach of a storyteller seemed more apt R “Wide World Of Sports” and than that of a hard-news journalist. And there “Nightline,” may be unaware of his debt to Mark Twain, but it exists never- is no more seductive approach to telling a story theless. The great American humorist than to elicit from the listener a sense of mild once observed that “we are all igno- rant; just about different things.” That curiosity. could very well have been the inspira- tion for the fashion in which Roone began so many of his “Wide World” segments. that people knew nothing about our view, an example of both. Back in the days when ABC had nightly subjects. Hence the five to seven- There are, sometimes, nights on access to none of the major sports minute produced video segments that which we cover a late-breaking news events; when football, basketball and are, to this day, the hallmark of what event; something that has not yet ap- baseball contracts were sewed up by we call our “classic” “Nightline” for- peared elsewhere. On these occasions, the other major networks, the time-tested formula of an- Arledge fashioned a hugely swering the “who, what, where, successful series out of the when and why” questions still arcane and secondary serves. On most nights, how- sports that received little ever, we are asking the viewer to or no attention anywhere invest half an hour of his time in else. Since almost nothing a subject with which he is largely was known about the unfamiliar and which seems, at champions of ski jumping first glance, to be of less than or downhill racing, let earth-shattering importance. alone the masters of hurl- This, at a time of night when sex, ing or the luge, Roone cre- sleep, reading, Letterman, Leno ated an introductory seg- and a variety of other television ment that he called “up options compete for his atten- close and personal.” The tion. The time of night and the theory was simple: Give diverse competition led me, early the public a video sketch Ted Koppel anchors an ABC News “Nightline” town meeting on on, to the conclusion that the of these unknown athletes, issues involved in the case of six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian viewer needed to be lulled into let us see their training Gonzalez. Photo ©2000 ABC News. a state of complicity. The ap- methods, introduce us to proach of a storyteller seemed their families, and we more apt than that of a hard- would have an investment in their suc- mat—or what an irreverent woman news journalist. And there is no more cess or failure. We would bring a level staffer in our early days referred to as seductive approach to telling a story of interest to the events in which they “an opening piece, Ted and three white than to elicit from the listener a sense competed. The concept worked bril- guys in suits.” of mild curiosity. liantly. What does all this rambling back- When I do it reasonably well, it brings Among the virtues of a good idea are ground have to do with narrative writ- you to this point. ■ its portability and adaptability. ing for television? Or, more specifi- When we began “Nightline” in 1980, cally, what does it have to do with the Ted Koppel is anchor and managing I took Mark Twain’s admonition to introductory page in which I try to set editor of ABC News’s “Nightline.” heart and stole Roone’s idea from “Wide the tone for each evening’s program? It World of Sports.” We would assume is, from my highly subjective point of

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 33 Narrative Journalism Sticky Storytelling ‘I want to create a pattern that is instinctively unfamiliar….’

By Robert Krulwich

tell stories on television. I tell them back across a couch, a bed, a kitchen and we got to talking about something long (on “Nightline” and “Front- table. This distance matters. Consider: that I know about, something exciting Iline”), I tell them medium (on A newspaper reporter puts words on a (to me) like a tax proposal, a scientific “Prime Time Live”), and I tell them page and that page is usually 18 inches discovery, something difficult, but short (on the evening news), and like from the reader’s nose. How many something I’d want to explain, on tele- any storyteller, I want my audience’s children, spouses and pets can squeeze vision I try to sound exactly as I would complete attention while I am on the into those 18 inches? Between the TV on the bus. True, on TV I have the screen. But what I really want is a and the viewer there can (and will) be advantage of pictures and graphics and couple of hours after I’ve finished, I a Barnum & Bailey carnival of “Watch snippets of interviews, but I work hard want some of them, half would be nice, me instead!” distractions. to create a sequence that feels as im- to remember what I’ve said; not all of provised, fresh and intimate as an acci- it, just the gist, and if not the gist, dental encounter. maybe an image, a thought, something What’s he going to This means: a) whenever I sound sticky enough to carry my message a do, say, now? too much like Pauley or Cronkite (who couple of beats past my performance. are good, by the way, icons, even), I Everybody knows TV news is ephem- consciously shift down, to take the eral. But the sad truth is news on net- “News” out of my voice, and b) I cut work TV has become so smooth, so Every good television reporter and arrange my images so that they do polished, the typical story moves knows the real job is to grab the not flow normally. I want surprise. I through the audience like a supposi- audience’s eyes and hold them tight want to create a pattern that is instinc- tory. In. Out. “What did he say?” through the storm. tively unfamiliar, so that at a level the I will be standing on a street corner, How do I do that? I begin with an audience may not be aware of, there is waiting for the light to turn, and some- observation: TV news has a very famil- a touch of suspense. What’s he going to body with a big smile will come up to iar form. It is authoritative, cadenced, do, say, now? me and say, “I saw that thing you did on smooth, dispassionate, articulate. It Sometimes this works. A few months TV yesterday about the—” doesn’t gulp or waffle or giggle. It is a ago, I was on the A train in New York I wait. I tense. speech pattern that carefully announces City, my home town, three o’clock in “About the—” that it is not normal conversation; it is the afternoon, when the guy across About half the time what the person News. News on TV has a sound, a from me, in full hip hop garb, the gold recalls, I never said, or some other sound designed to create credibility. I chain, three earrings on the right lobe, reporter said, or it was sort of what I talk this way, it says, because what I am big pants, leans over and he says, “Hey, said but skewed in some unfathomable saying is True and Important. Now didn’t I see you on TV talking about way, or whatever memory sparked this listen. the—” exchange flickers, dims, and ends: “That The problem is that sound has be- “Yes?” thing, you know, you said yesterday, it come so familiar that at some level that And he delivers a perfect condensa- was—” (long pause). composers would understand, it has tion of a story I did on Dolly the cloned “Well, thanks,” I say, unhelpfully. become very easy not to listen. We sheep’s cells. He remembered the On the radio (I used to work for know these tones, this writing style, whole thing. It is moments like these National Public Radio), this is not a these image sequences so well, we don’t that make me want to dance off the problem. Radio reporters learn to write have to pay attention. We know the train, bow deeper than I ever would for with calculated vividness, pushing the beat. an Emmy, and touch the hem of listeners to paint images in their own The opportunity here is obvious. If Stephen Jay Gould. It doesn’t happen heads so they unwittingly become co- most reporters are modeling them- often, maybe three out of every 10 authors of the story. On the radio, a selves on Walter Cronkite and Jane encounters, but on TV (as in baseball) story well told sticks for days, years. Pauley, what I do is model myself on no .333 is a pretty good average. Way good TV is harder. Good television re- one. Instead, implacably, incorrigibly, enough for me. ■ porters have to learn how to work the I try to sound like myself, like the room. On television, the audience is ordinary me. Robert Krulwich is a correspondent two, five, seven, 15 feet away staring If I were sitting next to you on a bus with ABC News.

34 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism Has the Camera’s Eye Replaced the Writer’s Descriptive Hand? An editor laments the demise of the narrative. And welcomes its return.

Michael Kelly

The Nieman Foundation and Columbia University’s only that. I would not attempt any analysis of the war, not Graduate School of Journalism convened a panel of attempt any reporting beyond that which grew directly out journalists to discuss nonfiction narrative writing of the events before me, and to file it in dispatch form for during the annual conference that honors the work whomever would buy it. and life of journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning When I went flogging this idea around to various agents and editors, it was pretty roundly rejected, and not only author J. Anthony Lukas. Speaking as the new editor because I was an unknown writer and it was a perfectly in chief of The Atlantic, Michael Kelly described how reasonable idea to reject me, but because, as various people he intends to oversee “at least some rebirth of serious said to me, frankly, the whole idea was wrong. That this was or ambitious narratives in at least one magazine.” He a war that was going to be filled with cameras. The first night then commented on some assertions about narrative of bombing, there would be cameras there. There would be writing in newspapers and magazines. cameras throughout the war. Everything that could be de- scribed would be seen in many cases in real time, so the idea of filing a dispatch that a reader might read a week or even he first assertion is that most people who write for a month later was pointless, and sort of an anachronistic newspapers or for magazines cannot write a narra- idea. Ttive. And the reason is that they cannot or have not I see this also in the writing that comes to me as an editor. learned to write that which is at the core of narrative, which The thing that I most lament, and causes me most grief in is physical description and dialogue. The second assertion is manuscripts that come in from professional writers, from that it has to some degree always been thus, but that it has good writers, is the stunning lack of physical description. A gotten more so in this century and particularly in the last 30 writer will go to some interesting, fascinating and dangerous or 40 years. And the third assertion is that the reason boils place, and will file a piece that will contain a great deal of down to the lamentable, in this context, invention of the terrific reporting on all sorts of levels—interviews, analysis camera. and so on—and the story will simply be bereft of physical This century has been, among other things, a century of description, of the colorful, vivid scene painting that readers the camera. I think one effect has been to encourage writers continue to love. It’s a myth that readers have turned away and editors, at least subconsciously but pervasively, to adopt from this and that in the age of the picture and now the age a kind of group belief that the great traditional role of the of Internet, that readers don’t want it. correspondent, as the observer of things who describes what Readers of books, but also of magazines, every chance his or her senses perceive, need no longer be fulfilled by a they get to reward this kind of writing, they show it over and writer. There was no point in fulfilling it because the cam- over again. They do want descriptive writing, but very few era—first the still camera and then the moving camera— writers—or relatively few, even in the kind of manuscripts would do it better than we could. And we, in our role, in our we see at The Atlantic—seem to know how to do this. And 19th century role as correspondents, as people who would this leads me to what I think is one of the long-term go to places and send back dispatches saying, “Here’s what unfortunate effects of the camera on writing and that is the the battle looked like,” or, “Here’s what the eruption of the institutional effect on newsrooms. volcano looked like,” and so on, that we had sort of lost our I think Robert [Vare] is right to say that in newspapers reason, or that reason, for being. today there is some renaissance of narrative writing. There This is not universal. It’s certainly not articulated and are pieces, there are serious projects that are narrative and certainly not everybody believes in it. But I think that it has that are excellent. But it’s notable that when Robert talked come to be a pervasive thing in America’s newspapers and about that he spoke exclusively in terms of projects, big magazines, and I’ve seen it in my own life. When I wanted to ambitious projects that newspapers undertake. These are go off and write dispatches on the Gulf War, I had a very projects that are intended to attract attention, to showcase simple model in mind. I wanted to write the classic the newspaper, maybe to win some prizes, and so on. What correspondent’s dispatch: to simply go to wherever I could he didn’t talk about was the day-to-day structure, the intel- go, see what I could see, hear what I could hear, and write lectual structure, if you will, of the city room. And that, I

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 35 Narrative Journalism think, has changed. I don’t think there’s been much of a newspaper to newspaper, and not find that. renaissance in that and, even if there is, it will take years to This is true also in feature writing, in the kind of quick- reverse what I see as the damage. profile writing such as the movie star who comes to town and My father was a newspaper reporter, a tabloid man at the you catch a quick interview and so on. And the result of this old Daily News in Washington, and he was very much of a institutionally, in no intentional or planned way, has been to sort of writer that newspapers used to be filled with and used sort of destroy what was a kind of literary farm system in to greatly encourage and to treasure. He was somebody who which all around the country there were people who were would wander into work, sit around cracking wise with trying, aspiring to what Liebling could do, consciously or other people cracking wise, and then go off and cover a set unconsciously. Whether they were thinking of Liebling him- event that other reporters would be at. But he’d do so with self, they were aspiring to this. They were learning this craft the understanding that he was to come back with the angle, in small newspapers, and then, if they were good, the system the funny story, the feature treatment of it that would set his that valued them would find them, would reward them, and piece apart from the straight news guys. Or he’d just go off would promote them. They would get to a better paper and and wander around the city and come up with some story, a better paper, and if they kept learning the craft and they some slice of human life feature. kept getting better they would end up in magazines, where There were three papers in Washington in those days, and they were greatly valued, and they could make a great deal there were half a dozen people who did exactly this sort of of money and become stars. work. One of them was Tom Wolfe. And every day readers The entire system told people who wrote for a living, in were treated to this kind of sketch writing; this was the the journalistic sense, from the first day of the job, that they shortest form of narrative, and readers loved it. And the could chart a course on the strength of their writing, on the people who ran newspapers knew that readers loved it, and strength of their ability to describe things in a way that other they encouraged these people whose essential talents were people couldn’t, describe them with more color or more wit, not as reporters but as writers, physical description guys, describe them in a way that was funnier than other people and dialogue. They encouraged them and rewarded them could do. And that if you did this, this would be quite and valued them. systematically rewarded and encouraged and lead you up to I used to go and watch my father at work on some days. a path to magazines and ultimately books. That farm system, I’d go down there on Saturdays when he would do essen- somewhere along the way, broke down. tially nothing for most of the day. He’d talk to his friends, I hope that it is coming back to some degree in newspa- drink a few beers, then go to the circus, come back, and write pers, but I think judging from what I see in manuscripts, it up 800 words. Everybody would laugh, and then he would is a long road back. I know an awful lot of people who write go home. This is why I went into journalism. It seemed to be professionally who simply don’t understand that if you’re the ideal life and neither my father nor anyone else told me describing, you know, a couple of Serb paramilitary thugs I was witnessing the vanishing of an era, as if he was a buggy- sitting in a room drinking slivovitz and talking, that you need whip manufacturer, and that had seemed to me a good line to do something more than write that they’re sitting there of work to get into. and drinking slivovitz and talking. You need to tell people Newspapers, I think, at least in part because of this sense what everything looks like. that the camera does this kind of work, somehow over the The almost mechanical nature of doing this is something years quit valuing, promoting, encouraging, hunting for this that many writers that I talk to don’t know. For instance, they kind of talent, the sketch writer. And the result, you can see, don’t know that if you want to describe something in I think, in every paper you pick up as a reader, in almost every physical exactitude, and you’re going to be writing days or story. In my father’s time in newspapering, not every politi- weeks or, in some cases, months later, that you need a cal reporter who worked in every paper in the country could, notebook that is filled not just with people’s words but with to put it mildly, write the kind of stuff, in terms of physical physical descriptors. You need to have described the person’s description, that [A.J.] Liebling wrote in “The Earl of Louisi- face and his clothes and everything about it or else you won’t ana,” in which he catches this marvelous picture of Earl Long be able to do it later. It is almost as if a kind of school for mopping his brow with a handkerchief dipped in Pepsi-Cola writing, at least for narrative writing, has been lost because on a hot summer night in the South. of the loss of this core talent, the ability to describe things. And, of course, not everybody, not anybody could do that. I hope it gets better. ■ But newspapers were filled with people who thought that’s what they were supposed to aspire to. And the political columnist for even a second- or third-rate newspaper knew that when a presidential candidate came through town, and he went out to cover the speech, that one of the things that he was supposed to do was to paint some kind of theme of what this man looked like and what he sounded like and something to capture the spirit of the crowd and so on. You could read through a year’s worth of political writing in the presidential year we’re now in, read across the country,

36 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism Narrative Storytelling in a Drive-By Medium A local television reporter finds ways to go beyond the usual coverage.

By Carolyn Mungo

t seems the goal of local television news is to get the story fast, tell it Ifirst, and be done in less than a minute. Some may wonder if there is any room for storytelling. Is the art of the narrative a thing of the past on television news? Eleven years and four local television stations later, I submit that the craft of storytelling is not dead. The challenges are greater, but so are the rewards. I am a general assignment reporter at a local TV station in Houston, Texas. It is a news operation striving for bal- ance between the fast-paced action of fires and drive-by shootings and the critical need for in-depth reporting about the community around us. I was hired six months ago with a resumé tape that showed no coverage of fires, murders or car accidents. The sample of my work included stories that dem- onstrated my strengths as a reporter— my ability to get close to subjects and people in ways that make the viewer want to take notice of their stories. Among those I selected for this tape was an in-depth report on a 14-year- old girl. She was a drug addict, newly pregnant, and trying to decide how to handle the challenges that were ahead. Where do I find such stories? I found that one on the top of my husband’s dresser one fall afternoon. It was a crumpled-up piece of paper. It came from a student in his eighth-grade class. It read, “Dear Mr. Niezgoda, I just got back from the hospital after being treated for an overdose. I also found out I am 2 months pregnet. Well gotta go. Angie.” Videotape images capture the emotions of a pregnant 14-year-old and a young boy in That note was the beginning of a detention. Courtesy of KPNX-TV. process in which I followed a 14-year- old recovering methamphetamine ad- course of seven months. Remember able to shadow this girl’s life as docu- dict on her journey toward giving birth. this is “local” television news. I was mentary reporters are able to do. Getting written consent from her told I could do it, but I would have to Nonetheless, I felt this was an im- mother was a challenge, but not as big work around other daily assignments if portant story to tell as a way to get at a of a challenge as getting my managers I wanted to capture the critical mo- lot of broader issues involving teenag- to allow me to follow her during the ments I knew I needed. I would not be ers and sex and pregnancy, and be-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 37 Narrative Journalism lieved that this ap- involved negotiating proach was the way to with the facility’s man- tell it. Since Arizona— agers to gain the kind of where I was then access we’d need to working at KPNX in shoot the children’s Phoenix—has the faces. The negotiations highest rate of births were tough and we did to teens in the nation, not win on every point. I was convinced this But in the end we gained was a story viewers the access we needed to would connect with. three boys, and their sto- Yet given my position ries helped to move my as a local TV reporter, reporting forward. I realized that I was Ten thousand kids in about to take on a Maricopa County, Ari- massive hit-and-miss zona, walk through the project with the out- doors of detention ev- come unknown. Al- ery year. An increasing though this story was number of them are Videotape image of Sister Alice Potts with patient. Courtesy of KHOU-TV. not going to go for- eight and nine years old. ward in precisely the way I wanted, I I told Angie’s story but I also told the I believed it was impor- knew that I could connect with this 14- story of what happens to so many young tant to try to learn as much as we could year-old and eventually be able to carry girls who find themselves in a situation from them about why this is happen- the process through. Such decision- like hers. ing. And then I wanted to explore what making requires an inner confidence We were right about the powerful their stories tell us about the commu- and, yes, a little bit of an ego. drama of this story. Angie’s last-minute nity we live in and the ways in which Some shoots were scheduled dur- decision not to give her baby to an children are being raised and looked ing my normal workday. Those shoots adoptive family but to raise the child in after. I have found that one important were done when there were plenty of poverty was an element that literally ingredient in narrative stories is taking reporters available to cover the news of took our breath away. Two months viewers into places where they rarely the day. On those days, I pitched my later, Angie voiced those same emo- go and giving them the ability to under- plans to the executive producer. My tions in front of our camera: “I don’t stand the experiences of those who are photographer and I then followed know where the diapers are going to there. When this story was aired on our Angie at school, after school, and come from. I had to use a washrag this 10 o’clock news broadcast, it shocked watched as she tried to convince her morning.” quite a few of our viewers who had no boyfriend and the father of her child to Our teen pregnancy hotline follow- idea little white, blonde-haired, blue- stay off drugs. But other shoots were ing the documentary lit up for hours eyed boys were being locked up in a done between my work on daily sto- after the segment aired. At each com- little room night after night, some- ries. My photographer and I squeezed mercial break, we showed our hotline times for months on end. in some shoots instead of taking a number and urged those who felt they We called the piece “The Littlest lunch break or after a five o’clock live needed help to call. Phones had been Suspects.” It was not told in a minute. shot on a daily story. We’d drive to set up in our studios and were staffed Instead, the station allocated four min- Angie’s and capture whatever was go- by counselors and social workers dur- utes. Once the station managers saw ing on at the time. Did we have to do it ing and after the broadcast. By the the rough cut of the story, they recog- that way? No. We wanted to do it that response we received, we knew Angie’s nized the power of the piece they were way. We saw these compelling mo- story had touched a nerve. about to air. I no longer had to fight for ments in her life and knew our audi- I used to think that good storytelling time to tell the story; the story, itself, ence would want to see them, too. in local television happened only if a earned the extra minutes. We also taped counseling sessions reporter was given a lot of time to do I’ve also come to understand that for pregnant teenagers and daycare the story and a lot of time to tell it, as how much time a reporter is given to centers at local high schools. In my was the case in the story about Angie. tell the story is not the critical issue. narration, I was able to weave in facts But I have learned since then that is not What is most important is having a about teen pregnancy and services that always the case. When I set out to tell character whose story and presence is were available, even though Angie re- the story of several nine-year-old boys compelling enough to take viewers to fused to participate in any of them. In in a juvenile detention facility, I was these places they have never been so fact, she dropped out of school and her able to work on the story for five days they can see things in ways they haven’t boyfriend’s life became what defined and still tell it in a narrative form. Much seen them before. I was in Houston her world. During this narrative piece, of the work during those five days three months before I met Sister Alice

38 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism

Potts. She is a chaplain at the world- standing doesn’t happen standing in gether is something television relies renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Cen- front of the emergency room doing a on. Yet, too often what gets put on ter. Instead of doing a series of on- live shot for the 10 o’clock news. It local newscasts are pictures of disas- camera interviews with colleagues and happens when a reporter goes behind trous events, selected because of the patients who could tell me how great the emergency room doors and reaches emotional punch the images deliver she and the work she does are, I had the people who work on the other and ease by which they can be gath- the camera follow Sister Alice. That’s side. It might not be a story for that ered. Words often seem to be irrel- all. At 75 years old, she’s been a chap- night’s broadcast. But it might become evant, sort of interchangeable except lain at the hospital for more than a an unforgettable story for some night for the location each night. Sadly, one quarter of a century. Her spunk, her in the future. fire story blends in with the next, when style, her outlook on cancer, definitely In the changing media environment, in reality there are very different and provided a story worth telling. local television news is confronting compelling stories to tell, stories about I shot the Sister Alice story in one many new challenges. Being a reporter people and what will happen to them day. It aired the same night that a in the newsroom, I don’t know every now. This kind of reporting takes shooting and a fire and a lot of other detail of what our industry is facing. longer, requires creativeness and per- bad news appeared in our newscast. But I think I do know something about severance, but in the end gives us, as The piece came on after the first com- what people like watching. reporters, greater satisfaction and gives mercial break. In my opinion, it was a It seems ironic to me that the audi- our viewers the kind of news coverage much-needed breather from the dis- ences who often complain about nega- they will long remember. ■ mal way in which the other news por- tive coverage are the same ones who trayed the city that night. are seemingly drawn to the murder-of- Carolyn Mungo currently works as a Great stories are told when report- the-day approach to telling the news. I reporter for KHOU, the CBS station ers find the right people. It is through realize ratings cannot be maintained in Houston. A nine-time Emmy their eyes and experiences that the without doing what it takes to pull in award-winner, she has twice been best stories are told and remembered. that core audience, but I suggest that honored with a World Medal by the Finding such voices and fitting their local news stations strive for a balance. International New York Festivals. words into a broader context of under- Weaving words and pictures to- Combining Narrative With Analysis By grounding stories in a broader context, their messages are better understood.

By Laura Sessions Stepp

y new book, “Our Last Best thors often ask (or should ask) for I knew from covering children and Shot,” began as a personal whom they are writing. An equally im- families for The Washington Post that Mquest. My son Jeff, then 11, portant question is what the needs of top scientists were beginning to pay was showing signs of early adoles- those readers are. attention to kids from age 10 to 15. But cence—you know, big feet and a mouth I had read books about kids by sev- their findings, some of them startling, to match—and I hadn’t a clue how to eral fine narrative journalists including were neither easily accessible nor very react. What did I need to know to guide Alex Kotlowitz, Tracy Kidder, and Ed- readable. I realized I could play a help- him successfully through the next few ward Humes. Their stories had moved ful role by translating their results in years? If adolescence was typically a me as a reader but didn’t satisfy me as ways parents and other adults could time of turmoil, as I had heard, how a parent. I wanted to know how ex- understand and use. would I know when he was really in perts would analyze the accounts of I also knew from writing for the trouble? the children’s lives. I also wanted to Post’s Style Plus, a daily page focused Unable to find a book to help me— hear what they, as gifted observers, had on stories affecting ordinary people, those in my local bookstores and li- concluded about the kids they covered that readers devour issues presented brary focused on older teens—I de- and whether as a working mother I up close and personal. So I abandoned cided to write what I could not find. could use any of what they had learned. the traditional writing approach and But what form should the book take? I didn’t have time to ponder or try to break up each narrative with scientific I considered adopting the feature read between the lines. I found the explanation and personal analysis. As I style of most newspapers, telling sto- explanatory notes at the end of such set out to report and write, on leave ries of kids in traditional narrative fash- books, which some authors provide, from the Post, I had no idea of the size ion. But would that be enough? Au- unwieldy. of the task I had assumed.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 39 Narrative Journalism

Letting Youngsters Tell them. On my first visit to the state her about my parents’ divorce. This Their Stories hospital outside Durham where Chan- past spring, four years after our initial dler Brennan stayed for four months, I conversations, a reporter asked Alana In an effort to appeal to a broad read- jotted down descriptions of the play- why she had talked to me so candidly. ership, I sought kids in three very dif- ground and kids’ bikes outside. Those “We have a lot in common,” Alana ferent communities: urban Los Ange- notes came in handy later as I wrote replied. “Her mother left her, too.” les, medium-sized Durham, North about Chandler’s father Daniel driving In between trips to the three sites, I Carolina, and rural Ulysses, Kansas, a onto the hospital grounds one after- combed through science journals, spe- town of 6,000. I looked for diversity in noon for a visit, and weeping in memory cialized publications and local news- the kids, also, using measurable tools of the sweet, compliant little girl Chan- papers, attended conferences, and in- such as family income, race and dler once had been. terviewed experts in the sciences. I ethnicity, family composition and I spent hours and hours with fami- hired graduate students to help with school performance. I avoided ex- lies so that they would learn to relax the reading, reminding them that our tremes. around me. Sometimes this included focus was to answer my chief question I observed 18 youngsters from Au- staying overnight in their homes, my of what makes young adolescents do gust 1996 through July 1997. When I notebook tucked away in a suitcase. well or poorly. started writing in the subsequent year, On one such evening in South Central My research also took place in my I narrowed the group to 12. It was Los Angeles, I watched eight hours of own house, at my son’s school, and on tempting to base the book on one child action adventure movies on TV with a the bleachers of the ballpark. I shared only, one family or one community. boy, his mom and dad. The next morn- my observations and findings freely Any of those three approaches would ing, Dad puttered around the kitchen with friends, acquaintances and teach- have made the reporting and writing in a worn, navy blue bathrobe—a sign ers, listening for their corroboration or easier but also made it more likely that that I had succeeded in putting him at disbelief, shaping my emerging con- readers would dismiss my findings as ease. clusions. If this sounds like a 24-hour- exceptions. To identify the assets all The kids preferred being observed a-day project, it was, almost. Blessedly, kids need to pass successfully through and interviewed away from home: in a I rarely dreamed about it. early adolescence, I had to cast my net school classroom, at a pizza joint, at as wide as I could and still be able to the mall. I learned a lot when they were write with intimacy, clarity and drama. gabbing with their friends, probably Using Explanatory Reporting “Our Last Best Shot” re- because they forgot I was there. It was Journalism as the quired sustained, focused observation in a Los Angeles mall’s food court, for Book’s Thread of minute details. As any nonfiction example, listening to Libby Sigel and writer knows, such things as physical two other seventh-graders discuss the By the second year, when I began to appearance, tone of voice, even photo- meaning of “blow jobs,” “jacking off,” write in earnest, I had decided that graphs displayed at home can flesh and other sexual terms, that I first be- young adolescents spend most of their out, reinforce, or contradict what a gan to truly grasp how adolescent time and energy figuring out four subject says. Chip Thomson of Durham friends define for each other the dy- things: what kind of person they are, swore to me during one visit that he namics of human relationships, and how and whether they fit in with their was no longer using drugs, but his red how important such conversations are friends, what they are learning, and eyes and chafed, runny nose told a to kids as they learn how to convey new how they can both distance themselves different story. Angela Perales of Ulysses feelings. from and remain connected to adults. I decided that each of those four pur- suits would become its own section in Book writing taught me to be a keener the book and selected three kids—one from each community—to illustrate observer and a more careful listener. It also each aspect of their journey. reinforced the importance of keeping an open Each child’s story consisted of four mind about my subjects. long anecdotes (the narrative), told in chronological order. Between each anecdote I did what I once wished other writers would do: I analyzed the didn’t have to describe how deeply she In order to elicit intimate details anecdote for what it revealed about the depended on her friends; the 50-plus from these families, I had to be willing particular child and about children in pictures on display in her bedroom to share my own experiences as a child general. I discovered that such explana- were all the evidence I needed. and a parent. Angela’s sister Alana, for tory journalism forces a writer to think I took notes on everything, unsure example, was reluctant to talk about harder than any other kind of writing. which scenes I would want to recreate her mother abandoning her and An- It’s like spinning out one nut graf after later or the meaning I would attach to gela when they were young until I told another.

40 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism

Since I could not be present at all myself weighing the key events in each of the kids’ lives, whether certain I considered adopting the feature nor know in advance which occasions potentially em- might become significant later, I re- barrassing de- style of most newspapers, telling constructed some of the anecdotes. I tails were abso- stories of kids in traditional alerted readers early in the book that lutely necessary narrative fashion. But would that some events and dialogues were based to make a point. on firsthand accounts of others, as well If they were, I be enough? as on interviews and written records. would write and I consulted several people in order rewrite to soften to write most scenes and was always the hard edges. glad that I had. For example, when I Before I turned the book in, I read each keener observer and a more careful finally tracked down Alana’s and chapter to the child and family in- listener. It also reinforced the impor- Angela’s mother, her version of why volved. On the few occasions where tance of keeping an open mind about she left her daughters at ages three and objections were raised, I discussed my my subjects. When I’m inclined to make five differed from what they and the reasons and made changes that satis- a snap judgment, I recall the afternoon fied us both. I accompanied a Ulysses’ girl named Early into the Shannon to her basketball game. Prior …to elicit intimate details project I had won- to the game, Shannon sat with her dered what voice I mother a few yards away from her from these families, I had to should assume. teammates. I assumed she was too shy be willing to share my own Would my voice be to mingle but she corrected my impres- experiences as a child and that of a detached sion months later. She had hung out observer? Or would I with Mom because “I’m more into the a parent. assume the role of a game, and Mom is too. All these other passionate advocate? girls do is talk about boys and they The affection I came don’t even watch.” to feel for these fami- “Our Last Best Shot” is selling well, girls’ father had told me. They had not lies, combined with the problems with reinforcing my belief that journalists’ been comfortable confiding that she which they struggled, provided the stories, long or short, need to have a had been a drug addict. She told me answer. I adopted with readers the point and make that point clearly. Our right away. same role I tried to play with my sub- prose may be as lyrical as a Keats poem, Since the anecdotes that best illus- jects, that of a trusted, hopefully clear- but if our readers have to guess what trated key issues for my book were not eyed friend. My readers became the we’re trying to say we shall lose many always dramatic, the temptation to ex- proverbial neighbors at backyard fences of them. As I write each section of a aggerate for effect was sometimes great. whom young journalists are told to newspaper story now, I ask myself more Fortunately, I usually had enough strik- address when figuring out their sto- consciously than before, “Will this sur- ing events to work with because, over ries. I wrote the last chapter, entitled prise my readers?” “Will it change the time, crises and struggles occur in even “From My Home To Yours,” particu- way they think or act?” “If not, do I the most outwardly placid lives. I re- larly in this spirit, putting away notes need it?” member one farmer in Ulysses agree- and writing from the heart what I had As seasoned reporters who know ing to a first interview but warning me, learned about young adolescents. our beat we should not shy away from “We’re pretty boring.” Five months speaking with authority. This comes, later, his wife received a telephone call as Poynter Institute leader Chip Scanlan from a daughter she had given birth to Returning to the says, by not only getting the facts right 19 years earlier when she was unmar- Newspaper Beat but choosing the right facts. ried and dating her first love. She had And then not being afraid to say released the baby to an adoption agency Chronicling the lives of the rich or what they mean. ■ and not heard from her since. Her four famous is a sexy beat. It wins reporters children did not know they had a half- spots on the front page, not to men- Laura Sessions Stepp is the author of sister, and she decided to tell them. tion dinner party invitations. But it’s “Our Last Best Shot: Guiding Our Boring, indeed. not nearly as personally rewarding, in Children Through Early Adolescence” Time also meant that I became at- my view, as writing about ordinary (2000, Riverhead Books). A staff tached to the kids and some of their people. I’m now back at the Post writ- writer at The Washington Post, she family members. The reporter in me ing about the ordinary with more con- chairs the board of advisors of the wanted to write about their lives, no fidence and flair. (At least that’s what Casey Journalism Center for Chil- holds barred, but the mother in me my editors tell me.) dren and Families at the University wanted to protect their privacy. I found Book writing taught me to be a of Maryland.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 41 Narrative Journalism Literary Nonfiction Constructs a Narrative Foundation In college classes, students read great storytellers and learn how to tell a story.

By Madeleine Blais

ust about every fall, I teach a course called “Readings in Journalism” to My hope is that the narrative style these Jsophomore pre-journalism majors at the University of Massachusetts authors employ will resonate with the students and to visiting students from Amherst, as they move along in their preparation to be Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Hampshire journalists. Colleges. Similar courses with titles such as “Creative Nonfiction,” “The Literature of Fact,” “The Writer in Soci- ety,” and “Writing in the Documentary among the students about the ways in penalty is the unspoken running mate Tradition” are taught at colleges which these authors approached writ- of one of the candidates. My students throughout the country. ing and a discussion about the larger will also read the essay “The Hanging” My students often have only the vagu- cultural context of their work, as well. by George Orwell as part of the course est notion of what has drawn them to Literary nonfiction has a deep Ameri- and, I hope, get some sense of Mailer’s this subject matter, and questionnaires can backbone, fixed in the democratic other writings along the way, in par- that I have them fill out on the first day notion that real stories about real ticular his political reporting with its always confirm that I have my work cut people are worth telling. Literary non- icon-smashing brilliance. out for me. Some choice responses fiction not only honors all the shibbo- Although I don’t want to make crime from over the years: Philip Caputo: “a leths of classical storytelling, but it also and punishment the overwhelming famous sportscaster.” Homer Bigart: welcomes the best of other disciplines focus of the course, Ted Conover’s “old time movie star.” The New Yorker: into the mix, giving it melting pot in- “Newjack,” in which the author posed “a magazine my aunt gets, about, I clusiveness. Consider the great work- as a prison guard at Sing Sing for a year, think, New York.” horses of the genre, books such as will be required reading. An Amherst From this unpromising beginning, “Common Ground” and “Hiroshima,” college alum, Conover is going to be in it would be tempting to create a sylla- “In Cold Blood,” “The Executioner’s the area for guest lectures and class- bus that rectifies such wholesale igno- Song,” “Dispatches,” “A Rumor of War,” room appearances in October, and rance from the ground up and to in- and “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.” nothing makes a book more vivid than clude every worthy work of nonfiction Then, contemplate how these authors the opportunity to meet its author. In I can think of, but no one course could broke apart the boundaries between all of his work, Conover relies on a possibly take on the burden of so much history and biography and sociology to certain kind of immersion journalism, prose. My hope is that the narrative create a whole new coinage. often going undercover. For “Newjack,” style these authors employ will reso- This fall I will teach Norman Mailer’s he got a job as a corrections officer. He nate with the students as they move “The Executioner’s Song.” It’s long, has also passed himself off as a hobo, a along in their preparation to be jour- more than 1,000 pages, but accessible. caterer and an illegal immigrant. What nalists. Although many of them might I find the story of Gary Gilmore, the are the ethics of such subterfuge? Does end up recognizing that such sustained two-bit two-time killer who demanded it always yield the best story? projects are not for them, at least they that the state live up to its obligation to I especially enjoy teaching when the will have developed a taste and admira- execute him, is as compelling now as it examination of one book leads grace- tion for the best in this burgeoning was 20 years ago when the book was fully to the examination of another, tradition. published. One of the most fascinating and the Mailer/Conover dyad should It’s easy enough to create a wish list exercises would-be journalists can do yield a nifty one-two punch. When “The of all the books I’d like to expose my while reading this book is look at the Executioner’s Song” was published, students to during a given semester so stunning variety of ways in which infor- Joan Didion’s review of it was featured I ensure that they emerge from the mation is obtained to piece together on the front page of The New York class with a sense of this wonderful the narrative. This work should have Times Book Review. The students will hybrid form. My hardest job is winnow- particular appeal in the fall of 2000, read that, as well as an essay or two ing selections down to a meaningful thanks to a presidential election in from “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” assortment that produces conversation which the wanton use of the death before taking on Didion’s book “Mi-

42 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Narrative Journalism ami,” which will have added urgency Night Lights” and Doris Kearns west on a field trip to New York City thanks to the Elian crisis. This discus- Goodwin’s “Wait Till Next Year.” and the profile of Hemingway. I am sion will be supplemented by our read- Last year, the University of Chicago also thinking of requiring Susan ing Tim Golden’s first-rate piece in The Press published a terrific collection of Orlean’s “The Orchid Thief” as a pri- New York Times in April about the Mike Royko’s greatest hits called “One mary example of how a writer can take extended Gonzalez family. Perhaps I’ll More Time.” The students love his a small subject and make it sing. add some video snippets from “The punch and honesty and any discussion In our short time together, there is Buena Vista Social Club.” (“Video- of his work leads inevitably to colum- not time for us to read and talk about cillin,” we call it in the classroom, a nists Patricia Smith, Mike Barnicle, and many of the great narrative writers. But wonder drug that wakes up even the now Jeff Jacoby of The Boston Globe they are out there, waiting to be discov- sleepiest students). and the shared fate of their chastise- ered by this next generation. And per- I worked in Miami for many years, ment for not living up to standards of haps, as some of them begin careers as arriving there when it was still a pastel journalistic practice. Would Rokyo journalists, voices from the pages of backwater brimming with retirees who make it at the Globe today? these books will echo in ways that lived for their early-bird specials. The Just as the four sisters in “Little inspire them to mesh what is best about Cubans in the mid-70’s were still con- Women” believed that Christmas with- the narrative tradition with what is the sidered a quaint subculture, what with out presents isn’t Christmas, a course essential mission of journalism. ■ their piñata shops, their thick high- in literary journalism without the heavy- octane coffee, and their elaborate com- duty presence of The New Yorker would Madeleine Blais, 1986 Nieman ing out parties called “quinzes” for be fatally flawed. The short character Fellow, teaches at the University of their 15-year-old daughters. It was as- studies in “In the Old Hotel” by Joseph Massachusetts. She is the author of sumed that they would be returning Mitchell provide a perfect starting point. several books, including the forth- any minute to their island paradise. Lillian Ross’s collection, “Reporting,” coming “Uphill Walkers: Biography Didion’s “Miami” documents the is also brilliant, especially the portrait of a Family,” to be published by thwarted efforts of Cuban-Americans on the high school kids from the Mid- Grove Atlantic in the spring. to reclaim their homeland. An interest- ing companion piece is an essay James Agee wrote for Fortune in the fall of 1937; it is called “Havana Cruise,” and in it he describes the journey of a Me and the System: group of middle class tourists to Cuba. Most of the students appreciate a book or two that speaks to or about The Personal Essay and Health Policy their age group. “Remembering Denny” by Calvin Trillin is one of my all-time By Fitzhugh Mullan favorites in this regard. It is the author’s very middle-aged recollection of a A new section called “Narrative Matters” he personal essay as a policy golden boy from Yale in the 50’s who began appearing last summer in Health piece has a strong tradition in was twice the subject of major adula- Affairs, a bimonthly policy journal. As Tmedicine. Atul Gawande, writ- tory pieces in Life magazine, but who Founding Editor John K. Iglehart wrote, “I ing “When Doctors Make Mistakes” this led a shadowed life that not only fell never regarded publishing material that year in The New Yorker, and David short of its glittering early promise but emphasizes the personal, the subjective, and Hilfiker, writing “Facing Our Mistakes” ended in a mostly unhailed suicide. the autobiographical as its reason for being. in the New England Journal of Medi- Trillin’s evocation of his Yale, of that But through a confluence of factors, I have cine some years ago, raise the difficult time and place, is oddly captivating for come to believe that we could enrich the and troubling issues about physicians’ students, leading them inevitably to journal by nurturing a form of health policy shortcomings as seen in their own prac- thoughts about how they would cap- writing that affords greater opportunity for tices. The eloquence of these candid ture their collegiate experience and to new voices to contribute to future debates.” reflections and the fact that this is an queasy conjecture about whether there In its July/August 1999 issue, Fitzhugh area about which few physicians write exists someone they know now about Mullan, a physician and clinical professor of combine to make these narratives clas- whom they might write a similar book pediatrics and public health at the George sics. in 30 years. Washington University and staff physician at Natural as it might seem as an art “Our Guys,” about the rape of a the Upper Cardozo Community Health form, the writing of the personal narra- retarded girl by a group of athletes in Center, introduced the new section with an tive is not without hazards. Its very Glen Ridge, New Jersey, also holds essay entitled “Me and the System: The spontaneity can be a problem. To work, their attention, but the writing is a bit Personal Essay and Health Policy.” Mullan the essay must be an intimate docu- cumbersome. Sports is always an easy now serves as the editor of “Narrative Mat- ment in which the writer shares obser- sell, especially Buzz Bissinger’s “Friday ters.” Excerpts from his essay follow. vations and thoughts with candor. Yet

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 43 Narrative Journalism our own spontaneous inner voices do ponents of the personal essay. Although sonal, frequently dramatic, and always not always make good copy. They can personal observation holds a time-hon- laced with controversy. It is a rich do- wander, suffer from mean-spiritedness ored place in the history of science, the main for chroniclers who draw on the or naieveté, groan under the load of subjective characteristics of the per- personal and the subjective—fiction ego, or arrive on the page as trivial sonal essay are not prominent values writers, TV producers, and cinematog- raphers—as well as for the writer of the first-person narrative. The personal The best first-person essays are unobtrusively narrative is indisputably a compelling first person, creating a comfortable vehicle for transporting perspective and atmosphere for the reader where the message opinion about health policy issues. The first-person essay, in fact, can lend per- of the narrative is not obscured by the spective and vitality to issues that are personality of the messenger. appropriately and simultaneously be- ing explored and written about in a quantitative and analytic fashion. Per- sonal reflections can add dimension and depth that will make the issue both despite our previous belief that they in the science of today, nor are they more lucid and more interesting. The were visionary. This problem is com- part of the growing efforts in the field challenge for a journal whose principal pounded because the personal essay- of health policy to make decisions based product is analytic and not literary is to ist writes not only about himself but on quantitative measures. Terms such find writers who can steer their way about other people. The essayist must as “evidence-based” and “data-driven” between the hazards of ego and intro- find a voice that is candid enough to are the coin of the policy world today, spection on the one hand and pure sustain the personal quality but is si- and “the anecdote” as evidence is as editorializing on the other…. multaneously fair to others involved in much demeaned in policy circles as it is Human beings have always had sto- the story—patients, spouses, family and colleagues. Calibrating the role of the “I” in the first person is difficult as well. …the anecdote—the report of life events from First-person narratives are effective an unabashedly subjective vantage point— because the reader wants to see inside remains a powerful tool for focusing the the life of another person, to compare lots, to identify with or, on occasion, human mind. The historian and health policy reject being identified with the writer. commentator Dan Fox is fond of saying that, Yet “I” and “me” can easily become for better or worse, ‘The plural of anecdote is oppressive, turning the reader off and undercutting both the art and the im- policy….’ port of the piece. The best first-person essays are unobtrusively first person, creating a comfortable atmosphere for the reader where the message of the in clinical medicine. Yet, important as ries—and always will. Health (and narrative is not obscured by the per- the arguments are for the use of quan- health policy) is a quintessentially hu- sonality of the messenger. titative science to inform clinical and man realm, and its stories are as vivid policy decisions, the anecdote—the re- and revealing as those from any area of The Power of Anecdote port of life events from an unabashedly human endeavor. Even as we move to subjective vantage point—remains a put decision-making in health on a Writing about one’s own experience is powerful tool for focusing the human firmer, more quantitative basis, our an exercise in subjectivity. The very mind. The historian and health policy stories can help to maintain perspec- power of the personal essay comes commentator Dan Fox is fond of saying tive and promote wisdom. That is the from the view of the world as seen that, for better or worse, “The plural of mission of “Narrative Matters.” ■ through the eyes of the writer who is anecdote is policy….” unapologetically the arbiter of fact and The question then may well be asked Published by Health Affairs, Volume significance in the narrative. The cir- about the appropriateness of the per- 18, Number 4, pages 118-124. © 1999. cumstances reported and the valence sonal narrative, with its cargo of sub- they are given are the sole and unchal- jectivity, in a health policy journal. lenged domain of the writer. Anec- Health care—giving it, getting it, ad- dote, attitude, prejudice, and point of ministrating it, teaching it—is a realm view are prominent and important com- of human enterprise that is often per-

44 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism

James Nachtwey’s book “Inferno” is a collection of 382 photographs depicting the horrific brutality and suffering of people who are entrapped by war, famine or political unrest. Its publication offers an opportunity to reflect not only on his extraordinary and courageous career as a photojournalist but on how, in this time of visual onslaught, images such as these are absorbed and their messages acted upon.

In his Los Angeles Times review of “Inferno,” David Rieff, co-editor of “Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know,” challenged those who view Nachtwey’s photographs to consider the following: “…whether the level at which photographs touch their viewers, which as Nachtwey points out is ‘more visceral, more elemental, closer to raw experience,’ is one that really gives them the information they need to make the political judgment in order to mitigate the horrors Nachtwey’s pictures chronicle… [T]here is something dangerously simplistic about simply demanding a response to the sufferings of victims without specifying what that response should be.”

Several writers and photographers consider this question, among others, in essays that accompany images taken by Nachtwey and others photojournalists. Nachtwey’s views are heard in quotes excerpted from interviews.* Photographer Michele McDonald (’88 NF) reviews “Inferno,” calling it “the most unbearable book I have ever looked through.” Images of death and terror still inhabit the dreams and wakefulness of Steve Northup (’74 NF), who covered the Vietnam War as a UPI staff photographer. Yet he deplores the relative absence of such photographic images now due to Pentagon policy and journalistic compliance. “We have sanitized war, or its images…this is a terrible disservice to all of us….” Novelist Philip Caputo, who as a foreign correspondent covered several major conflicts, finds no reason why those who photograph war need to justify the images they send home. Imparting information, he believes, ought to be enough.

Brent Staples, writing in the Editorial Observer column in The New York Times, described his reaction to seeing an exhibition of lynching photographs. “There is an unbearable measure of horror here,” he wrote, “that I have no interest in learning to endure.” His unwillingness to look long at these images led him to conclude: “With these horrendous pictures loose in the culture, the ultimate effect could easily be to normalize images that are in fact horrible.”

Three war photojournalists then describe—in words and photographs—what it is like to do their jobs on the frontlines of ethnic struggles in a panel discussion sponsored by The Crimes of War Project and The Freedom Forum. “Basically we’re alone,” said Ron Haviv, “left up to our own wits.” Mary Kay Magistad (’00 NF), formerly National Public Radio’s Beijing correspondent, writes about her friend, journalist Kurt Schork, his death by snipers in Sierra Leone, and the risks journalists take to cover war. And former Royal Marines talk about how they teach journalists to be safer while reporting conflicts.

*Quotes are from interviews Nachtwey gave to the Lehrer NewsHour, The Boston Phoenix, The Capital Times, and the Dartmouth Alumni magazine. Excerpts were also taken from the Afterword he wrote for “Inferno.” ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 45 Photojournalism James Nachtwey Photographs

A Hutu man who did not support the genocide had been imprisoned in a concentration camp, starved, and attacked with machetes. He managed to survive, and after he was freed was placed in the care of the Red Cross. © James Nachtwey/courtesy Phaidon Press.

“There’s a tension between the objective and “I deal with raw evidence, but I want it to have a subjective in reporting. The feelings you have about sense of deeper emotion. Compassion is the uniting what you’ve witnessed—anger, disbelief, force in this book—compassion in the face of compassion—those feelings have to be channeled injustice, struggle, tragedy and loss.”— Nachtwey into your photographs. In front of you are objective facts, but photography is a process of selection: how you perceive the light, what you leave out of the frame. These are all factors in creating a certain effect, and I want to create an effect.” — Nachtwey

46 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism

Romania, 1990. Inside an institution for “incurables.” © James Nachtwey/courtesy Phaidon Press.

“If I cave in, if I fold up because of the emotional “I don’t want to let people off the hook. I don’t obstacles that are in front of me, I’m useless. There want to make these pictures easy to look at. I want is no point in me being there in the first place. And to ruin people’s day if I have to. I want to stop them I think if you go to places where people are in their tracks and make them think of people experiencing these kinds of tragedies with a beyond themselves.”— Nachtwey camera, you have a responsibility. The value of it is to make an appeal to the rest of the world, to create an impetus where change is possible through public opinion. Public opinion is created through awareness. My job is to help create the awareness.”— Nachtwey

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 47 Photojournalism

The Unbearable Weight of Witness Vivid images of war and famine make human misery impossible to ignore.

Inferno James Nachtwey Phaidon Press. 480 Pages. $125. “There sighs, lamentations and loud By Michele McDonald wailings resounded through the starless air, Inferno,” James Nachtwey’s new collection of photo- so that from the graphs, is the most unbearable book I have ever beginning it made me “looked through. His 382 black and white photos are weep.”—Dante Alighieri, so visually striking and so awful in the suffering, pain, “Divine Comedy: inhumanity and death they show that many say such pictures are better not taken. Inferno” Some accuse Nachtwey of exploiting the suffering of others, of being a voyeur of the worst sort. I say, “Buy this book.” Give a copy to your library, to your synagogue or a Chechen rebel shooting from a destroyed building on the church if you have one, to every high school and college in frontline? As a photographer, I don’t know, but he does it, the country. If you can’t endure looking at the photographs again and again. yourself, then at least you will leave it for others to confront, The raw content of his photographs clashes with their as you have, the horrors that humans are capable of endur- controlled form and this magnifies how terribly disturbing ing but also of perpetrating on each other. they are. The book itself physically reproduces this clash. It His photographs do not offer solutions even as they is an expensive ($125), massive black book, weighing in at starkly illuminate the brutalities that war and famine and just under 10 pounds with huge photographs—many double other disasters create. Nor do these images explain the spreads are a single picture just four inches shy of two feet political complexities of the agony and despair and courage long, gorgeously printed on creamy white paper. Given the that they capture in Romania, Somalia, Sudan, Bosnia, vivid and horrifying content of the pictures, it isn’t surprising Rwanda, Zaire, Chechnya and Kosovo. (The photos from people react so vehemently to this presentation. Who would India portraying the daily lives of “untouchables” seem not shudder at the thought of looking at such images in what misplaced in this book of horrors.) appears to be an art book? But do images such as these need to perform these roles? But “Inferno” is not an art book. Nachtwey is bearing Do photographs of human struggle need to do more than witness. With all the considerable intelligence and talent he provide us a window through which we can witness what so possesses, he photographs the evil that might be within our often we shield ourselves from seeing? I think not. power to correct. He cannot control our response or lack of Nachtwey is a stunning photographer. His photographs one to his pictures. In the end, however, his book demands are beautiful, compositionally complex, almost too perfect. of us to look, to see what he has seen, to acknowledge the One wonders how he holds his camera steady, sets the existence of these specific men and women and children. exposure right, creates a striking, even elegant, composition That is far from enough, but it is also far better than ignoring when faced with a naked, starving man crawling towards an or forgetting. ■ emergency feeding center as he did in Sudan? Or when he photographs disabled children in unbelievably degraded Michele McDonald, a 1988 Nieman Fellow, is a freelance conditions in Romanian orphanages? Or when he lies next to photographer based in Boston.

“With ‘Inferno’ I am seeking a deeper and broader treatment of events—something with a narrative, cinematic quality; something that possesses not only a structure integral to the single image but also the connections between images…. It is an attempt to create a path that viewers can negotiate in order to come to a personal understanding of events by piecing them together from various moments and perspectives.”— Nachtwey

48 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism Photographers Can’t Hide Behind Their Cameras Images of war are raw, dirty, ugly, personal and disturbing. And they ought to be.

By Steve Northup

proudly admit that Jim time. The photographer sees it all, Nachtwey is a friend and has hears it all, smells it all, and can’t I been for many years. Bias hide behind the camera. When you aside, I am very happy we have are photographing terrible things him on the planet. His work is a you have to pay extra attention. true gift to humankind. He holds a You become one with the scene; caring, relentless mirror on our the camera almost disappears. species, and the images he creates Images of death and terror I disturb. And they ought to. made in Vietnam 35 years ago still I looked through “Inferno” at a inhabit my dreams and wakeful- local bookstore, then spent the ness. The cries of one small girl, rest of the day in serious depres- whose baby brother had been killed, sion. It’s not that the photographs whose father was captured and are disturbing and occasionally soon to be taken away, whose brutal. It’s just that we have been mother was left with half a family presented so very little real-life and little hope, will always be with context in which to view them. If me. Vietnam was the most photo- the only photographs we ever see graphed war in history, and this act of Africans are of fly-covered star- of frontline witness will not be re- vation victims, that image soon peated. Thanks to the course de- becomes what we picture as the vised by Ms. Thatcher in the norm. And, in time, it becomes Falklands, our fellows in the Penta- what we expect to see. gon have made sure that the Ameri- This isn’t Jim’s fault. It’s the can public will never again be both- fault of editors (and bean counters) ered by scenes of their loved ones who ignore the rest of the world to killing or being killed. We have bring us all-Elian all the time, O.J. sanitized war, or its images, and all without end, and Monica ad nau- but a few of the major players in Vietnam 1965, photos by Steve Northup. seam, and think it’s news. Last American journalism were only too night, it was green catsup. Get happy to oblige. “Please throw us serious. Until we are exposed to realistic coverage of the into that pool,” most of them begged. planet by witnessing people’s daily, productive lives, the This is a terrible disservice to all of us, for we are the ones tender moments of them loving their children, caring for paying for these wars with the blood of our children, the gold their neighbors, tending to their crops, smiling, then for of our treasury, the name of our nation. God’s sake, we have no idea of their actual existence. One It was not only the Vietnam photographs shot by the can go for weeks without hearing the word “Africa” on professionals that changed hearts and minds. Almost every American news broadcasts. GI carried a camera (every PX sold them cheaply) and they As painful as it is to view, this kind of work is even more carried them everywhere. At almost every small outpost I difficult to produce. We, the viewer, see only tiny slices of went to, some GI would come over and want to show me his

“Pictures of famines and war have to be “I want people to feel, I suppose, what I feel, which uncompromising. You can’t pull punches when is anger and compassion, a sense that what’s you’re trying to show people what’s going on. I happening is not acceptable.”— Nachtwey don’t want to make generic images that just show that something is happening out there.”— Nachtwey

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 49 Photojournalism snapshots. And nine times out of 10, they were truly disturbing. Body parts, mainly. Bits and pieces, not only of the enemy, but of friends and fallen comrades. “That’s Hank,” one GI told me, exhibiting a vivid splash of red against the green jungle floor. War is about death. These young soldiers in Vietnam captured it in dying color, vividly, graphically and hor- ribly. Edwin Land once said that we photograph things so as not to be afraid of them. These GI’s proved his point. I think it was these photos sent home if not to Mom, then to younger brothers, uncles, best friends, that brought the real horror of Vietnam into the American home. Our journalistic gravestone in a Vietnamese cemetery in a hard rain. He was efforts were self-censored, and we tried to show facets other cold, wet, scared and 10,000 miles from home and, in his than death: the soldiers’ courage, the war’s tedium, even the wallet, next to his photos of folks back home, he carried a beauty of the country that became our battlefield made it small card given to him by his government. It told him the 10 into our coverage. These GI’s used no such filter. In their reasons he was there. I pray we will never again send our images, through their eyes, the war was raw and dirty and children into a war where such a card is needed. ugly and personal, and they sent it home in tidy little stacks Lastly, the question arises, did we, as photographers of of four-by-six inch prints. that war, do any good? I think so. I doubt we moved masses There was also another dark side to photographing in of minds, but our photographs have a lasting effect on Vietnam. While we went into combat unarmed, we could individuals. And they help with the healing. A few weeks ago, also leave any time we had had enough. Well, not just any as part of a week spent as an instructor at the Santa Fe time, but we could make a dignified retreat on outgoing Photographic Workshops, I presented a slide show of my helicopters. And when you started out on the day’s march, favorite works. I started out with about 40 images from one thing weighed in your mind: If you were going to make Vietnam. At night’s end, a fellow walked up to me as I was any really good images that day, something would have to going to my pickup. “I want to thank you,” he told me. “I happen; people would have to be hurt or killed. Otherwise spent two years in that terrible place and I want to tell you it was just another long hot walk. These are not good that tonight, you reminded me of what photography is all thoughts to carry in one’s head, and they have always about. Please keep showing the pictures.” induced guilt. I will. ■ I liked the men I went to war with, both Vietnamese and Americans, and didn’t want anything terrible to happen to Steve Northup covered Vietnam as a staff photographer them. My strongest memory of that place was one of sorrow: for United Press International in 1965-1966. He later I felt sorry for everyone, on all sides, all the time. One other served as a photographer for The Washington Post and photograph of mine sticks in my mind. It is a sort of a Time magazine. He is a 1974 Nieman Fellow and lives in peaceful one: a young Marine private, nestled up against a New Mexico.

“At the very beginning, I think I was still interested in the dynamics of war itself as a kind of fascinating study. And it evolved into more of a mission whereby I think to present pictures of situations that are unacceptable in human terms became a form of protest. So I found that my pictures were actually specifically trying to mitigate against the war itself.”— Nachtwey

50 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism Do Images of War Need Justification? No. Imparting information ought to be enough. By Philip Caputo

dirty little question preoccupies war photographers recorded. I’m not sure that I would have wanted a picture of and war correspondents: Am I a voyeur? Certainly my wounded self on a front page or on a TV screen. I’m not Aevery journalist who has covered wars, if he or she has sure what I would have done or how I would have felt if a a conscience, has to wonder if recording modern conflicts, photographer had pointed a camera at me then, or if a in words or pictures, is some kind of pornography. Pictures reporter had tried to interview me. I do know that there is no more than words, because words are mediators between the pain like the deep bone pain of a serious bullet wound. It is reader and the thing described; they appeal to the mind first, profoundly isolating. It is profoundly private. It is not for the senses second. Photographs, on the other hand, go public consumption, because there are no words, no film, directly to the emotions, to the heart and the gut, and the no videotape that can communicate it. one who makes them is eventually going to question if I’ve never heard of photographers who try to justify taking presenting people with graphic images of blood and mutila- pictures of political conventions or crime scenes or fires or tion and death does anyone any good, or if it’s merely a plane crashes or shaggy dogs. Conventions and crimes and titillating appeal to the base fascination of the grotesque. fires and plane crashes and shaggy dogs are news. Wars also I covered several major conflicts in my journalism ca- are news, so why is it that images of war so often seem to reer—the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the Turkish invasion of need some justification beyond their news value, some high, Cyprus, Vietnam, Afghanistan, the Lebanese civil war, and transcendent purpose? I took this photo (or wrote this story) the Eritrean rebellion. Just recently I returned from south- to make people aware of man’s inhumanity to man. To ern Sudan, where war has gone on for so long that it’s not a provoke outrage. To move people to act. This is generally phenomenon but a condition. The album of my memory is nonsense, and when it isn’t nonsense, it’s dangerous. Act in filled with snapshots of corpses, wounded men, terrorized the name of what? Act how? The very explicit still photos and civilians, burned villages, blasted cities, of arms and legs and footage coming out of Somalia in the early 90’s moved the heads detached from their former owners, but two memo- outside world to act—stupidly as it turned out—while equally ries are most vivid. explicit pictures and stories of Sarajevo only seemed to One is of the Golan Heights in October 1973—hundreds numb the public’s sensibilities, so that nobody did anything of Israeli and Syrian tanks destroyed, some 8,000 bodies, until it was almost too late. many burned beyond recognition as anything once living, Seventeen years ago, I wrote a novel, “DelCorso’s Gal- much less human, decomposing in the sun. You could smell lery,” about a combat photographer who becomes so ob- the battlefield from five miles away when the wind was right, sessed that he uses his camera to wage war on war. He cannot and as I wandered through that smoking abattoir, taking see the paradox of war—that it is both a crime and the notes, interviewing soldiers, a voice murmured in the back punishment of a crime—and pays for that blind spot with his of my mind, “What in the hell are you doing here? Do your life. None of this is to say that reporting wars is or should be readers have some sacred right to know what’s happened morally neutral. It is to say that the morality lies not in how here? Isn’t this all just some kind of unholy thrill, for you and or whether an image, footage, or story affects human action; for them?” it lies, rather, in the imparting of information. Information, The second memory is of the moment when I ceased to be as playwright Tom Stoppard once wrote, is light, and the an observer of war and became one of war’s victims. I was light, so long as it’s true, is enough. ■ shot in the left ankle, the left leg, and the right foot by Muslim militiamen during the street fighting in Beirut. The shocking Philip Caputo was a foreign correspondent in the 1970’s scarlet of my own blood, as it spilled out of my boot onto the and early 1980’s for the Chicago Tribune and Esquire concrete, made me see war as it had been seen by the magazine. He is currently a contributing editor for Na- countless millions of casualties, military and civilian, who tional Geographic Adventure and is the author of eight suffered in the century just past. I was, for the first time in my books, of which the most recent is a novel, “The Voyage.” life, compelled to share in the anguish that I had previously

“Being a witness, I think it is very important to be “It’s meant to be a kind of visual archive, so that honest, to be eloquent, and to be powerful.” this work will enter into our collective conscience — Nachtwey and our collective memory.”— Nachtwey

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 51 Photojournalism The Perils of Growing Comfortable With Evil

By Brent Staples Editorial Observer, April 9, 2000 The New York Times

ost us have witnessed things that we would be stimulate sensitivity to that suffering. But Ms. Sontag argues better off never having seen. The writer Susan that little good comes of viewing photographic horrors that MSontag applies this distinction to the Holocaust you can barely imagine and have no power to relieve. A few photographs she stumbled upon in a bookstore at the age of photographs retain their power to shock, becoming moral 12 in 1945, years before she could conceptualize what the reference points, she writes. But in general, repeated expo- Holocaust even was. Writing of the experience in her land- sure to photographed horror inures us to that horror, mark book “On Photography,” Ms. Sontag recalled that leading us to view even the most grotesque images as “just when she looked at those photographs “Some limit had been pictures.” reached and not only that of horror…something [in me] This warning came immediately to mind recently as I went dead; something is still crying.” toured The New-York Historical Society’s exhibition “With- The modern era takes it on faith that images of suffering out Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America,” which

The lynching of Jesse Washington, May 16, 1916, in Robinson, Texas. From the exhibition “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America.” Photo courtesy of The New-York Historical Society.

52 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism opened last month and runs through July 9. The photo- first three works on lynching—“Southern Horrors,” “A Red graphs mainly depict black men with hideously elongated Record” and “Mob Rule in New Orleans”—relied for their necks, swinging sometimes in threes and fours at the end of power on forensic descriptions of the burnings and lynch- ropes tied to light poles, trees or gallows. One of the most ings and shared only a single photograph among them. frightening pictures shows hundreds of well-dressed men in The Atlanta collector James Allen, who found these pho- a field, pressing forward for a better view of a naked black tographs, had hoped that they would provoke a discussion man who has just been hanged and is now being mutilated on the public nature of racial brutality in the early 20th and burned on a pyre. century and the role that era played in shaping the racial Like the 12-year-old Susan Sontag in that bookstore, I attitudes of today. In particular, Mr. Allen had hoped for a reached my “limit” quickly and left the room. I returned probing inquiry into the nature of what he calls “community briefly to take some notes and violence,” which leads to the was on my way, never to re- bloodlust shown in the pic- turn. There is an unbearable tures. The written material that measure of horror here that I With these horrendous pictures was added to “Without Sanctu- have no interest in learning to loose in the culture, the ary” has given the exhibition endure. ultimate effect could easily be some depth, but not enough Lynching scholars tell us that to produce the thoughtful the scenes in this exhibition to normalize images that are in meditation Mr. Allen had were repeated thousands of fact horrible. wished for. times—often before the entire Instead, as he told me re- citizenry of a given town—and cently, “White people feel guilty were common throughout and reticent; black people look much of the country until the 1940’s. These “lynching bees” at these pictures and just get angry.” Having worked with or “Negro barbecues” were often cast as carnivals, to which these pictures for years, Mr. Allen is less susceptible to their the residents of nearby towns brought picnic baskets and horror and was surprised when I told him that I could not their children—some of whom are shown in these photo- bear seeing them. graphs posed and smiling next to disfigured black corpses. A sober inquiry into racial violence has failed to material- The pictures in this show were mainly postcards that com- ize not just in the galleries, but in much of the news coverage memorated the “entertainment” and were sent regularly as well. Some people were upset when news magazines through the mail until it became illegal to do so. reprinted the photographs with too little historical con- The show opened under the name “Witness” this winter text—essentially repeating the acts of those who took and at a small gallery in Manhattan, and consisted mainly of distributed the pictures in the first place. Mr. Allen had photographs without explanation, mounted on the gallery hoped to sensitize us to long-buried horrors of America’s walls. The Historical Society’s version of the show includes racial past. But by choosing to do this through photographs, lengthy descriptive captions and an added section on the he chose the most unwieldy method of all. With these figures in the anti-lynching movement who eventually brought horrendous pictures loose in the culture, the ultimate effect this horror to an end, among them James Weldon Johnson, could easily be to normalize images that are in fact horrible.■ W. E. B. Du Bois and the heroine of the movement, Ida Wells- Barnett. Looking at this new section of the exhibition, I was Brent Staples writes editorials on politics and culture for reminded that Ms. Wells-Barnett was sparing in her use of The New York Times and is author of “Parallel Time: pictures or even illustrations, understanding that likenesses Growing Up in Black and White.” Column © 2000 by The of these events were a form of brutality in themselves. Her New York Times Co. Reprinted by permission.

“I really hope people will not deny their own “I’ve probably seen thousands of dead people, and emotions or shut them off because the images it does not get any easier. It gets more difficult. You might be disturbing. It very important that viewers become more sensitized, not less sensitized. not shut down, but instead engage their own Suffering gets more difficult to witness.”— Nachtwey emotions.”— Nachtwey

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 53 Photojournalism ‘Basically We’re Alone. Left Up to Our Own Wits.’ War photographers describe what it’s like to do their jobs.

In May of this year, The Crimes of War Project, chaired Ron Haviv [Newsweek contract photographer]: “Arkan by Newsday correspondent Roy Gutman, and The Free- was one of the more famous warlords of the wars in Yugosla- dom Forum co-sponsored an Arlington, Virginia confer- via. [H]e was responsible for killing thousands and thou- ence called “The World of Conflict.” Panelists and audi- sands of people. And I was fortunate or unfortunate enough ence participants discussed topics related to the coverage to travel with him and his unit called the Tigers into the first of war by writers and photographers. One panel consist- battle of Bosnia. We moved through town basically fighting ing of three war photographers—Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, from street to street, and we then arrived at the center of and Steve Lehman—described experiences from the town at one of the mosques. And they immediately broke frontlines of battles and talked about their work as into the mosque and went upstairs, took down the Islamic journalists. Susan Moeller, a contributor to Nieman flag, hung up a Serbian flag, and defaced some different Reports and author of “Compassion Fatigue: How the property and things like that inside the mosque. Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death,” moderated “There was still a lot of shooting going on outside. I was this panel. Edited excerpts from it follow. inside at the time photographing the soldiers inside the mosque. And I heard sort of a higher level of shooting, and Susan Moeller: “Images, of course, are how most of us I walked outside and I saw the soldiers bringing out people experience conflict. And for those of us who haven’t been on from a house across the street. They first brought out a man the frontlines or haven’t been on certain frontlines, the way and were shouting at him in Serbian. I still don’t know to this we learn about the world, the way we learn about war crimes, day exactly what they were saying. And then they brought out particularly, is often through the camera. a woman who was his wife and she started to scream. And a “Yet the images the photographers take, even by those couple of shots rang out, and the man went down. The within the media, are often taken too much for granted. They woman screamed some more. are used as illustrations. And I use that word in a pejorative “Meanwhile, while this is all happening, several soldiers sense. They are used as attention grabbers. But they often are looking at me. Well, I’m standing there with my cameras are not considered as thoughtfully as the text that accompa- watching and wondering when they are not looking at me so nies them. I can actually take a photograph, and they’re screaming at me “There is often little integration between the text and the in Serbian, ‘Don’t take any photographs. Don’t take any images. And I would suggest that this problem has only photographs.’ So the tension level obviously was quite high worsened and is particularly a problem on Web sites, on for me. From previous experiences in the other wars in traditional news institutions that are going online….” Yugoslavia, I had witnessed two other executions at which I

Arkan’s Tigers fight during the first battle for Bosnia in the town The wife of a Bosnian Muslim tries to help her husband as he of Bijelina, March 1992. Photos by Ron Haviv/SABA. lays dying after being shot by Arkan’s Tigers. The woman was later shot as well. Both died.

54 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism had a gun pointed to my head, and I was not allowed to “They had taken another prisoner at the same time and photograph it. this guy was still alive, and as we were running up the street, “I had made a promise to myself that the next time I was I wanted to try and get a photograph of this prisoner. So I ran in this situation I would do my best not to leave without a ahead to the soldier that was holding him and I said, ‘I want photograph, because otherwise there’s really no reason that to take a photograph.’ So he grabbed the prisoner, put him we’re there. I mean, we’re there to document that, and I was down on the ground, and the photograph is of the prisoner going to do my best to get this on film. So there’s a crash with his hands up in the air, with the gun to his head and truck parked in the middle of the street. And during the several soldiers in the background. commotion I sort of walked very, very slowly, like inch by “For me it was very difficult because his hands are in the inch, so it kind of didn’t look like I was moving too fast, and air and he’s begging for his life. But he’s begging me to try to hid by part of the truck where the soldiers couldn’t see me save him, and there was nothing at that time that I could do. because my view was blocked. But I was able to see the man And this is a situation that I’ve been in, other people have and the woman, and I was able to photograph the two of been in, and these are very difficult situations for photogra- them together as he lay dying. phers and journalists and cameramen. And when do you “Within several minutes, some more shots rang out and decide to intervene if you can, and what influence can you they shot the woman. And they brought out another woman have over the situation? and then, of course, she was killed. And all three are lying “They brought that prisoner back to the headquarters or dead on the street. Now, I know I have a photograph of the house that they had taken over. They were interrogating people, but I don’t have a photograph of the soldiers with him. I was standing outside waiting to see what happened the people, which is what I need to prove that these Serbian and I heard a great crash. And I looked up and out of a third- soldiers were the ones that killed them. I mean, aside from story window, the prisoner came flying out of the window my word, I wanted to have it actually on film. and landed at my feet. Then a couple of soldiers came out “The unit decided to leave, and most of them left. There and they started kicking him and beating him, and I started were three guys behind. And I went and I stood in the middle taking some more photographs of that. And then they of the street. This time I was completely exposed. And I dragged him back into the house. A few minutes later, Arkan wanted just to get a photograph of the soldiers walking past arrived, he came back from directing the battle from a the bodies. So as they came past the bodies, I raised my different part of the city. They told Arkan that I’d taken these camera. And as they came past, one of the soldiers, cigarette photographs, and Arkan knew immediately that this was a in his hand, sunglasses on his head, brought back his foot problem and asked for my film. and kicked the bodies. And I was able to take several “I then proceeded to get into an argument with Arkan photographs of that. And luckily for me, they didn’t see me, about how valuable the film was to the Serbian cause and because two were looking to their left and one had his back things like that, to which he replied that he would process to me as he was kicking the bodies. the film and edit the film and whatever pictures he thought “I took the pictures, I put my camera down, and I said to were okay he’d give back to me. I replied, ‘Well, the labs the soldiers, “Let’s go, great job, let’s go.” And we ran off like aren’t very good in Belgrade. The quality isn’t good. Let me trying to hope that they wouldn’t have any idea what had process it myself and then I’ll give you the pictures and you happened. can use them.’ While this was being done, I was hiding

Arkan’s Tigers with the two women and a man that they had just A Muslim man begs for his life as he is taken prisoner by Arkan’s shot during the first battle for Bosnia in March 1992. All three Tigers during the first battle for Bosnia in March 1992. He was were killed. Photos by Ron Haviv/SABA. later thrown from a third story window during interrogation.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 55 Photojournalism several of the rolls of film that I’d already taken before and international coverage. And there also has been, of course, was able to save most of the film. Unfortunately, I had to just a decade-plus of media mergers, particularly in photogra- give one roll to Arkan, and that roll was of the prisoner falling phy. This has hit hard; right now, we have effectively five out of the window. major corporations that control photography: AFB, AP, “The next week, the photographs were published in Time Reuters, Getty and Corbis….” magazine and several others. What’s interesting about these photographs is that this was a week before the war officially Gary Knight [ N e w s w e e k c o n t r a c t p h o t o g r a p h e r ] : “ T h e r e began in Sarajevo. And these pictures were published by are fewer young photojournalists coming through. We’re all American magazines and seen by American politicians, as 34, 35, 36, and considered, you know, the young kids on the well as German politicians and French politicians. I was block. always quite sad that there was no reaction by the politicians “And there are very, very few people who are in their 20’s to these photographs. They had seen that this ethnic cleans- coming through in this industry, and I think that’s very, very ing had started and they still had an opportunity to stop scary because I, for one, will not be doing this in another 30 actually what was going to happen three weeks later in years, I can assure you. Sarajevo. “[A]s editors you really have to address these issues. “As for myself, there was a big backlash. Arkan got into a Where are you getting your pictures from, and are you really lot of trouble for letting me take these photographs. Milosevic getting a fair reflection of what’s going on? And I would was quite upset. There were some internal documents that suggest that you have been, but you might not be in the were actually published a few years later from Milosevic to future.” Arkan about this attack and their strategies and stuff like that. I was put onto a death list by the Serbs and I had a great deal Steve Lehman [photographer and founder of Firsthand of difficulty in the following years covering the story, always Media]: “Specifically, you look at news on the Internet and wondering who was looking for me, trying to avoid Arkan in more and more it’s coming from the same sources which are all possible cases. I wound up in Kosovo missing him twice very, very narrow sources. And so when I look around at in the lobby of a hotel. visual imagery, it’s all coming from Reuters and AP. “This is an indicative story, maybe a little bit of an extreme “So essentially you have, on a particular story, one or two one, but I and all of my colleagues have gone through these individuals covering that story for the entire world. That types of situations in many different scenarios. We’ve all makes me nervous. The more eyes you have out there, the been threatened to different degrees. Several people have more different perspectives you have. And the more chances been captured, myself included on a different story, mock of finding and uncovering important stories. On one hand executions, things like that. Basically we’re alone. Left up to we have this enormous consolidation going on in terms of our own wits. If we lose our equipment or we get wounded, visual content industry, but also we as individuals are being it’s often up to the freelance photographer to protect himself empowered, too, where for the first time we can access an or herself….” audience directly through the Internet. We don’t necessarily have to go out and build a television station. We don’t have Moeller: “I want to ask the three photographers to speak to print a magazine each week. And the barrier to entry as far a little bit about some broader issues, particularly to the role as the news business is concerned is a lot lower. And that Ron mentioned of the photographer as an observer and hopefully it will encourage a new type of journalism…. I’m a witness. [We know] there’s been a general retreat from trying to be optimistic. I’m hoping that this will create new

Images of war in Kosovo. Photos by Gary Knight©.

56 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism avenues for photojournalists and videographers or multime- Audience comment: “I work for a paper that’s really dia journalists. driven by photographs and I’ve had world stories that I “As photojournalists, we’ve pretty much been relegated wanted to get on Page 1 that didn’t get there because there to the role of illustrators. I think the new technologies will wasn’t a good enough photograph. And I’ve had other world help empower us. For so long we’ve had a print-dominated stories that got out there because there was a great photo- media. I think in the next few years that it’s going to change graph and there was really something else I wanted to put in a very dramatic way. What I’m trying to do is embrace out. So it’s moving in your direction.” those changes and bring photo, text and video journalists together to forge a new type of programming, a new type of Audience comment: “I, too, have been a photographer communication. And so I want to be optimistic about it, but in combat and have also written a book about war photog- at the same time it’s a tough battle that we have, and it’s raphy, and we are talking about illustrations and how they something that we all should recognize because nobody do not have any impact. What we are talking about, at least wants to spend money on international news.” what I am talking about, is that these photographs are not integrated into the story and the event as a whole, and that Haviv: “Speaking from my personal experience and from they are often a gross simplification of what is happening. stories that have been told to me by colleagues, text editors The classic example is a famine where you see pictures of the seem to look at photography quite often, unless it’s some- starving babies and with which you certainly get people’s thing incredibly dramatic, as illustrations. And I think that attention. But you lead people to the assumption that you most photographers feel that we’re not often given the feed the babies and the crisis is over, when most of us in this respect given to the traditional journalists. The concept of room, I am sure, are well aware that famines are much more the photojournalist does not seem to have gone through all complicated than that. So I think that’s the dilemma that the different levels that exist at newspapers, magazines and photographers wrestle with.” wire services.” Audience comment: “If you look back at the history of Audience members then commented. photojournalism and magazine reporting during the 1950’s and 60’s there was much more integration between the Audience comment: “I’m only a consumer of the news photographs and text. In those days a photographer and a you cover. When I think of the power that photography has writer were sent out together to do a story, and they would had in shaping public opinion in this country about wars, I spend a month or six weeks and go out and work together. think it’s probably the most important thing that has changed They had the time and they had the money to do that. Today, and molded public opinion. The Sarajevo market, for ex- because of financial constraints, people don’t want to pay us ample, or Somalia, or that Time magazine cover of refugees to go out for a month. They want to get that in a day or two fleeing in Bosnia and a woman is walking and…nursing a days or three days because it’s expensive. It’s really an baby trying to do the most simply ordinary human task that expensive thing to send a photographer off on an assign- is possible to imagine in the middle of this. I think these ment or to send a writer on an assignment. If you have to photos moved so many people. And I’m sorry that you guys send both of them, then it doubles the cost. I think that is a don’t really think you’re appreciated, because I will tell you very significant reason why there is not that integration. But at least in this precinct here you are really appreciated.” it also has to do with the power structures at magazines or newspapers and how people view the different mediums.” ■

Photos by Gary Knight©.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 57 Photojournalism Dying to Get the Story A journalist reflects on which risks are necessary.

By Mary Kay Magistad

t was a sunny May man Miguel Gil Moreno, morning when I was age 32, shook many for- Iscrolling through the eign correspondents latest wire reports and saw deeply. Both men were the headline, “Two jour- admired for their courage, nalists killed in Sierra their integrity, and their Leone.” I winced, as I do judgment, and respected whenever I hear of fellow for their considerable ex- journalists paying the ulti- perience in war zones. mate price for doing their True, on this particular day job. they were reporting in no- I scrolled down further toriously unstable Sierra and suddenly felt the wind Leone, where 15 journal- knocked out of me. One ists have been killed since of the reporters killed was 1997 (by the count of the Reuters correspondent New York-based Commit- Kurt Schork, an old friend tee to Protect Journalists). from a decade ago when And true, as wire service we were both freelance reporters, they chose not journalists in Southeast to report the story from the Asia. Kurt had come to the relative safety of Freetown. region with his then-girl- But having decided to friend and my colleague, venture out, they took the National Public Radio cor- usual precautions. They respondent Deborah traveled in a group for Wang, ditching his public safety and for companion- sector job to try his hand ship, with Reuters’ photog- at journalism, at the age of rapher Yannis Behrakis and 42. From the beginning, Reuters’ cameraman Mark Kurt struck me as being Chisholm. They proceeded thoughtful, funny, skepti- with caution on unknown cal and wise. He threw roads, asking at a check- himself into his new call- point whether the road was ing with energy and disci- In October 1992, Reuters correspondent Kurt Schork rushed a 13-year- safe ahead. They were told pline. old boy to a car after a mortar exploded in Sarajevo. Photo by Peter it was. Not long after, a Then came a day in Au- Kullmann, Reuters©. group of about a dozen gust, not many months militiamen in T-shirts am- after Kurt had taken up bushed the convoy. Kurt journalism. He and I and Deb were in lated about how the United States might and Miguel, both of whom were driv- a car coming back from Vietnam’s bor- react. Four months later, Deb and Kurt ing, were shot and killed instantly. der with China, where we’d been re- were on their way to cover the Gulf Yannis and Mark were wounded, but porting a story on black market trade. War, and from there Kurt began his escaped into the bush. Four of the Kurt had his ear to his short wave radio, rapid trajectory to becoming, by many armed government soldiers traveling trying to decipher the crackle as the car accounts, the most respected journal- with them, as escorts, were also killed. bumped along the dirt road, weaving ist covering Bosnia—the gold standard The Guardian’s Julian Borger, who around cows and bicycles. against which other reporters judged had reported with Kurt and Miguel in “Hey, Iraq has invaded Kuwait!” he whether they’d gotten the story right. Bosnia and East Timor, wrote that they exclaimed. We all strained to hear, and Kurt’s death, at age 53, and the death and the two other journalists traveling when we’d lost the signal, we specu- of his friend, Associated Press camera- with them “were all brave, but aware of

58 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism the risks involved in their work and 1980’s and early 1990’s, when I was after staring down the barrel of a re- alert to the need to reassess them and covering the Cambodian civil war and volver in eastern Cambodia, after the control them at all times. Any reporter ethnic conflicts in Burma, I saw young U.N.-sponsored 1993 elections. The who knew them would have felt confi- freelance photographers—many in ruling party had proven to be a sore dent to have accompanied them.” their early 20’s—spend as much time loser, with one of its factions announc- “But risks can never be calculated as they could on the frontlines and ing a “secession” of the eastern prov- entirely,” Borger said. “The ground then brag over beers about how close inces. The ploy lasted only a few days can shift beneath your feet without they’d come to being shot. They seemed and gained the party what it wanted— warning, especially in as fluid and un- to feel exhilarated by the experience, a significant share of power. But mean- predictable a place as the Sierra Leone convinced that they were invincible, while, supporters of the victorious roy- bush…. They would have known that, and eager to rush in for more. I won- alist party were killed. A U.N. helicopter too, as they set out to do their job.” dered at the time whether they were was shot at. The “secessionists” threat- Each journalist has his or her own taking on more risk than necessary, ened to kill U.N. workers unless they calculus for risk, based on experience, whether what they were doing was vacated the eastern provinces. commitment to the story, and some- more reckless than brave. It was in this setting that I, with the thing far more personal. In the late I asked myself the same question BBC’s Ian Simpson and Australia ABC’s

Journalists Learn How to Protect Themselves in War

At a May 2000 conference called “The We now have training courses devel- were able to identify land mines in World of Conflict,” co-sponsored by oped by two major groups, Centurion their treks getting out of Kosovo. An- The Crimes of War Project and The and AKE, and the leading group, Cen- other pointed to the first-aid training Freedom Forum, former soldiers who turion, is with us today. that they got. They said that when one now teach journalists how to assess “[I]t is often said that journalists are of their colleagues was hurt, they were risks while covering wars spoke about being taught to be soldiers, that this is able to apply what they learned in the aspects of this training. Known as the sort of journalists become soldiers of course.” Hostile Environments Training Course, war. And articles written about these it was developed with the help of jour- training courses often make this mis- Paul Rees [director of Centurion]: nalists and is mandatory for every take as well. The critical point is that “[W]e were approached from the BBC BBC reporter going into a conflict zone. these courses were developed by jour- when I was still serving in the Royal Former Royal Marine Paul Rees, direc- nalists in conversations with these Marines and asked if we could come up tor of Centurion Risk Assessment Ser- former soldiers. The important point is with a program for journalists for hos- vices Ltd., one of the companies which the control is rested in the hands of the tile environments. What was the hos- does this training, and Jon Seward, journalists. And when you hear that tile environment at that time? Well, at also a former Royal Marine and these are courses teaching journalists the time it was the former Yugoslavia. Centurion’s chief instructor, spoke how to be soldiers, please try to correct They wanted to do something about about the program. Edited excerpts the record. safety training. So with our knowledge from their remarks follow. “The other thing is what is happen- from being ex-Marines and with the ing with Centurion and the other group, knowledge of journalists, senior jour- John Owen [director, The Freedom AKE, is that these courses are for the nalists, senior media workers, camera Forum European Center]: “Britain has first time being taught to local journal- crews, reporters, we have come up at become the center for what is known ists. Going back to late November of the present time with a real good course as the Hostile Environments Training 1998 in Tirana, Albania, 20 journalists for journalists…. Every time somebody Course, a rather large mouthful that were brought together and given signs up for the Hostile Environments says basically that journalists are being courses that gave them some of the Course, they think on the first day it’s given the benefit of courses that I think expertise that Western journalists get flak jacket on, helmet on, and we’re most people feel are helping to keep before they go off to the war zones. It is off. It’s not. It’s a general awareness them alive, or at the very least giving a policy now in the BBC that no jour- course that covers everything from them many more smarts in the field nalist can go to a conflict zone unless personal security, from you walking about how to stay alive. they’ve been through this course. down the street in any city through to “The courses came about in part “The local journalists who took that the full-blown war zone where the because the BBC took leadership in course in Albania told me later that bullets and the bombs do happen. this area after one of their journalists, they thought it had kept them alive. John Schofield, was killed in Croatia. One journalist said this because they continued on next page

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 59 Photojournalism

Evan Williams, arrived in Prey Veng. Khmer that we were journalists, the story is nothing special. Each day of We interviewed frightened U.N. work- soldiers waved at us to back off. When reporting a conflict involves risk and, ers taking shelter in the back of their we didn’t immediately stop, the body- occasionally, facing down a gun. I had building while U.N. soldiers in flak guard scowled, looked directly at me— been in other conflict situations, be- jackets and helmets kept a wary watch the one who was speaking in Khmer— fore and since, but had never felt shaken at the front. U.N. vehicles had already pulled his revolver and swiftly leveled in the same way. The difference, I sup- been trashed and windows shattered. it at me, marksman style. I was just a pose, was that this post-election pe- To get the other side of the story, we few paces away, and for one heart- riod wasn’t meant to be a conflict and, tried to walk down a nearby road to the stopping moment he did not look to until then, Westerners in Cambodia place where we knew the secession any of us like he was going to let me off rarely had been targets. But as Julian leader, Prince Norodom Chakrapong, with a warning. I froze. He kept the gun Borger put it so well, “the ground can was holding a rally. leveled. I backed off, slowly. He kept shift beneath your feet without warn- The two soldiers and one plain- the gun trained on me until we were all ing,” even after years of covering a clothes bodyguard standing at our end in our car, driving away in the other country and believing that you know of the street had other ideas. As we direction. the risks. walked toward them, shouting in To many a war correspondent, this Did that Cambodian story on that

Journalists Learn How… conference about the calculated risks line. What we try to make you appreci- continued from previous page they take to do their job in the midst of ate is the fact that wherever you are the conflict. Excerpts from their remarks target, if you are the target, [we want “We are firm believers from our past can be found on page 54. you to] have an appreciation of what’s experience that we only learn or we being fired at you and from where it’s learn greater when we’re on the ground “I’d like to say, as a former profes- being fired at you. And if you are in the and we’re under pressure, when we sional serviceman and having served actual killing zone itself, [we want to] have to go to these scenarios, get our throughout the world in various con- give you an appreciation of what these hands bloody. So that’s why our course, flicts and probably the longest current weapons can do and at the same time a lot of it, is outside. terrorist threat in the Western world at what you can lie behind, sit behind, “We talk about the importance of the moment, I take my hat off to the crawl behind, or whatever the case is, identifying hazards to reduce the risk three photographers [Haviv, Knight and to avoid being hurt, even if it’s only for to the lowest possible level. Flak jack- Lehman]. They have my utmost re- a couple of minutes or a couple of ets, do you take them, do you not take spect. Considering the fact that I had a seconds in some extreme cases. Then, them? Again, that is up to the indi- weapon in my hand all those times and hopefully, we are giving you some sort vidual. Some people may not even be they just basically had their wits, their of appreciation of where you can and, given them, cannot afford one, they common sense, and maybe dare I say more importantly, where you cannot have old ones—are they worth taking? their sense of humor, undoubtedly they go, and if you go into that area, how These are the risks that they are trying have the greatest of respect. long you can actually stay there for. to assess prior to going, and we discuss “When we talk about ballistics, what “We show you exactly what you can all of these all the way through. do we mean by ballistics? Basically we hide behind and what you can’t hide “[I]t’s all to do with risk assessment, mean anything, whether it be shoulder behind by taking the journalists down and I do emphasize on the course we launched, held in your hand, or fired to a range just outside London. We don’t tell you what’s black or white, it’s from artillery, tanks, aircraft even down actually fire small-arms ammunition, just to give you the options. The way to cruise missiles. When you look at the whether it be from handguns, shot- we give them the options is show hun- advent of technology where we can be guns, assault weapons, machine guns, dreds of clips and let the people in the hit from, you’re talking about ranges sniper weapons, to give you an appre- course be the judge of what can hap- anything out to 300, maybe 400 miles ciation of what will stop a round. Alter- pen. So when we go on and do the away. If you’re in the wrong place at natively, particularly with machine scenarios, they have loads of other the wrong time, you’re not going to guns, [we show] how long you can options to think about.” really appreciate that until that cruise afford to stay behind a brick wall, a missile can come up a Beirut street and house door, or whatever the case is Jon Seward, Centurion’s chief in- turn left or whatever the case is. before those rounds actually penetrate structor, began his remarks by prais- “Fundamentally, though, what we and come through on top of you.” ■ ing the work of the three photogra- actually look at is how the small arms phers who spoke earlier at the affect you as the individual on the front-

60 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Photojournalism particular day need to be told? Abso- that the world needed to hear about lutely. Did we need to defy Cambodian the atrocities being committed against soldiers who were already in a bad civilians, and that governments had to mood, by continuing to walk toward be prodded to act. them? Probably not. There were other From what I knew about Kurt and routes to the rally, other ways of get- Sander, they were too professional to ting the information we needed. In this take shortcuts, but they were not reck- particular case, as in other unpredict- less. They, and Miguel, and many oth- able and dangerous situations, the saf- ers like them over the years, have been est journey between two points may killed because they were doing their not be a straight line. jobs the best way they knew how, even In an article posted to Kurt’s memo- if it meant putting their own safety on rial page, journalists Stacy Sullivan and the line. Their deaths should not make Ed Vulliamy of The Observer in Britain, any of us back away from taking neces- said that many of Kurt’s friends were sary risks but, perhaps, could give pause “angered as well as saddened by his to reflect on which risks are necessary. death.” They questioned whether Kurt Kurt Schork. Reuters©. The answer is different for each indi- really had to be on that particular road vidual and for each situation, but the on that particular day, whether he re- Another journalist I liked and re- ally needed to be covering another war spected, 30-year-old Financial Times at all. After all, he had finally moved stringer Sander Thoenes, felt a similar Each journalist has back to the United States with his commitment. He was killed in Septem- Bosnian girlfriend, had bought a house ber 1999, riding on the back of a mo- his or her own in the Washington, D.C. area and had torcycle on a reporting expedition to calculus for risk, spent months fixing it up, was working villages just outside the East Timorese based on on a long-awaited book on Bosnia, and capital of Dili, trying to give terrorized was planning to cover the Summer East Timorese civilians a chance to be experience, Olympics in Australia. Why the need to heard. The East Timorese motorcycle commitment to the take one more extreme risk? driver said that as he and Sander ap- story, and Both Kurt and Miguel had their own proached a military checkpoint, Sander answers to that question. Miguel had worried about the driver’s safety and something far more been the sole international camera- told him to make a U-turn. The men— personal. man to stay in Kosovo during NATO’s in military uniform—shouted for them air campaign. It was his pictures that to stop and then opened fire. One showed the world how thousands of bullet hit the motorcycle’s rear tire. It Kosovar Albanians were being crammed fell over. The driver ran into the bushes. goal remains the same—to get the most complete story possible and to be around to tell it. ■ …I have no doubt that these journalists took Mary Kay Magistad, a 2000 Nieman the risks they took because they believed so Fellow, opened National Public strongly that the world needed to hear about Radio’s Beijing bureau. She was the atrocities being committed against NPR’s China correspondent (1995- 99), Southeast Asia correspondent civilians, and that governments had to be (1993-95), and a Bangkok-based prodded to act. contributor to The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and other media (1988-92). She also covered the into trains and deported. Kurt had been Sander lay on the ground. From the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan known to say that he felt a moral obli- bushes, the driver later said, he could genocide and is currently working gation to stay in Bosnia, to get the story hear the men approach. He heard one on a book on the legacy of trauma out and make the world take notice. of them say, “Kill him.” Sander’s body in societies that have faced violent He was known for his idealism and his was found nearby, a day later. He’d social implosion. relentless pursuit of the facts on the been stabbed, repeatedly; his face was ground. If civilians were still being badly mutilated. slaughtered and maimed in Sierra In both cases, I have no doubt that Leone, Kurt would likely have felt com- these journalists took the risks they pelled to tell the story. took because they believed so strongly

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 61 Words & Reflections

The death penalty is under the journalistic microscope. Scrutiny of prosecutions and court procedures, along with new testing of DNA evidence, is illuminating ways in which the legal system—from the cops to the courts—does not always arrive at a just conclusion. John Painter (’77 NF), a court and public safety reporter for The Oregonian, peers inside the pages of a recently published book, “Actual Innocence,” to shed light on some critical questions crime reporters sometimes forget to ask. He provides vivid examples of how misconduct by police and prosecutors resulted in incorrect verdicts and shows how crime reporters can avoid writing “the easy story” which might be profoundly wrong.

Chicago Tribune legal affairs writer Ken Armstrong (’01 NF) asked some of the critical questions raised in Painter’s review. He invites us to follow him and fellow reporter Steve Mills as they extensively probed the subject of wrongful convictions in three series that the paper published between January 1999 and June 2000. Their investigative articles focused on misconduct by prosecutors, the death penalty in Illinois, and the death penalty in Texas. Illinois Governor George Ryan cited findings from the Tribune’s coverage as he declared a moratorium on executions two months after their articles were published.

Michael Gartner, who won the 1997 Pulitzer for Editorial Writing, reviews “The Hunting of the President,” and finds the book’s spotlight focused on questionable actions of the Washington press corps. “It is a depressing book,” he writes. “For news people, it is especially depressing.” Robert Manning (’46 NF), former editor of The Atlantic Monthly, reflects on “An American Album,” a collection of 150 years of articles that appeared in Harper’s, with thoughts about why Harper’s and The Atlantic Monthly have survived during a time when so many other magazines have vanished. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill journalism professor Philip Meyer (’67 NF) introduces us to the views of various contributors who tackled the question of “What’s Fair?” in a book of the same name, edited by Nieman Curator Robert Giles and Robert W. Snyder. “If truth is whatever works for you,” Meyer concludes, “there is no need for journalism.”

Journalist and author Anne Driscoll writes about why she refused to sign a new contract with The Boston Globe that required freelance writers to surrender their control of and rights to compensation for reuse of their work, including use on the newspaper’s Web site. How emerging ways of transmitting news will affect the ownership rights of those who produce it is an issue that will inhabit the lives of 21st century journalists. ■

62 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Words & Reflections

Questions Crime Reporters Sometimes Forget to Ask In murder cases, the ‘easy story’ to report might be profoundly wrong.

Actual Innocence Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, Jim Dwyer Doubleday. 298 Pages. $24.95.

By John Painter, Jr.

t is the nightmare of nightmares. victed rapists and death row inmates Cold, deadly, lethal. by proving them factually innocent. I Busted, tried, convicted and con- Critics of “Actual Innocence” scoff demned to death. that it is overblown; that the authors But you are truly, really, totally in- are unrequited bleeding hearts. More nocent. than a few prosecutors who vocally That’s what “Actual Innocence” is all support the death penalty dismiss those about. It is a compelling account of the cases in which innocent defendants wrongfully accused, wrongfully con- end up in prison or on death row by victed, wrongfully imprisoned and— observing that you can’t make an om- whew!—finally vindicated. elet without breaking a few eggs. The authors are Barry Scheck and The book quotes Kevin Doyle, the Peter Neufeld, of the Benjamin Cardozo capital defender for the state of New School of Law at New York’s Yeshiva York, who observed, “Some people University and co-founders of the now- think that an error rate of one percent homa with his dad to a skeet shooting nationally renowned Innocence is acceptable for the death penalty.” match at the Dallas Gun Club. As nearly Project, joined by two-time Pulitzer But, he continued, if you asked the FAA a dozen shooters enjoyed their day, 11- Prize-winning New York Daily News to approve an airplane that would kill year-old “Molly M,” who was home columnist Jim Dwyer. Their work or injure passengers every 100th time alone in Tulsa, was assaulted and raped should give all journalists—particularly it landed, “people would say you are by a red-haired stranger with a pock- those covering courts and cops—the nuts.” marked face. willies. Moreover, the book’s case studies The assault got big play in the Tulsa Subtitled “Five Days to Execution, show that prosecutors strain mightily media. In time, police focused on 29- and Other Dispatches from the Wrong- to break the eggs needed for the om- year-old Tim Durham, who matched fully Accused,” the book is a chronicle elet. Indeed, among the charts at the the pedophile’s physical description. of injustices that involve lying cops, end of the book one is about misbehav- Despite Durham’s solid alibi, he was corrupt prosecutors, false or coerced ior by prosecutors. Among the miscon- charged and tried. Not only did Molly M convincingly identify him as her as- sailant, but also the prosecution fur- Their work should give all journalists— ther bolstered its case by using “junk particularly those covering courts and cops— science” hair evidence—and, the the willies. clincher, DNA evidence. Durham was convicted and sen- tenced to 3,220 years in prison, which an appellate court later cut to 3,120 confessions, rigged lab tests, incompe- duct: suppression of exculpatory evi- years. But after the Innocence Project tent defense lawyers, perjury by jail- dence, knowing use of false testimony, got involved it proved that the DNA house snitches, mistaken eyewitnesses, improper closing arguments, false state- tests by a Texas laboratory called and hair evidence that proves exactly ment to juries, evidence fabrication, GeneScreen “were riddled with quality nothing. The individual stories in the and use of coerced witnesses. control problems” so severe they book are compelling by themselves. One case the book describes is that turned “solid science into junk.” Re- They detail in some cases how the new of Tim Durham, who on May 30, 1991 testing by Dr. Edward Blake at the science of DNA testing has freed con- had driven five hours from Tulsa, Okla- Forensic Science Associates laboratory

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 63 Words & Reflections unequivocally excluded Durham as the discovered on a bluff in the pictur- Jesperson eventually confessed to Rick source of the sperm left at the crime esque Columbia River Gorge just east Buckner, a Clark County [Washington] scene. of the city. She had been strangled, and sheriff’s detective. As Jesperson was Durham was freed after spending the rope was still around her neck. being questioned, detectives obtained five years in prison where he was beaten Soon, the lead investigator in the case, a letter he recently had written to his by inmates who believed him to be a Detective Alan Corson of the Oregon brother. In it, Jesperson confessed to child molester. State Police, had a suspect. His name eight murders. I was covering the case The book castigates appellate court was John A. Sosnovski, an alcoholic at the time and got a copy of the letter. findings of “harmless error,” which who has been in trouble with the law. The unique handwriting matched ex- upholds convictions even when mis- conduct by police or prosecutors are exposed. “Lies,” Harvard law professor The book indicates that reporters covering Alan Dershowitz calls them, “Testalie”—those times when police cops and courts need to be wary of provide untruthful testimony under confessions. oath to assist a case. Also, cheating in lower courts is excused by higher ones, the authors say. He was fingered by his off-again, on- actly the distinctive lettering in “The Commonly nothing ever happens to again girlfriend, Laverne Pavlinac. Happy Face Killer’s” confession sent to the police or prosecution liars after At first, Pavlinac’s accusations that The Oregonian. they have been exposed. Cops and Sosnovski was involved in Bennett’s Jesperson eventually admitted kill- snitches who get caught lying under murder didn’t hold water. But the more ings in Oregon, California, Wyoming oath almost never receive any sanc- she was questioned, the more she and Florida, including Bennett’s. How- tion, formal or informal. Only rarely is learned about the case from detectives. ever, the prosecutors who convicted a faulty search warrant suppressed in So her confessions became more and Pavlinac and Sosnovski didn’t believe pretrial motions. Prosecutors also usu- more convincing. The last straw came he had killed Bennett until Jesperson ally escape the consequences of their when Pavlinac, then 62, said that she led them to the blackberry thicket misdeeds. But the ordinary citizen gets held a rope around the victim’s neck as where he said he threw her purse. An slammed for identical behavior, as do Sosnovski raped her. excavation of the area turned up defendants. The cops, prosecutors and At one point, Pavlinac, wearing a Bennett’s picture identification. incompetent defense lawyers usually police wire, tried to persuade Sosnovski Two factually innocent people were walk away with their feathers intact. to confess by telling him he killed the in prison. Getting them out was an The book indicates that reporters victim during an alcoholic blackout. arduous process, but eventually the covering cops and courts need to be Though he eventually pleaded guilty pair was freed. And even though the wary of confessions. Few reporters to murder to escape the death penalty, prosecution conceded the innocence know that many police receive formal he maintained that he could not re- of Pavlinac and Sosnovski, Corson interrogation training. They are often member the killing. Pavlinac went to would not. The day before Jesperson taught with a widely used police text- trial, but dramatically changed her was transferred to Wyoming to plead book, “Criminal Interrogation and story. She testified that she made up guilty to murder there, Corson visited Confessions,” by Fred E. Inbau, John E. the confession; that she was just trying Jesperson in the Oregon State Peniten- Reid, and Joseph P. Buckley. In its to get Sosnovski, who was abusive, out tiary, where he was serving several long introduction, the authors assert, “We of her life. Nonetheless, she, too, was terms for Oregon killings. are opposed to the use of any interro- convicted of murder. Both defendants Corson tried to get Jesperson to gation tactic or technique that is apt to received life sentences. sign a statement that he had falsely make an innocent person confess.” But, Then, in 1994, long after Pavlinac confessed to Bennett’s slaying and that they continue, “We do approve, how- and Sosnovski had been forgotten, The Pavlinac and Sosnovski were the real ever, of such psychological tactics and Oregonian received an anonymous let- killers. Jesperson viewed Corson with techniques as trickery and deceit that ter. The writer claimed responsibility disdain and said as much in letters to are not only helpful but frequently for five murders, including Bennett’s. news reporters. In a December 9, 1997 indispensable in order to secure in- The letter contained drawings of smiley letter, Jesperson wrote of Corson, “I criminating information from the guilty, faces. In a series of articles, the un- just gave him enough line to hang or to obtain investigative leads from known murderer was dubbed “The himself. [He] claimed Mike Schrunk otherwise uncooperative witnesses or Happy Face Killer.” [the district attorney whose office con- informants.” In March 1995, Keith Jesperson, 40, victed Pavlinac and Sosnovski] will drop One of the most bizarre cases of of Selah, Washington, was arrested for the 30-year [murder] sentence…and false confessions occurred in Portland, the murder of Julie Ann Cunningham, even drop the 37 1/2 year one [a differ- Oregon. In January 1990, the body of whose strangled body was found ent slaying], too. He is a total pain in Taunja Bennett, 23, of Portland, was dumped alongside the Columbia River. the ass.”

64 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Words & Reflections

Professors Elizabeth Loftus and Ri- truth. When reporters quiz police about serves that “the state is the official ver- chard Ofshe are outspoken critics of confessions, Loftus says, “one thing sion” of crimes.” And, she points out, contemporary police procedures in- you want to ask about for sure is the “the easiest person to convict is some- volving both eyewitness identification non-identifications. Were there other one who has done something else.” and confessions. They urge that all witnesses who made no identification, For most reporters, access to the lineups, picture throwdowns and or even better, said, ‘It’s not him.’?” inside of the case really doesn’t occur questionings by police be videotaped. Reporters also should ask police until the defense begins receiving the Typically, police only tape-record the “details about their procedures,” Loftus evidence against the defendant. After final, solid version of a confession and says. “You’re looking to see if they gave the initial flurry of arrest and charging, almost never make any recording— the witness an admonition before the prosecutors typically dummy up, justi- visual or audio—of eyewitness identifi- identification, such as, ‘The guy may or fying their silence by citing bar-press cations. may not be in there,’ or, ‘It’s just as guidelines or the desire to avoid preju- Loftus is a professor of psychology important to exonerate the innocent dicial pretrial publicity. The silence is and an adjunct professor of law at the as it is to get the guilty party.’ They particularly deafening in the two areas University of Washington, who is one should be doing that, but they don’t about which reporters need to be espe- of the world’s experts on eyewitness always.” cially skeptical—confessions and eye- identification. Ofshe is a professor of Scheck, Neufeld and Dwyer use witness identification. sociology at the University of Califor- charts to show instances of race and How reporters can obtain critical nia at Berkeley, an acknowledged ex- misidentification. The biggest mistakes information about those pivotal areas pert on police-induced false confes- were in the identification of African- in high-profile prosecutions is a con- sions. Loftus has done basic research Americans by whites, in which 35 per- stant challenge. Even reporters with into eyewitness testimony. When she cent were wrong. But the second larg- “solid gold” police/prosecution sources began her inquiry into memory, the est mistake category—28 percent—was cannot reasonably expect them to serve universal belief was that eyewitness whites misidentifying whites and the up a corner-cutting colleague. Culti- testimony was as reliable as a video- third largest category—24 percent— vating communication with the defense tape or a home movie. Loftus found the was African-Americans wrongly identi- is a critical, if complex, necessity, but opposite. fying African-Americans. can illuminate flaws in the “official” When interviewers asked questions, In a study of DNA exonerations, the scenario of the alleged crime. Loftus discovered, the queries them- Innocence Project found that 84 per- Ironically and unfortunately, prob- selves had influence, and even the spe- cent of the wrongful convictions rested, ing media inquiries into actual inno- cific words in the questions signifi- at least in part, on mistaken identifica- cence almost never begin until after a cantly affected the answer. For example, tion by a victim or eyewitness, the conviction. And, contemporaneously, the question, “How fast were the two authors write. In analyzing the role of the investigation generally occurs cars going when they hit each other?” police misconduct in wrongful convic- through a group other than the news will induce witnesses to give slower tions, the authors show that nine per- media—the Chicago Tribune, of speed estimates than “…when they cent involve coerced confessions; 33 course, is a conspicuous exception. smashed each other?” By carefully percent involve allegations of undue [See article by Chicago Tribune re- phrased questioning, Loftus found her suggestion in pretrial identification porter Ken Armstrong about that subjects were helped to remember stop procedures; nine percent are evidence paper’s series of stories on death pen- signs as yield signs. Indeed, in a Loftus fabrication; 36 percent, the suppres- alty convictions on page 66.] Folks like video of a car crash that I watched, sion of exculpatory evidence, and nine the Innocence Project or the North- almost all of the viewers, myself in- percent involved the alleged coercion western University School of Law class cluded, misreported what they actu- of witnesses. has secured the release of wrongfully ally saw. In her research, Loftus has The book illuminates the necessity condemned inmates in Illinois. discovered—again in contrast to com- for even the most beleaguered court Hard-news reporters covering too mon beliefs—that violent events de- reporter to look twice at the official many crimes with too little time need crease the accuracy of memory. She presentation that is provided the me- to take this book to heart. The “official found that memory is weakest at both dia in serious criminal cases. Except in version” may be the easy story, but it low and high levels of stimulation, as in the most sensational or curious cases, also may be the profoundly wrong one. sleepiness or shock, and concluded it police investigations are conducted Reporters need to do all they can to is brittle, suggestible and can fade as without any media scrutiny. Arrests for make sure the facts they print are in- time passes. major crimes are reported deed the right ones. ■ Translated into real-life crime situa- unhesitatingly. The charging docu- tions, the premises are clear. People ments—indictments or informations John Painter, Jr., a 1977 Nieman who witness violent crimes, when ques- [charging documents requiring that Fellow, is a court and public safety tioned by police and detectives—who probable cause must be established to reporter for The Oregonian. themselves have a theory of “their” bring the case to trial]—are generally case—may not end up reporting the received without question. Loftus ob-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 65 Words & Reflections Dead Men Talking Chicago Tribune reporters highlight fault lines in the justice system.

By Ken Armstrong

n January 31, 2000, criminal justice issues. An Illinois Governor in-depth account of a single OGeorge Ryan took case can certainly make for a the historic step of declar- gripping story. But stranded ing a moratorium on execu- without context, these iso- tions, making Illinois the lated miscarriages of justice first state to suspend the can be, and often are, dis- march of condemned in- missed as mere aberrations. mates to the death cham- A comprehensive approach, ber. The announcement by one that quantifies those Ryan, a Republican who sup- elements that regularly con- ports the death penalty in tribute to cases of wrongful principle, resounded conviction, assumes a power throughout this nation and and significance that report- the world. ing on a single case simply At the Coliseum in Rome, cannot acquire. Bernon Howery, sentenced to death for the murder of four chil- golden lights flickered on In our investigation of the dren, three of whom were his, in a 1989 house fire, is being held at and burned through the death penalty in Illinois, we the Kankakee Detention Center. Photo by Heather Stone, courtesy night in celebration. In examined all 285 cases in of the Chicago Tribune. Washington, President which a person had been Clinton praised Ryan’s cour- sentenced to death since Il- age, while members of Congress pro- from our series, including our findings linois reinstated capital punishment in posed a moratorium on federal execu- on the high number of sanctioned de- 1977. Our reporting included review- tions. The New Hampshire legislature fense attorneys and the prevalent use ing Illinois Supreme Court and federal voted to abolish the death penalty, of jailhouse-informant testimony in court rulings, appellate briefs, trial tran- although that measure was vetoed. capital cases. In describing the need scripts, trial exhibits, affidavits and Governors in Indiana and Maryland for a moratorium, Ryan cited the other supporting materials used on ordered studies of their own systems Tribune’s findings and the state’s abys- appeal. That research helped us isolate of capital punishment. In Virginia, mal track record of exonerating more particularly compelling examples of Christian Coalition founder Pat death row inmates than it has executed. justice gone awry while also uncover- Robertson expressed doubts about the For Steve and me, Ryan’s announce- ing how certain fault lines run through death penalty. So did conservative col- ment helped validate our approach to dozens or even scores of capital cases. umnist George Will and a variety of reporting on criminal justice issues and Here is some of what we learned by other unexpected voices. New polls reaffirmed that “the power of the pen” meticulously working our way back showed significant declines in capital is not a hollow cliché. through these court records. punishment’s public support. In three series that the paper pub- In Chicago, where Ryan made his lished between January 1999 and June •At least 33 times, a defendant sen- announcement before a thicket of mi- 2000, the Tribune tackled the subject tenced to die was represented at crophones and cameras, the morato- of wrongful convictions, determined trial by an attorney who has been rium provided an exclamation point to to learn why our nation’s courts re- disbarred or suspended, sanctions a five-part series that ran in the Chicago peatedly convict innocent people, and reserved for conduct so incompe- Tribune two months before. The se- even condemn them to die. The trilogy tent, unethical or even criminal the ries, published in November 1999 fol- consisted of investigations focusing on lawyer’s license is taken away. In lowing an eight-month investigation, misconduct by prosecutors, the death one case, a judge appointed an at- detailed the failure of the death pen- penalty in Illinois, and the death pen- torney to defend a man’s life a mere alty in Illinois. Fellow reporter Steve alty in Texas. 10 days after the attorney got his law Mills and I attended the press confer- Our goal was to move beyond the license back. The attorney had just ence and had the unusual experience kind of anecdotal reporting that so served a nine-month suspension for of hearing the governor recite statistics often defines the media’s coverage of failing a string of clients through

66 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Words & Reflections

incompetence and dishonesty. Bush said he saw no reason for his kinds of systematic problems that we •At least 35 times, a defendant sent to state—the nation’s busiest execu- isolated in our reporting plagued our death row was black and the jury tioner—to follow Illinois’ lead. Bush, courts then and continue to do so now. that determined guilt or sentence the Republican candidate for President, That continuum shows how deeply was all white. This is a racial compo- expressed unwavering confidence in ingrained such problems are. sition that prosecutors consider such the fairness and accuracy of his state’s Statistics can resonate. In a time an advantage that they have removed system of capital punishment. That when anecdotal leads dominate news as many as 20 African-Americans statement prompted Steve and me, pages and the emphasis is often on from a single trial’s jury pool to along with a third reporter, Douglas using a single event, person or case to achieve it. Of the 65 death penalty Holt, to head to Texas and apply our illuminate a larger story, we sometimes cases in Illinois with a black defen- systemic approach to death penalty forget that numbers hold power. In dant and a white victim, the jury was cases there. We examined 131 cases in announcing the moratorium on execu- all white in 21 of them, or in nearly which an inmate had been executed tions in Illinois, Governor Ryan relied a third. while Bush has been governor. Four on statistics, not individual stories. •In at least 46 cases in which a defen- months of investigative reporting pro- In writing about the criminal justice dant was sentenced to die, the duced some stunning results. system, issues of fairness should not be prosecution’s evidence included a discounted as legal esoterica. We sell jailhouse informant. Such witnesses •In 43 cases, or nearly one-third, a readers, listeners and viewers short have proved so unreliable that some defendant was represented at trial when we assume they care only about states have begun warning jurors to or on initial appeal by an attorney questions of a person’s innocence. The treat them with special skepticism. who has been publicly sanctioned Tribune’s findings on the shortcom- •In at least 20 cases in which a defen- for misconduct. ings of sentencing hearings in Texas’ dant was sentenced to die, the •In 40 cases, defense attorneys pre- capital cases said nothing about inno- prosecution’s evidence included a sented no evidence whatsoever or cence or guilt, but spoke volumes about crime lab employee’s visual com- only one witness during the trial’s the system’s fairness. parison of hairs. This type of foren- sentencing phase. In at least 29 cases, Those findings, and many others, sic evidence dates to the 19th cen- the prosecution presented a type of reverberate among our readers and in tury and has proved so notoriously dubious psychiatric evidence that other media accounts of our series. imprecise that its use is now re- the American Psychiatric Association Too often, journalists don’t pay heed stricted in some jurisdictions out- has condemned as unethical and to what’s going on in our midst. We side Illinois. untrustworthy. We also found that simply miss the big picture. For ex- •Errors by judges, ineptitude by de- jailhouse-informant testimony and ample, the number of exonerated in- fense attorneys, and prosecutorial hair-comparison evidence are just mates has climbed dramatically in re- misconduct have been so wide- as prevalent in Texas as Illinois. cent years, thanks largely to the spread in Illinois death penalty cases emergence of DNA testing and its role that a new trial or sentencing hear- Working on these three series has in exposing wrongful convictions. But ing has been ordered in 49 percent left me with some reflections about the for the most part, members of the me- of those cases that have completed role journalists can play in examining dia have covered each miscarriage of at least one round of appeals. contemporary social issues. History justice in isolation, bypassing the op- portunity to learn from the mis- A couple of weeks before Gov- takes common to them all. ernor Ryan declared a morato- Some stories deserve extraor- rium on executions, Cook …we sometimes forget that dinary commitment. The Tri- County prosecutors dropped numbers hold power. bune has expended an incred- charges against Steve Manning, ible amount of time and an inmate whose case we inves- resources on the subject of tigated in our series while ex- wrongful convictions. Several re- ploring the corrosive effect of jailhouse- doesn’t belong to historians alone. Jour- porters have worked on the story, and informant testimony. That made nalism is not history’s first rough draft I’ve personally spent four years navi- Manning the 13th Illinois death row and nothing more, as some people gating electronic databases, conduct- inmate to be cleared. This is one more contend. We are allowed to do subse- ing research in law libraries and sifting than the state’s total number of ex- quent drafts, too. In the Tribune’s se- through hundreds of court files. It’s ecuted inmates since the death penalty ries on prosecutorial misconduct, we been money and time well spent. ■ was reinstated. Manning and his attor- examined cases going back to 1963. In ney credited the Tribune’s investiga- our series on the Illinois death penalty, Ken Armstrong is the Chicago tion with his exoneration. we went back to 1977. Stories don’t Tribune’s legal affairs writer and is After Ryan suspended executions in lose their importance or impact by a 2001 Nieman Fellow. Illinois, Texas Governor George W. reaching back in time. Besides, the

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 67 Words & Reflections

An Indictment of the Washington Press Two journalists give thumbs down to coverage of the Clinton scandals.

The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton Joe Conason and Gene Lyons St. Martin’s Press. 413 Pages. $25.95.

By Michael Gartner

ere’s how to read this book faced trial because a federal judge was about the Clinton-haters by Joe incensed about leaks to newspapers HConason and Gene Lyons: about the deliberations in the inde- Get a huge sheet of paper and title it pendent counsel’s office. But mis- “Cast of Characters.” Then break it guided or not the case clearly shows, down into columns. They might be among other things, that The New York headed, “Immoral people.” “Unethical Times lied to its readers during the people.” “Vicious people.” “Lying Whitewater-Lewinsky impeachment people.” There would be famous and doings. A Times story about the views infamous, notable and notorious in of various people in Starr’s office said each category. And, sadly, there would that Bakaly “declined to discuss” the be journalists in each category, too. matter. But this summer’s trial proved For “The Hunting of the President” that Bakaly had indeed been a source not only chronicles that vast right-wing for the Times on the story. and The Washington Post “almost in- conspiracy—and there was indeed That’s outrageous, but it gets stantaneously transformed” Little Rock one—that set out to destroy the worse—if there is anything worse than judge and bogus businessman David Clintons, but also chronicles how the lying to your readers. “The Hunting of Hale “from a recalcitrant embezzler press were co-conspirators, some wit- the President” makes clear that often into a credible source.” tingly and some half-wittingly. It is a the papers told just one side of the Another time, “documents leaked depressing book; for news people, it is story, the side being peddled by the to The Washington Post had made their especially depressing. office of the independent counsel and way into the hands of an embezzler You don’t want to believe it. You by the ragtag team of Clinton-haters under indictment [Hale]—an embez- don’t want to believe that reporters who were living high on Richard Mellon zler who then utilized them, in concert from big newspapers were playing Scaife money as long as they could with unscrupulous political operatives, footsy with prosecutors who had be- dream up ever-more-bizarre tales about to concoct charges against the Presi- come persecutors. You don’t want to the President and his wife. These were dent on national TV.” believe that reporters from big news- tales that the press often bought into Yet facts exonerating the Clintons papers were sometimes ignoring one without checking them out. were all but ignored. In June of 1996, side of the story. You don’t want to It was a time of what Conason and the news side of The Wall Street Jour- believe that reporters from big news- Lyons call naive cynicism, “in which a nal (whose reporters should in no way papers were lying to their readers. reporter remains naively ignorant of be identified with the fabulists on the “Lying” is not too harsh a word. basic information while cynically as- editorial page side) printed a story that That’s been made clear by the recent suming the prevalence of corruption.” a special report being prepared by a trial in Washington where Charles G. On occasion, reporters traded infor- San Francisco law firm that was hired Bakaly III faced charges of criminal mation with those who worked the to look into the Clintons’ Whitewater contempt of court. Bakaly was the seamy side of the street, “Arkansas yo- investment “corroborates most of Presi- spokesman for Kenneth Starr, the in- kels who tried to con the big-city so- dent and Mrs. Clinton’s assertions dependent counsel who finally turned phisticates.” A Los Angeles Times’s re- about their Whitewater real-estate in- to investigating the President’s sex life porter had “an oddly symbiotic vestment.” Others papers made no after investigations into his financial relationship” with two of these ped- mention of it at the time. and political life turned up nothing. dlers. One bragged that he had a video- The report, commissioned by the The Bakaly case is as misguided as tape of the President sitting next to a Resolution Trust Corporation, came the whole Clinton prosecution. Bakaly bowl of cocaine. The New York Times out in December. On December 18,

68 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Words & Reflections

The Wall Street Journal again ran “a and Lyons say, realized they were watch- Clinton. While “The Hunting of the straight, clear summary of its findings.” ing “a ratings-driven coup d’etat.” President” proves that the President According to the book’s authors, the Oddly—on second thought, it’s not and his wife did nothing wrong finan- report “in hundreds of minutely de- odd at all—many newspaper reviews cially, further proves that enemies old tailed pages, thousands of footnotes, of this book don’t mention that it’s an and new ran a vicious crusade to de- and documentary exhibits…demon- indictment of the press as well as an stroy him, and finally proves that the strated that the premises of the indictment of the office of the indepen- office of the independent counsel was Whitewater ‘scandal’ had no factual dent counsel. The case against the press anything but independent, it makes no foundation.” The Washington Post is strong. While Conason, who is a attempt to defend or deny the mentioned the report only briefly; the columnist with The New York Observer, President’s sexual behavior. Times waited a week, until Christmas and Lyons, a columnist with the Arkan- But there’s a difference between Eve, “then hid Stephen Labaton’s per- sas Democrat-Gazette, deal in opin- impeachable and impeccable. Conason functory summary on page 12.” ions, they work with facts. The facts and Lyons know the difference. Many By the time of the impeachment, they have compiled are devastating. others in journalism don’t seem to. ■ write Conason and Lyons, “most Ameri- Indeed, if Watergate is to be thought cans intuitively understood exactly of as bringing out the courageous best Michael Gartner has been editor of what was happening. As the most pow- in reporting, then Whitewater must be papers large and small and presi- erful and largely unaccountable insti- listed as bringing out the careless worst. dent of NBC News. In 1997, he won tution in American public life, the Wash- The episode was not a proud time for the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writ- ington press, appeared to have joined the nation, nor was it a proud time for ing. He now is ombudsman for forces with a partisan prosecutor to the press. Brill’s Content Magazine. void the results of two presidential Footnote: None of this is meant as a elections.” Most Americans, Conason defense of the morality of President

Harper’s Magazine: A Survivor!

An American Album One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper’s Magazine Edited by Lewis Lapham and Ellen Rosenbush Franklin Square Press. 712 Pages. $50.

By Robert Manning

he crowded racks on newsstands skinned survivors whose history dates and the torrent of junk mail de- back to before the Civil War. They are Tliveries seeking subscribers tes- Harper’s Magazine, which was tify to the superabundance of maga- launched in 1850, and The Atlantic zines being published in the United Monthly, born in 1856. So this is States. Some are even worth reading. Harper’s 150th birthday year, a time The relative “old-timers” are a few de- for toasts and celebration. Without cades old; some are mere infants facing waiting for the rest of us to raise a glass, high mortality rates. The journalistic Harper’s has done so itself, with a fat landscape is littered with the bones of and handsome volume, an impressive 1975 to 1981, one of four editors dur- thousands of others, among them the taster’s menu for each of the 15 de- ing a turbulent few years in the esteemed monthlies Century, Scribners cades the magazine has been nourish- magazine’s history. He returned to the and McClure’s, all long gone, and such ing people who care about good prose job in 1983 to restructure the maga- once prosperous latecomers as Life, and intellectual protein—a devoted zine and pilot it into the 21st century. The Saturday Evening Post, Look and but, alas, small crowd. He and his collaborator Ellen Colliers. How long before Time, A stylish and lively, if sometimes Rosenbush must have labored long into Newsweek and U.S. News & World polemical, introduction by Lewis the night to extract some 140 articles, Report drown in the cyberspace sea? Lapham sets the table for the album’s short stories, and poems from 1,800 There are, though, two tough- feast. Lapham was Harper’s editor from issues of Harper’s and tailor them for

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 69 Words & Reflections this collection. Those who pick and excoriation of the deluded government choose among the pieces in “An Ameri- officials…mismanaging the war in Viet- can Album” (it is too heavy to be read in nam. The magazine was much talked long sittings) should be grateful for about in New York, proclaimed a won- their efforts. der of the age on the Upper East Side. After I became editor of The Atlantic Elsewhere the reviews were not so kind. in the 1960’s I was struck by the num- West of the Hudson River subscribers ber of people who confused The Atlan- departed in droves, the advertising rev- tic with Harper’s and vice versa. When enues declined, most of the newsstand confronted with this confusion by a copies were being shredded or re- reader, or when traveling on the road turned. The poor result reflected the to seek writers for the magazine I re- several degrees of separation in the sorted, with a smile, to a paraphrase of nation’s attitude toward the Vietnam Mark Twain’s remark: “Rudyard Kipling War, drugs, radical college students, and I share all human knowledge. black power, free-form feminists, and Kipling knows all there is to be known long hair.” This is an overly harsh criti- and I know all the rest.” The Atlantic of cism, in my estimation, but an accurate course was Kipling. Willie Morris was description of what happened to the then editing Harper’s. We were com- magazine’s readership. petitors but also friends, so lest he be By the end of 1970 the magazine’s offended I dropped Willie a note say- annual loss had soared to $700,000 ing that I wouldn’t be offended if he A March 1894 cover. Courtesy of and circulation had fallen to well be- used the same quote and reversed the Harper’s Magazine. low 300,000. Blaming each other for names. the decline, Morris resigned and Cowles Reading this volume, or just its table accepted. Then came about a dozen of contents, one can understand why coup and envying the other’s. years of drift and a parade of editors. By the confusion persisted. From their Survival has not been easy. The com- 1980 the loss was close to $2,000,000 beginnings until the mid-1980’s the ing of television and the takeover of and the situation was so parlous that magazines’ content was remarkably Madison Avenue by young people who “the owners declared the magazine similar, Harper’s a bit more political didn’t read plus rising postal and pa- extinct.” Just in time came the blare of perhaps, while The Atlantic listed more per costs decimated the mass circula- the U.S. Cavalry bugle: The MacArthur to the literary. They shared many au- tion publications. The two monthlies Foundation in Chicago agreed to save thors—Melville, Hawthorne, Twain and held on because their owners expected the magazine. John R. MacArthur, a Henry James, to name a few in the early little or no profit and they had to pro- bright, energetic grandson of the days; Walter Lippmann, James Thurber, duce only a few hundred thousand foundation’s founder, instituted the Katherine Anne Porter, John Kenneth instead of millions of magazines. In the recovery operation and stepped in him- Galbraith, James Dickey, John Updike 1970’s, after it had fallen into the in- self to become the publisher and re- in more recent years. The Atlantic’s competent hands of John Cowles, Jr., mains so today. He brought Lew first editor, James Russell Lowell, later of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Lapham back to reconstitute the maga- became a Harper’s contributor. Will- Cowles and Editor Morris made the zine as the smaller, deliberately lower iam Dean Howells went from being mistake of investing virtually all of his circulation, nonprofit journal it is to- editor of The Atlantic in Boston to editorial budget in a handful of name day, with a slim staff and relying less on author of Harper’s famed Easy Chair writers (e.g. David Halberstam, Norman commissioned articles and in-depth re- column in New York. For many years Mailer, the Texan Larry King). Harper’s porting than the old Harper’s. Its circu- after World War II, the magazines sold Magazine went into a serious decline. lation is about 217,000 and, says their advertising through a jointly While critical of Cowles’ publishing Lapham, it “is now sustained by its own owned company, Harper-Atlantic Sales. decisions, Lapham in his introduction advertising and subscription revenues.” Readership overlapped by less than 10 lays much of the blame on Willie Mor- His invention of the monthly Harper’s percent, offering advertisers twice the ris and his small coterie of writers. Index of obscure and often startling package that the magazines could pro- The new publishing strategy, facts and figures has proved to be more vide individually. Lapham writes, “matched the go-go addictive to many readers than nico- For all this seeming incest, the two expectations of the Age of Aquarius, tine, without any of the poison. magazines were always intense if and for two or three years it seemed to No longer is there reason to confuse friendly competitors, reaching out for hold out the promise of astonishing the new Harper’s with The Atlantic. the same kind of readers, trying to success. Morris published Mailer’s dis- The latter continues to be the kind of snare the best among recognized writ- patches from the riots in Miami and magazine it has always been, originat- ers and discover the finest new talent, Chicago, the literary criticism of Alfred ing its own material and offering jour- each editor rejoicing at his journalistic Kazin and Irving Howe, Halberstam’s nalism in depth (though not so inter-

70 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Words & Reflections minably as William Shawn’s New Zuckerman hired a good replace- seems to know what he is doing and a Yorker) across the broad spectrum of ment as editor, plowed money into the new editor who seems determined to literature, culture, science and public product, beefed up the staff and sala- keep The Atlantic Monthly’s flag flying affairs. It suffered its own problems ries. If he hadn’t gone on an ego trip to proudly. during the rude 1970’s as it became waste perhaps millions on inflating the So here’s a toast to both those hardy more expensive to attain subscribers circulation of the magazine he might survivors: Long may they continue. ■ and deliver magazines and to compete have moved it toward solid if limited with far wealthier publications for ar- profitability. The magazine’s claimed Robert Manning, a 1946 Nieman ticles and short stories. Seeking a much- circulation of more than 460,000 was Fellow, was the editor of The Atlan- needed infusion of cash to finance the grossly diluted by cut-rate subscrip- tic Monthly from 1964 until 1980. magazine’s ambitions, the company tions. Known as a real whiz in the real Prior to that he was Assistant Secre- sold to the real-estate operator estate business, Zuckerman proved to tary of State for Public Affairs dur- Mortimer Zuckerman. The results were be an inferior publisher. He let the ing the Kennedy administration, a unpleasant for me and for some of my business side and the advertising sales senior editor and foreign correspon- associates but good for the magazine’s force deteriorate. He capitulated last dent for Time, and United Nations future. year, selling to a new publisher who bureau chief for the United Press.

Can Journalism Be Fair? ‘If truth is whatever works for you, there is no need for journalism.’

What’s Fair? The Problem of Equity in Journalism Robert Giles and Robert W. Snyder, Editors Transaction Publishers. 171 Pages. $21.95.

By Philip Meyer

n the summer of 1985, while I was premature headline “Kennedy Wins” writing my own book on journal- in the newspaper when the victory in Iism ethics, I had a brief conversa- fact was very much in doubt. Los Ange- tion at Columbia University with soci- les Times media critic David Shaw re- ologist Herbert Gans. “How do you counts his humbling discovery that he avoid sounding sanctimonious?” he had used more unnamed sources in wanted to know. A good question. the past than he wanted to remember. My answer then, and the solution Walter Anderson, President and Pub- adopted by the editors of “What’s Fair?” lisher of Parade Magazine, agonizes is to include a critical mass of confes- over his unintentional hurt of an inno- sional material in the treatment. When cent source when he was a young re- I teach ethics to journalism undergradu- porter. ates, I regale them with tales of my own Robert Giles is the new Curator of misdeeds and angst as a practicing jour- the Nieman Foundation and Robert W. nalist. This convinces them that both I Snyder, now with Rutgers University, become was the outcome of a business and the problems of which I speak are was the Editor of the Freedom Forum’s model that sought to appeal to as wide authentic. A just person, theologian Media Studies Journal when these 25 an audience as possible. But he won- Donald W. Shriver, Jr. reminds us as he chapters first appeared in 1998. This ders if the outcome in this country is quotes the 15th Psalm in the closing diverse collection of articles would really better than in Europe, where chapter of “What’s Fair,” is one who make a fine introduction to media eth- narrower, party-oriented journalism “swears to his own hurt.” ics for undergraduates in journalism if still prevails. And his colleague at the And so the opening section of this only because of its eclecticism. University of California, San Diego, volume is devoted to confession. Some linkages between the differ- Daniel Hallin, a professor in the De- Former Editor of The Boston Globe ent perspectives are provided in an partment of Communications, worries Tom Winship recalls how his admira- historical section. Sociologist Michael that the confluence of historical factors tion of John F. Kennedy clouded his Schudson shows how the development that led to the birth of professionalism news judgment and made him run a of what professionalism journalism has in what he calls the “high-modernist

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 71 Words & Reflections era” was a fluke that is already being ness. If truth is whatever works for you, gain from slicing a few millimeters off undermined by new technologies and there is no need for journalism. This the edge of a page to save newsprint. postmodern political currents. trend is worth watching because a fair And, yet, trust itself could be the These fellows are optimists com- amount of scholarship in schools of source of a natural monopoly attrac- pared to Jim Squires, who throws up journalism and mass communication tive to a rational profit seeker. None of his hands at the mere idea of fairness. now follows the social constructivist us has the time or patience to rely on His experience at the Chicago Tribune model. While I have not seen it infect multiple suppliers of any good, from convinced him that the system has al- the news-editorial craft courses, teach- haircuts to banking services. When we ready been too corrupted by the profit ing our young to be spin doctors has find one that satisfies us, we stop pay- motive to be capable of ideals at all. “It become an accepted goal for journal- ing attention to the rest. Couldn’t it be is already midnight in the garden,” ism education. the same for information providers? If Squires declares poetically, “and far The commercial challenge to fair- everyone is so concerned about fair- too late to worry about fairness.” ness is more interesting. As technology ness, it must have economic value, and If I were using this book in the takes away the natural monopolies there ought to be a way to capture that classroom, I would make it a starting enjoyed by the few who buy ink by the value in some kind of a media product point for discussion of two issues, one barrel, is it possible to find a business whose owners will do well and do intellectual and one commercial. The model that will reward fairness and good at the same time. former is fairly easy to deal with. We trust? Former editor and publisher One step in that direction would be need to examine where the postmodern Mark Trahant, in one of three chapters a more formal professionalism with trend is taking us. looking at the 50-year-old work of the systems of peer review designed to Several of the authors refer to this Hutchins Commission, doesn’t see why publicly identify specific unfair prac- intellectual current that, at least in some market pressures can’t “be an incen- tices. It is important to keep traditional of its forms, refutes the Western ideas tive for innovation, self-examination journalism separate in the public mind that brought the Enlightenment, mod- and a challenge to be better than we from the corrupting influences of both ern science, and the First Amendment. are now.” The trick is figuring out how. postmodernism and the money-chang- Reality, the postmodernists say, is so- Social scientists and biologists alike ers. Swearing to our own hurt in a cially constructed and the holders of have begun to believe that moral val- visible way would be a good place to power, including the owners of the ues are a product of evolution. Trust start. ■ media, use it to create realities that means predictable behavior. As such, it benefit them at the expense of the has economic value, and social enti- Philip Meyer, a 1967 Nieman Fellow, powerless. ties—from insect swarms to nations— is a professor of and Knight Chair in Because, as journalists, we like to that manage to capture it are more journalism at the University of root for the underdog, critical theory likely to survive, prosper and repro- North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His has its attractions. But in negating the duce themselves. But the payout time current project is a fourth edition of possibility of objectivity, social is too long for media accountants, who “Precision Journalism,” first pub- constructivism moots the issue of fair- look instead for fast rewards like the lished in 1973. Freelancers Confront New Challenges In a contract battle, many argue their work shouldn’t be used for free. By Anne Driscoll

o one knows when the first dispersed the news in this way could most recently the introduction of the news went from one person to arguably be considered the first computer into the modern newsroom. Nanother or how that news was freelancers, gathering tribal news and Now, through the existence of the transmitted. But the earliest known— then communicating it, perhaps on a Internet, news from anywhere and ev- and most primitive—method of shar- drum of their own making. erywhere is instantly available. How- ing the news was via drums. Humans, Since this decidedly low-tech report- ever, oddly enough, it is the advent of having gathered in tribes, heard news ing method was first devised, evolving this technology that threatens the live- bulletins of a shared danger or the technology has markedly improved the lihood of many freelance journalists death of an elder transmitted through efficacy of journalism. There was the today. the language of commonly understood development of the written word, the Freelancers have always been mav- percussive beating. The drummers who Gutenberg press, the linotype, and ericks in the news business. By defini-

72 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Words & Reflections tion, they are independent. Frank, who serves as the By nature, they are free- ranking member of the Ju- spirited. Working alone, diciary Committee’s sub- they choose their stories, committee on courts, copy- their markets, their audi- right and intellectual ences, but their work is not property, sent his own unprotected. Under exist- message. ing United States and inter- The National Writers national copyright law, Union recently prevailed freelancers are able to against The Boston Globe’s peddle their ideas, their parent company in a land- research, their words, to mark lawsuit, Tasini vs. The an interested buyer, and New York Times, which still own their handiwork. established work contrib- They are free to revise, re- uted by freelancers cannot use or resell their work as be reused electronically or they wish. in any other format by a In spite of their name, publisher without the freelancers don’t work for creator’s consent. The New free. Or, at least, they York Times and The Bos- Jonathan Tasini, President of the National Writers Union, during a shouldn’t have to. How- ton Globe, along with other July 2000 picket line of freelance photographers, writers and illustra- ever, that is exactly what publications, face the risk tors protesting The Boston Globe’s freelancer contract. Photo by The Boston Globe (and of legal action for having Christopher Fitzgerald, BGFA (Boston Globe Freelancers Association). other news organizations) routinely violated copy- has recently demanded of right law. So keen is The its freelancers—to have their work to This is wrong. The “free” part of our Boston Globe on obtaining these rights be used without paying for it. In April, name refers being free to work as we that the company has remained reso- the management of The Boston Globe wish. Or, as in this case, respond as we lute in its refusal to negotiate in any sent letters to 1,000 of its freelancers— wish. And many of my colleagues have. way with any of its freelancers. Its mes- writers, photographers and graphic According to union estimates, more sage is clear: our way or no way. artists who have regularly contributed than half of The Boston Globe’s The Boston Globe maintains that to The Boston Globe in the past— freelancers refused to sign what they the contract allows freelancers to re- stating that if they did not sign its newly perceive to be an onerous, unfair and tain their copyright and the right to devised “license agreement” by July 1, perhaps unlawful contract. [The Globe resell their work to other news outlets 2000, they would be barred from work- reports that 70 percent signed.] In time, in New England after a news embargo ing for the paper. The contract called the Massachusetts Superior Court will that varies from 24 to 48 hours, and so for the newspaper to assume the rule on the contract’s lawfulness since the contract is actually a favorable one freelancers’ worldwide electronic a class action suit on behalf of freelance for the freelancers. However, a signifi- rights, as well as the worldwide right to writers, photographers and graphic cant number of freelance journalists— republish the freelancers’ work in any artists has been filed against the news- including many who signed and will form under The Boston Globe brand, paper. The lawsuit, which is supported continue to write for the newspaper— without either compensation to or con- by the National Writers Union, Graphic criticize the contract as a blatant grab- trol by the freelancer. Artists Guild of the International Union, bing of their rights and a way for the The contract is also retroactive, per- the United Auto Workers, and the paper to profit by reaching into the mitting the newspaper to control, use American Society of Media Photogra- pockets of its freelancers. Others con- and profit from any work the freelancer phers claims that The Boston Globe tend that the claim of writers retaining has ever done for The Boston Globe. has used unfair and deceptive business copyright is spurious since its value is Furthermore, the contract extends the practices to bully freelancers into giv- much diminished. life of the copyright 70 years after the ing up what is lawfully theirs. For the 450 who have signed the freelancer dies. In other words, when a This case is potentially precedent- contract, few are happy about giving freelancer signs this contract, he/she is setting, a fact that is not lost on seven away their work but many felt forced to giving The Boston Globe permission members of Congress from Massachu- acquiesce. They sound resigned to this to profit from the past and future setts who recently wrote The Boston changed circumstance, saying that get- archive of his/her work in any elec- Globe’s publisher, Richard Gilman, ting something is better than nothing. tronic media that exists or ever might expressing concern about the fairness Many signed under duress, unhappily, be developed without sharing even a of the newspaper’s contract offer. Sev- unwillingly and warily. And, no doubt, penny with the person who produced eral signed a joint letter to the pub- those who opted not to sign, as well as the work. lisher, while Representative Barney those who have, are hoping for a favor-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 73 Words & Reflections able court decision that ers? Perhaps in all of this, would restore their right the most unsettling as- to retain ownership of pect is the worry a lot of their work. Most us have about the perni- freelancers I know cious affect this might would prefer to remain have on other news or- independent agents if ganizations. For The they can be paid fairly Boston Globe to succeed for their work, instead in erasing the long-stand- of being indentured to a ing practice by which company that treats writers hold on to their them poorly and at- property rights, then tempts to depict that surely other publications poor treatment as will follow, as some al- though they are doing ready have. [Other pro- them a favor. fessions are facing this So how does this sign- problem, as well. For Linda Weltner, freelance columnist for The Boston Globe, speaks to or-sever situation impact instance, some musi- freelancers at an informational picket line on July 2000 outside the freelancers? cians are fighting the newspaper’s offices. Photo by Christopher Fitzgerald, BGFA. Freelancers who sign challenge to their copy- can work for The Bos- right protection because ton Globe, although the contract ex- For freelancers who do not sign, the of the development of music-sharing plicitly states that the newspaper is most immediate impact to them is a Web sites such as Napster, which allow under no obligation to accept their direct—and, in some cases, quite sig- users to download music for free.] In work, even though it gains access to it. nificant—loss of income. In the six time, contractual arrangements such In exchange for their signature, it is zoned editions of The Boston Globe, as this one undoubtedly will dissuade increasingly likely they’ll forfeit a sig- the first of which was launched in 1986 many talented, independent-minded nificant source of earnings in the fu- and the last nearly a decade later, about journalists from pursuing this kind of ture. Some newspaper executives pre- 80 percent of the content is contrib- work, thus limiting the perspectives of dict that increasing revenues will come uted by freelancers, who, in many cases, reporting and writing upon which our from electronic sources. Freelancers were recruited from full-time staff jobs civil society depends. who have signed will receive no ben- at other newspapers. [Overall, It matters if writers own their words. efit or derive any profit from this bur- freelancers contributed about 25 per- And it ought to matter more than to geoning market since they no longer cent of the newspaper’s articles.] After just the writers themselves when their control their electronic rights. futile attempts at negotiations with The words are taken by someone else with- While these freelancers retain the Boston Globe, these reporters’ refusal out proper compensation. While the copyright, their work loses much of its to sign the contract has resulted in a Internet expands our ways of getting to market value if The Boston Globe is total cutoff of assignments and con- new banks of knowledge, these banks able to compete more effectively and tact. But it is not only freelancers whose shouldn’t be stocked with what is not efficiently than individual freelancers. lives are being upended by this situa- rightly theirs to give away. ■ For example, if the newspaper decides tion. Readers are affected, as well. Since to publish “The Best of The Boston it is the most successful freelancers Anne Driscoll was a freelance Globe,” what chance does the who have the most to lose under the weekly columnist and reporter for freelancer have of interesting another terms of such a contract, many of them The Boston Globe for 10 years, until publisher in using the same articles? In have chosen not to sign. Therefore, the her refusal to sign the new contract some cases, The Boston Globe is going creative ideas and perspectives of these ended her work with the paper. She to be able to grab the rights to a backlog successful freelancers are not being has been a freelance writer for 20 of as many as 20 years or more of a used. years, working for The New York freelancer’s work without compensa- As things stood before this new con- Times, Baltimore Sun, People, and tion. In many cases, the paper will tract, Boston Globe freelancers earned others. She is the author of a series assume control of work that originated a fraction of the pay of full-time staff- of books for girls called “Girl to before the Internet existed. By doing ers, as well as not having access to Girl.” so, the newspaper reaps the rewards of company-subsidized health insurance, the writer’s labor without ever having vacation or retirement benefits. Under The Boston Globe was offered the had to provide benefits, as they would this new contract, they’ll receive even opportunity to write an article on to staff whose work the paper can re- less. Who can blame them for not want- this topic, but declined. use as they desire. ing to become cyber-sweatshop work-

74 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 International Journalism

Africa is the focus of this issue’s international journalism section. It is a continent too often ignored by Western media and a place where in too many countries those who are journalists confront challenges in their work that their U.S. peers could not even imagine. In several African nations, intimidation and legal confrontations with government officials are common forms of journalistic censure; for some reporters, torture and imprisonment are a consequence of their job.

From South Africa, Mathatha Tsedu (’97 NF), deputy editor of The Star in Johannesburg, explores the transitory terrain that black journalists now inhabit as they are called upon to report on the nation’s black government. At a time when the government- appointed Human Rights Commission has been holding contentious hearings about racism in the media, Tsedu argues that the uppermost challenge for black journalists rests within each of them. “The challenge is to decide on what is right and wrong and sometimes national priorities might interfere with what ordinarily would be good journalism,” Tsedu writes. Dennis Cruywagen (’00 NF), former deputy editor of Pretoria News, reviews Benjamin Pogrund’s book, “War of Words: Memoir of a South African Journalist,” and reminds us of the journalistic courage displayed by some white reporters during South Africa’s apartheid era.

From Zimbabwe come two stories describing a nation where the independent press is struggling mightily to survive. Freelance journalist and novelist David Karanja provides an insightful overview of problems that members of the Zimbabwe media confront. And Mark G. Chavunduka (’00 NF), editor of The Standard, illustrates the personal price paid by enterprising reporters with his recounting of the torture and imprisonment he endured because of a story his newspaper published. But he also describes his triumph in court when a section of a law used to intimidate the media was ruled unconstitutional.

Wilson Wanene, a Kenyan-born freelance journalist, reviews journalist Robert M. Press’s book, “The New Africa: Dispatches from a Changing Continent,” and concludes that its message—often overlooked by journalists—is “Take time to really understand Africa.” This message resonates with the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. In its annual listing of the top 10 underreported humanitarian stories, critical situations on the African continent comprise a majority. In an article that accompanies this list, Susan Moeller, author of “Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death,” examines the process by which members of the press decide where and when to shine their searchlights in distant places. Moeller also tracks evolving media interest in the AIDS crisis in Africa. “…[A]t least, now, they are covering the story,” she writes. “It remains to be seen whether they will stay with it.” ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 75 International Journalism Journalism in Transition in South Africa For black journalists, the threat is their conscience.

By Mathatha Tsedu

About three years ago, a black journal- However, the ball game has changed, are black and the government is black, ist for a Sunday newspaper broke a and the players in government are dif- they would therefore spare them the story about an arms deal that South ferent. They have a mandate of the rod. Mzilikazi ka Afrika, an investiga- Africa was about to conclude. Essen- majority of people to improve the qual- tive writer for The Sunday Times, ed- tially, the story, quoting highly placed ity of lives. In pursuit of such a goal, the ited by a black person, too, has been government sources, said that the South country had to compete with other responsible for more exposés that have African government had struck a deal countries in business, including the seen senior officials tumble than any to sell arms worth R30 billion ($4 bil- sale of weapons that might eventually other journalist on his or her own. lion) to Syria. At the time, the arms fall into the wrong hands. However, there have been a few cases industry was a depressed sector that A patriotic black journalist might of what has been regarded as govern- was shedding jobs and the deal would ask himself or herself whether writing ment interference with the freedom of have turned the tide and created hun- such a story under the new political the media. In one such instance, the dreds of much needed jobs. However, dispensation would not amount to police went to court to force reporters after the publication of the story, the undermining the broader interests of to make available their video footage of government was forced to take a defen- the country. On the other hand, the a crime scene in order to secure pros- sive line, denying that such a deal had journalist inside the patriot would keep ecution. After several meetings between been sealed. South Africa, with its short on screaming to report on such an editors and government officials, an history of trying to maintain a high important story. That Madlala went agreement was reached that in the fu- moral ground internationally, was per- ahead is an indication of the attitude of ture such matters would be raised with turbed by inferences that by selling many, who while understanding their editors before the police could request arms to Syria, a country believed to be responsibilities as citizens, will not al- the court to order reporters to give supporting “Islamic fundamentalists,” low that to deter them from reporting evidence which was collected in the that was involved in fighting the Jewish on an issue as crucial as that. In actual process of news gathering. state of Israel, it was therefore support- fact, the threat to journalists, unlike While the use of the Criminal Proce- ing anti-Semitism. during the hey days of apartheid re- dure Act’s section 205 is regretted, the Consequently, the deal was pression, is their conscience. The chal- government’s attitude is no different scuppered. A huge debate ensued over lenge is to decide on what is right and from what exists anywhere else. At- whether Cyril Madlala, the journalist, wrong and sometimes national priori- tempts to use laws to procure prosecu- had not forsaken national interest for a ties might interfere with what ordi- tions are found throughout the demo- scoop. He stood by his decision to narily would be good journalism. cratic world. Bouts of mudslinging and carry the story. This, in a nutshell, This is especially so when opposi- accusations of interference with media could perhaps sum up one of the chal- tion parties that are vocal are white and freedom and counter-accusations of lenges facing black journalists working attack the black government from a the absence of patriotism are charac- in the post-apartheid and democratic point of view generally seen as race- teristics of a developing relationship South Africa. During apartheid, this based, as if to show that indeed the and are not unique to South Africa. story would have been easy for any failure or perceived failure of the black Recently, the government’s Human black journalist. Anything that embar- government is because it is black. In Rights Commission held hearings on rassed the apartheid regime was a must- such situations, black journalists face a racism in the media. While this was carry story. It was easy to defend the crisis of decision, of conscience. But generally accepted by black journalists publication of such a story on moral they have acquitted themselves well, who felt that the process was likely to and political grounds. Clearly, apart- maintaining high standards set by their expose the racism in the industry and heid South Africa could not be allowed predecessors who went to prison to in the process recommend remedial to sell arms because it would be break- defend the right to remain silent when action, for most white journalists the ing an arms embargo and, in addition, authorities demanded names of hearings amounted to the harassment whatever the pariah state did was ille- sources. of the media in its crudest form. Steps gitimate. But above all, the profits gen- Exposing corruption is another area taken to undo the legacy of decades of erated would be used to strengthen in which black journalists have excelled, legalized racism in which the media the state that had to fall. debunking the myth that because they played their own role in protecting and

76 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 International Journalism supporting the racist government have grapple with South Africa’s interface the weeping relative. Black areas are elicited reactions that are in the main with globalization, both political and still seen as areas of crime stories. Pub- dictated by whether the journalist is economic, its integration within the lishing breasts and nipples of black white or black. Southern African region, and its own women is easy while people will go But be that as it may, the challenge internal stabilization process as it wades into all kinds of elaborate permission- for black journalists today is also to through transformation. To deal with seeking exercises if the breasts and understand the intricate transition this story in an environment in which nipples are white. These are entrenched underway and move ahead with as little “elders” are present to provide back- histories at many publications, and skills and experience as they have. This up is difficult enough, but to do so being a black journalist in South Africa is because political freedom has been without that elderly hand, is almost today also means undoing them, fight- one of the biggest threats to journalism impossible. ing them, and refusing to buy into the in South Africa. Let me explain. Just Thus, today we find in South African old context and instead fighting to cre- prior to the 1994 watershed elections, journalism stories without context, aris- ate a new one that brings dignity to the companies started recruiting senior ing out of these circumstances. way black people are covered. black journalists into their corporate Being black also means carrying the In the end, however, the challenge offices as directors and executives. flag for the race, as well as dealing with as always is how to tell the story of this Companies then wanted to show the stereotypes and fighting them. Ex- evolving nation. And that, as we all world that they had “our own black” amples of this dilemma are many. For know, starts with knowing one’s Five and how better than to hire journalists example, any story about AIDS which W’s and the H, researching, introduc- who came with high profiles. needs visual enhancement will have a ing context to the story, and abiding by Following the democratic elections, black face on it, perpetuating the im- the ethics of journalism. And having government made similar raids. And pression that like in the United States done that, being ready to stand by your more and more black journalists with earlier with gays, the disease is affect- story and defend it. Black South Afri- experience and skills left for work in ing black people only. can journalists are doing just that, un- government offices. The result has been Black journalists have to guard der very complex conditions. ■ that while a decade ago the average against perpetuating this kind of ste- experience level in any newsroom reotype, without being seen as deny- Mathatha Tsedu, a 1997 Nieman would have been more than 10 years, ing the obvious. And news stories about Fellow, is deputy editor of The Star today it is less than three years. black people involved in accidents con- in Johannesburg, South Africa. And yet, the story is even more com- tinue to be published without names plex. This less-experienced staff has to or contexts of family background or of

A Story of Courage in South African Journalism Blacks accepted the white-owned Rand Daily Mail as their champion.

War of Words Memoir of a South African Journalist Benjamin Pogrund Seven Story Press. 381 Pages. $26.95.

By Dennis Cruywagen

I did not know Laurence Gandar. I was to silence the most left wing (by South barely a year old when he began his African government standards, at least) stint as Editor of the Rand Daily Mail on of newspapers. October 1, 1957. By the time he was At that time I was unaware of his or fired 12 years later, he had made his his paper’s existence. In our house- mark on history and had probably be- hold, going without a daily newspaper come the editor most hated by the was just another fact of life as for mil- ruling National Party. I was finishing lions of blacks in apartheid South Af- primary school and looking forward to rica. I did not know then that the Mail, high school when his employers dis- as his paper was known, was published missed Gandar in an obvious attempt in Johannesburg and had become the

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 77 International Journalism

most vociferous critic of the white mi- written in honor of Gandar. He ful- reporters yearn for—credibility. He nority government. There were more filled his dream of changing the Mail enjoyed the confidence of Nelson important things than newspapers for into a beacon of light, an instrument of Mandela and Robert Sobukwe, founder many black folks to consider. change, and engine of reform because, of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Later, much later, I began to learn as he told Pogrund, it “was absolutely Scoops became synonymous with his about Gandar and the role he’d played essential to help keep up the spirits of byline. Here are a few: in the old South Africa. Sadly, his con- the small embattled forces of liberal- tribution to press freedom in our coun- minded people who might otherwise •He was in the black township of try is not widely known. That’s why have been crushed, to demonstrate to Sharpeville on Monday, March 21, Benjamin Pogrund’s book is so impor- blacks that there was at least one size- 1960 when the PAC staged a protest. tant, even if it’s essentially about able white institution that understood Police fired on the crowd, killing 68 Pogrund’s beloved Mail and his life as and was prepared to fight for the re- and wounding 186. The majority of a reporter, a journey which would not moval of their grievances, and to show them were shot in the back. He have been possible if Gandar had not the outside world that there were still reported this story as it happened, been at the helm at the Mail when it some upholders of Western norms and not as the police wanted it to be started. values alive and kicking in South Af- reported. Although Gandar fought in North rica.” •He was the first to report on Nelson Africa and Italy in World War II and But standing up for the rights of Mandela’s belief that it was futile to held the rank of captain as a brigade those whom the government of the talk peace in light of the South Afri- intelligence officer in the Sixth South time viewed as subhuman exacted a can government’s show of force and African Armored Division, he was not price: Whites, the Mail’s traditional intimidation. considered to be a courageous vision- readership, deserted in droves as they ary. Perhaps those who appointed him were unable to stomach Gander’s hard- Pogrund’s honesty and perception and thought he would perform a res- hitting editorials and his efforts to bring shine through. For instance, he thought cue operation were blinded by the fact the realities of South Africa home. then that Mandela was not a scintillat- that he had been recruited from public According to Pogrund, Gandar was ing speaker, but one who impressed relations. If this were the case, they left bereft by the death of his wife, people with his sincerity and quality of should have looked instead to his ser- Isobel, in 1989 after 45 years of mar- his speaking. vice in the army. This was a brave man riage. He contemplated suicide, but One should not forget that Pogrund who took his newspaper to new heights, was excited by the birth of a grandson was seeing South Africa through white changing it from a publication written and the collapse of the Soviet Union, eyes from a liberal white newspaper’s by whites for whites into one which and chose life. Thank God he did. Al- point of view. This is understandable. blacks accepted as their champion. though he died at age 83 in 1998, he However, writing from this perspec- No wonder, then, that when the had lived to see the release of Nelson tive, or indeed from the black one, may Mail was closed in 1985, Thami Mzwai, Mandela, the birth of a truly demo- blind an author. Pogrund says that the one of South Africa’s most radical and cratic South Africa, and the demise of Mail’s exposé of conditions inside influential black journalists, wrote: the National Party. Laurence Gandar South African prisons led to an im- “From one’s high school days the Mail was a great South African, a newspaper provement of their plight. Though the had a special place in the hearts of the editor who was ahead of his time. investigation excluded Robben Island, black community. It was the first paper As I read Pogrund’s memoirs I be- the infamous prison where South Af- to regard them as human beings. It came acutely aware of Gandar’s hand rica incarcerated political prisoners, fought for them. Its blend of inspira- in shaping South Africa. Given all the he implies that its publication helped tional and aggressive writing was the changes that have taken place in South them as well. I’m not too certain if all of talk of the times. For one to be seen Africa since 1990, it’s so easy for contri- them would agree with this. tucking it under his arm was a sign of butions such as his to be forgotten. Still, I was impressed by Pogrund’s intellectualism. Whether one could Pogrund reminds us of our debt to book. Sadly, it reminded me how much read or not did not matter. Even re- people such as him. black journalists owe it to themselves, porters from the Mail were at some So, what about the rest of the history and their country to write about stage regarded as a cut above other Pogrund’s book? I found it an easy their experiences. Their books might reporters. If you announced yourself read, a book which those interested in read differently than Pogrund’s. ■ as from the World (a black newspaper) South Africa will enjoy. While Gandar people would look at your feet. When was scaling new heights as an editor, Dennis Cruywagen, a 2000 Nieman from the Mail you stood a good chance Pogrund was making a name for him- Fellow, is former deputy editor of of getting a free drink and unbounded self as a courageous reporter who was Pretoria News, the only English daily hospitality. The Mail as a flagship of imprisoned, hounded by the South newspaper published in the South black aspiration had made its mark.” African security police, and spied upon African capital. This epitaph might as well have been by some colleagues. He had what most

78 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 International Journalism In Zimbabwe, the Independent Press Struggles to Survive Legal maneuvers and financial hard times challenge press freedom.

By David Karanja

One day in 1988, an angry Enos Nkala, Zimbabwe’s Free, But Can panying story by Mark Chavunduka on Zimbabwe’s Defense Minister, called the Press be Free? page 82.] Shortly after this episode, the The Chronicle, a government-owned editor and publisher of The Zimbabwe regional daily newspaper, to order the The country, which gained indepen- Mirror, Ibbo Mandaza, and his reporter, editor and his deputy to report to his dence from Britain in 1980, has during Grace Kwinjeh, were also charged for office. If they failed to respond to his the last decade experienced the birth publishing an alarming report. The pre- summons, he warned, he would send of a vibrant independent press which vious year the paper had published a soldiers to drag them out of their of- has found its niche in a market that is story alleging that a Zimbabwean sol- fices. still dominated by state-controlled news dier had died in the Democratic Re- Geoff Nyarota and his deputy, organizations. The government con- public of the Congo and his body had Davison Maruziva, didn’t go to the trols Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corpo- been brought back to the country with- minister’s office. Instead, they intensi- ration (ZBC), the nation’s only radio out a head for burial. The charges were fied their investigation on the issue and television broadcaster, Ziana, a later dropped. that had earned them the wrath of the national news agency, the Community The government is determined to minister. The paper had been investi- Newspapers Group (CNG), which pub- get its way and maintain a firm grip on gating irregular deals at the state-owned lishes several regional newspapers, and what is published. Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries, a Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd. car assembly plant, in which ministers (Zimpapers), which publishes The Sun- and other senior government officials day Mail, The Herald, The Sunday News, Who, If Anyone, Will Control were abusing their office to gain from The Chronicle, and Kwayedza (A Shona- the Media? the public corporation millions of dol- language weekly). lars. They would buy cars cheaply, as The growth of the media has been Last year, the Ministry of Informa- they were officially entitled to do, but aided by Zimbabwe’s advanced level of tion prepared a draft bill to control the would then resell them at exorbitant literacy. With a population of 12.5 mil- media. The bill, which was presented prices, depriving government of rev- lion, it has the highest literacy level (85 to the Cabinet for approval, has not yet enue and enriching themselves unfairly. percent) in Africa. The country’s jour- been tabled in Parliament to be passed The Chronicle’s investigative reports nalism is fairly sophisticated and many into law. were so embarrassing to the govern- newspapers have adopted modern The new media policy framework ment that President Robert Mugabe publishing technology, including proposes the formation of either a statu- appointed a judicial commission of in- online editions. tory or non-statutory body to define quiry to investigate the matter. The Mugabe’s government accuses those media ethics and standards and to ac- commission’s findings vindicated the who work for independent media of credit journalists. It also deals with the newspaper’s reports and several min- engaging in sensational and irrespon- issue of media ownership and stipu- isters resigned in disgrace. Enos Nkala sible reporting that is harmful to the lates that foreigners should only own was among them. state. Early in 1999, Zimbabwe came between 20 and 25 percent of Willowgate, as the scandal came to under sharp international focus when Zimbabwe’s media and that they should be called, earned the two journalists two journalists working for The Stan- not sit on editorial boards. If the frame- dire retribution. Nyarota was “pro- dard were arrested, illegally detained work passes, it will also be a crime for moted” to a management position (as by the military, and tortured for pub- a foreigner to use a Zimbabwean as a director of public relations) which was lishing a story alleging a failed coup front to establish a media business in specially created for him in the Zimba- plot. Editor (and Nieman Fellow ’00) the country. The bill further requires bwe newspapers group. The journal- Mark Chavunduka and his senior writer, any foreigner who wants to invest in ists who had worked under him in the Ray Choto, had to seek treatment in the country’s media to declare his fi- Willowvale stories were also reassigned. London after their release. [See accom- nancial capacity before being autho-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 79 International Journalism

rized to make the investment. Issues that the press-proposed me- feel that the present media growth has Those who work in the indepen- dia council would be expected to ad- not been broad based enough to be of dent press have condemned the pro- dress include guidelines about how maximum benefit to the society. Dr. posed law. They have dismissed it as a members of the media should relate to Tafataona Mahoso is the head of the government attempt to enhance the public and among themselves. Cor- Division of Media and Mass Communi- authoritarianism. Members of the press ruption among journalists is another cation at Harare Polytechnic, the lead- have proposed coming up with a issue which the council is expected to ing training ground for journalists. He mechanism of self-regulation. Senior deal with. In the past, journalists have believes that lack of resources and a editors from the mainstream media been accused of receiving bribes from cultural bias have made Zimbabwean have formed a committee to look into individuals, institutions and govern- media urban-based and therefore not ways of forming a body that will carry ment in exchange for positive cover- fully people-centered. “The media in out this task. “We prefer self-regulation age. In 1998, two journalists working Zimbabwe reflects the world-view of by the media because the government for The Sunday Mail were arrested while urban dwellers, the middle class, while cannot be trusted to have the interest in the act of receiving a Z10,000 (U.S. giving no voice to the rural folk. The of the media at heart. The regulation $240) bribe from a Harare restaurant media is supposed to be a catalyst of they want to put in place is not sin- owner so that they would give his busi- human development. It can only do cere,” says Trevor Ncube, group editor ness positive coverage. They are now this effectively if it makes a conscious in chief for The Zimbabwe Indepen- facing extortion and corruption attempt to reach everybody.” dent. charges. Mahoso has had a chance to imple- Ncube believes journalists should The government defends its pro- ment his vision. In 1997 he landed a establish a press complaints council to posed media law by saying it is not presidential appointment as chairman handle concerns of those who feel in- aimed at muzzling media freedom but of the board of directors of Zimbabwe dividual reporters, the corporate world at regulating it to safeguard the inter- Broadcasting Corporation. He was, or the government has unfairly treated ests of the public. “Although the gov- however, booted out after barely a year them. The council should not be man- ernment wants the media to operate in in office after he unearthed corruption dated to punish offenders but it should a favorable environment, it is neces- and tried to root it out. His board have “enough teeth” to compel offend- sary to retain some laws which act as discovered many irregularities, includ- ing members of the media to apologize checks and balances against journalists ing fraudulent hiring practices that gave or correct stories if they are proved to who report irresponsibly,” says Willard birth to unprofessional practices. A be inaccurate. Chiwewe, Permanent Secretary in the report released at the beginning of The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists Ministry of Information. 1999 by a 12-member parliamentary (ZUJ), the trade union, has also con- committee set up to investigate the demned the government’s proposed fiasco revealed a series of vices includ- law. “Media workers should use all Difficulties in Trying to ing corruption, nepotism, political pa- means necessary to ensure that all op- Reform the Media tronage, and sex abuse in the hiring of pressive laws are discarded. If it means staff. throwing stones to get press freedom, Amid discussion about how the press Mahoso’s experience illustrates the we have to do it to render certain in Zimbabwe might be monitored, dilemma facing senior staff working pieces of legislation unconstitutional,” some independent evaluations are al- for the state-owned media. They find says Basildon Peta, ZUJ’s Secretary ready identifying problems in how news themselves at a crossroads, struggling General. The union has come up with is being conveyed to the public. The to maintain professional ethics and at its own proposals in which it calls for a Media Institute of Southern Africa the same time remaining loyal to their provision in the constitution to guar- (MISA) is a media advocacy body whose bosses. As a result, senior editorial antee freedom of the press. It suggests mission is to foster free, independent positions have had to be given not that a media council be formed with and diverse media throughout South- necessarily to people who are profes- members drawn from the media, the ern Africa. It has chapters in several sionally competent but to those who government, and stakeholders from countries including Zimbabwe (MISA- will be amenable to the state’s manipu- other sectors. The union says the coun- Zimbabwe). Under the aegis of MISA, lation. cil should be funded by the govern- the Media Monitoring Project was es- ment and answerable to Parliament. Its tablished in 1999 to act as watchdog of mandate should include issuing of li- the performance of the press in Zimba- Economic Troubles Doom censes and handling complaints against bwe. In its first report, the project Some Publications media organizations that engage in castigated the performance of the pub- wayward and malicious reporting. A lic media, accusing it of being unpro- The fight for media freedom now separate independent broadcasting fessional and harboring a deliberate focuses on a campaign to ensure the authority should be set up to govern agenda to misinform the public. eradication of draconian laws that the operations of the electronic media. There are some in Zimbabwe who government uses to stifle freedom of

80 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 International Journalism expression. The Law and Order Main- media boom. Several weekly papers, tenance Act (LOMA), which was en- monthlies and periodicals were born. acted in 1960 by the colonial govern- But the most significant product of this ment to contain the struggle for boom was a new daily newspaper, The self-determination by blacks, has been Daily Gazette. broadly criticized. It outlaws publica- Hopes were high that this boom tion of material that is likely to cause would lead to a radical transformation fear, alarm and despondency among in the country’s media. Instead, Zimba- any section of the public or to bring the bwe experienced a severe economic country’s leader to disrepute. In 1998, slump that shattered this dream. Con- Parliament reacted to public criticism sumer power was eroded. People didn’t by passing the Public Order and Secu- have disposable income to buy the rity Bill (POSB) to replace LOMA. Jour- new products. Advertisers didn’t have nalists and human rights groups con- money to spare. The little they had was demned the new bill, saying it used to advertise in the traditional gov- contained many elements of LOMA. ernment-owned media whose circula- President Mugabe refused to sign it tion they could count on. into law and referred it back to Parlia- With inflation pushing cost of pro- ment for further discussion. In an ac- duction up, new media companies had companying letter to the Speaker of a rough ride. Many eventually became Parliament, he said that the bill didn’t casualties in the battle for survival. The deal adequately with journalists who Daily Gazette was an instant hit when it Headline from a Zimbabwe newspaper. might publish unsubstantiated reports. was established in 1992. At the peak of Chavunduka and Choto successfully its success, it was selling 60,000 copies challenged a section of LOMA in the While the government’s media crack- a day. For a new publication, this was Supreme Court, arguing that it contra- down presents plenty of cause for con- impressive, especially when compared dicts the constitutional guarantee for cern, perhaps the most immediate and with the 130,000 daily copies of The freedom of expression and therefore it greatest threat to the press is their Herald, a paper that had been pub- should be declared null and void. economic viability. At the beginning of lished since 1891. This new daily in- Another focus in the battle for me- the 1990’s, Zimbabwe, which had been fused freshness into the country’s me- dia freedom has been to lobby the pursuing socialist economic policies, dia scene and offered readers a new source of news absent of government vetting. But the unfavorable economic Readership of Zimbabwean Newspapers: climate forced the paper to cease pub- lication after only three years. Sunday Mail ...... 1,190,000 Last year the media scene was al- The Herald ...... 550,000 tered when the Associated Newspa- Kwayedza ...... 540,000 pers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) was estab- The Financial Gazette ...... 366,000 lished. The company, which has 60 percent foreign ownership, launched The Zimbabwe five regional weeklies and capped this Independent ...... 262,000 by launching Daily News in March 1999. The Zimbabwe Mirror ...... 170,000 ANZ poached the best journalists The Standard ...... 117,000 through offers of high salaries, and it SOURCE: An independent survey released in 1999 by the was tipped to succeed where The Daily Advertising Research Foundation. ■ Gazette had failed to challenge the monopoly of the government in the daily press. But the company soon plunged into government to end its monopoly on adopted the IMF/World Bank reform a financial crisis. Less than a year after the electronic media. By law, only ZBC program. Coupled with the abandon- its launch, it shut down three weeklies. is allowed to operate TV and radio ment of plans by the government to Investors admitted that their ambitious broadcasts. Human rights and democ- pass a law declaring Zimbabwe a one- media venture faced collapse unless $1 racy activists say a more open society party state, an era of economic and million (U.S. dollars) was urgently in- can only be created if all forms of me- political liberalization was ushered in. jected to raise new operating capital. dia are liberalized. But the government In this relatively relaxed environment, Last November, the Southern Africa has rejected the suggestion. the birth of new publications created a Media Development Fund (SAMDEF),

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 81 International Journalism

a Botswana-based non-governmental ity product,” he says. marred by violence, the Movement for media organization that was established Mugabe’s government watches with Democratic Change (MDC) took ZBC to strengthen the region’s media so silent glee as the independent press to court seeking an order to compel it they can become self-sustaining, inde- swims in the stormy seas of financial to give fair coverage to all contestants. pendent and pluralistic, invested that turmoil. The ruling party functionaries The order was successful, and the court amount of money in the company. have continued their crusade against ruled that the state broadcaster, which But it is not just the private press foreign investment in the country’s was accused of criminalizing the oppo- that is going through financial tribula- media, saying it is dangerous to na- sition, should air balanced reports on tions. During the last three years, the tional sovereignty. the activities of anti-Mugabe activists. Zimpapers’ profit has fallen drastically Some journalists who have endured Despite the court’s ruling, this did not and Ziana is on the verge of collapse the difficulties of government interfer- happen. due to the government’s lack of fund- ence and financial hard times still see a After the election, Mugabe made 30 ing. Africa Information Afrique, a do- bright future. “Zimbabwe’s media will constitutional parliamentary appoin- nor-funded international news agency, weather the storm and become one of tees, thus inflating the ruling party’s ceased operations last December. the most vibrant in Africa,” says Ncube. slim electoral victory. Because of this, Currently, only The Zimbabwe In- “The present battles are inevitable in Parliament might not provide the op- dependent and its sister, The Stan- media development in any society.” position with a very influential voice. dard, appear to be on firm financial If his positive forecast turns out to But the new multi-party Parliament will footing. Their success has widely been be right, Zimbabwe could soon join no doubt result in greater political lib- attributed to patronage by white-owned the league of sub-Saharan countries eralism, and this might, in turn, result businesses that constitute more than such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa in the country crossing the threshold 80 percent of the country’s economy. where the media, having fought similar of a new era of media freedom. ■ The government has often accused battles, appear right now to be the these newspapers of being used by victors. And given the results of the David Karanja, a Kenyan novelist whites to bring it down and possibly parliamentary elections in June, in and freelance journalist, lived in revive white rule. which the opposition gained an im- Zimbabwe for 13 months. His novel, Ncube angrily denies this link. “That pressive number of seats, it now ap- “The Girl Was Mine,” was published is not true. We get 70 percent of our pears more likely that the media in in 1996. A second, “A Dreamer’s advertising support from black-owned Zimbabwe might be headed for a radi- Paradise,” will be published next companies. Our success has come cal transformation. year by Kwela Books, South Africa. about because we produce a high-qual- Just before the elections, which were

Imprisonment and Torture of Journalists in Zimbabwe Eventually the courts ruled the law that jailed them was unconstitutional.

By Mark G. Chavunduka

Those of us who are journalists in Zim- In January 1999, The Standard pub- Two days after the article was pub- babwe have witnessed under President lished an article giving details of an lished, I was arrested illegally by Robert Mugabe’s 20-year rule a situa- attempted coup against Mugabe’s gov- Zimbabwe’s military. I was held and tion in which the government has be- ernment. As editor of this newspaper, brutally tortured for nine days at mili- come increasingly hostile to and intol- I insisted that we do all of the necessary tary establishments in the country. My erant of the independent press. Against checks before publishing this story. To chief writer, Ray Choto, was also ar- newspapers and journalists whom it do this, we held the article for an entire rested and beaten. Throughout my ille- regards as troublesome, both legal and week to allow the government an op- gal detention, my captors emphasized extra-legal measures have been taken. portunity to respond before we went that they did not dispute the substance Not so long ago I became one of the to print. Despite many assurances that of the article. What they wanted us to government’s targets. Personally and we would receive an official response, tell them were the names of our sources professionally, I bear the scars of this we heard nothing and went ahead and in the military. Not unlike the dis- encounter. published the story. gruntlement that is so evident in civil-

82 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 International Journalism ian society, many in the military were section said that “publishing informa- Another disturbing trend to observe upset at how various matters of state tion likely to cause public alarm and is the growing impunity with which were being handled. During our de- despondency” was a criminal offense, court orders are ignored by the gov- tention, it became clear to us that the regardless of whether the published ernment. Because the state chooses country’s leaders were desperate to information was correct or not. Had which judgments to respect and which identify and plug what they said were the law and the charges against us been to ignore, a mockery is being made of increasing leaks to members of the upheld, we would have each faced the entire judicial system. In my own independent press from within the seven years in prison, a fine of $20,000, case last year, the government ignored military and intelligence communities. or both. However, in a court case that three orders from the Supreme Court Our torture was barbaric. It included lasted 16 months, we were finally able that were issued within a space of five having live electric wires applied to all to receive a favorable ruling by the days, ordering my release from military parts of our naked bodies and being Supreme Court of Zimbabwe. By rul- custody. suffocated underwater in a process we ing that this section of the law is uncon- It is not just for the sake of the press later learned has a name within the stitutional, not only did the charges and press freedoms that the absence of military, “submarine.” Still, we did not against us fall away but this part of the integrity within the court system is reveal our sources, and to this day they law is no longer in effect. worrisome. This affects all sections of remain protected despite an extensive It is our hope that in time the entire civil society; ultimately the nation itself search by the government within the Law and Order Maintenance Act will be is bound to become lawless and un- army. challenged successfully in the nation’s governable, as we’ve witnessed recently Our newspaper obtained court or- courts. From my perspective, the threat during the brutal, sometimes deadly ders to try to win our release. And as to be most feared by Zimbabwe’s inde- takings of land. word of our situation reached journal- pendent press—and the country’s so- Although I look enviously at my ists and organizations throughout the ciety, in general—is the increasing American friends, with their ability to world, international pressure was ap- politicization of our criminal justice call upon the Freedom of Information plied. This and, I believe, the realiza- system. Public offices, which are sup- Act and sunshine laws, I refuse to be tion that no information would be forth- posed to be impartial and apolitical— pessimistic. Recently, citizens in this coming from us, meant that after nine such as the Attorney General and Com- country—including those in our case— days of torture by the military, we were missioner of Police—are systemically have won some important cases in the handed over to the civilian police. Sub- being staffed with political appointees. courts, and we have also succeeded in sequently, we appeared in court on Instead of finding neutral administra- changing, a bit, the political dynamics charges of “publishing information tors in the criminal justice system, po- at the ballot box. Zimbabweans are, by likely to cause public alarm and de- litical incumbents fill many of the jobs. nature, a hard-working and peace lov- spondency.” Their decisions to arrest and prosecute ing people, and I would hope that we In Zimbabwe, several laws impinge people are not based primarily on the can keep moving forward to a time on what the press can do. Many of law or on tangible evidence that a crime when an environment of normalcy re- these laws date back to the 1960’s and has been committed but in the interest places chaos, in which a free and vi- were promulgated to stem growing of settling a political score by party and brant press can thrive. ■ political instability. In its election mani- government leaders. festos issued in 1979, the present gov- Today, journalists and publications ernment tried to remove these laws that are viewed as troublemakers are Mark Chavunduka, A 2000 Nieman from the statute books. However, they routinely harassed and victimized, even Fellow, is founding editor of The remained in effect and have been used when it is clear that prosecution against Zimbabwe Standard, a Sunday by this same government that once them cannot be successful. What hap- newspaper published in Harare. He sought to repeal them. pens is that court cases are continu- worked his way up from cadet Among these laws are the Official ously postponed or eventually with- reporter to news editor at the weekly Secrets Act, the Powers, Privileges and drawn. But the strategy is to weaken Financial Gazette, and later became Immunities of Parliament Act, the Pris- the individuals and organizations by the editor of Parade magazine, ons Act, the Defense Act, the Censor- straining them with heavy legal costs. Zimbabwe’s largest monthly ship and Entertainment Control Act, In some cases, publications have nearly newsmagazine. Chavunduka was and the most dreaded, notorious and collapsed under the weight of these the first Zimbabwean journalist to all-embracing law, the Law and Order financial strains. This is particularly be named a Nieman Fellow. Maintenance Act. It is this final piece of true of smaller, less established publi- legislation that was used to charge cations. This strategy by the govern- Choto and me. ment is both cunning and effective and We decided to challenge the consti- leaves the authorities with “clean tutionality of the section of that law hands” when so-called opposition pa- under which we were charged. That pers fold.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 83 International Journalism

Lessons Learned in Africa A reporter replays history so past mistakes don’t become future policy.

The New Africa: Dispatches from a Changing Continent Robert M. Press University Press of Florida. 380 Pages. $24.95.

By Wilson Wanene

Every so often an American foreign discredit competitive elections. This correspondent will wrap up a tour in resulted in some 1,500 deaths and the Africa and decide to put the whole displacement of 300,000 people. Mul- experience into a book. For readers in tiparty elections had not been held the United States who follow news since 1966. They finally took place in reports from the continent closely, the 1992 and fell short of being completely account becomes a more personal way free and fair. Moi won over a fractured to know the journalist. It’s also an opposition with 36 percent. He was opportunity to see favorite topics and reelected in 1997 with 40 percent. personalities in a fleshed-out form. Press’s storytelling method relies Robert M. Press’s “The New Africa: more on the eloquent power of the Dispatches from a Changing Continent” characters he chooses to highlight than is a new addition to the list. Assigned to on critical sketches of Moi and his aides. the Nairobi bureau office of The Chris- However, Press does make two minor tian Science Monitor from 1987 to 1995, errors in his Kenya chapter. First, he he mainly covers West and East Africa. states that Kenneth Matiba, a wealthy He writes at a time when sub-Saharan businessman who finished second af- 100 photographs taken by Press’s wife, Africa has undergone some major po- ter Moi in the first election, ran again in Betty, a photographer. The book as a litical changes that began in 1989. He 1997. He did not. Second, he claims whole is different from, for example, applauds how, after the Cold War that most of the killings took place in “The Africans,” by David Lamb, pub- ended, local dissent bubbled up more Central Province. They were actually in lished in 1983, or “Africa: Dispatches forcefully. Civilian and military auto- the Rift Valley, Moi’s home province, from a Fragile Continent,” by Blaine crats throughout the region came un- and were mainly carried out by his Harden, published in 1990. Both re- der unprecedented pressure to legal- Kalenjin ethnic group against Kikuyus porters were stationed in Nairobi by ize opposition parties and, and other Kenyans who had settled their respective papers: Lamb by the consequently, expand the space for there from other regions. Neverthe- Los Angeles Times and Harden by The criticism. Some leaders fell from power; less, Press is, on the whole, well-bal- Washington Post.While both wrote in others held on but had to work harder. anced and informative. an engaging and very readable style, In Kenya, for instance, Press nar- The author also tries to capture the one still had the sense of journalists rates the major events along that less dramatic side of Africa. His con- who, when all was said and done, would nation’s bumpy road to a pluralistic cluding chapter takes readers into the move on. In “The New Africa” there’s a political system. Daniel arap Moi, Presi- lives of a select group of Africans who more lingering feeling. dent since 1978, was compelled to are quietly trying to change their lives With Press, the pace is slower, the change the constitution in 1991 and for the better. “Such individual efforts observations more calmly noted, and allow opposition parties to get estab- may depend on assistance from gov- the general style of presentation is jour- lished. By then, his government had ernment,” he writes, “but the desire for nalistic with an academic flavor. Of increased corruption to an unprec- greater economic and social freedom special importance to him is the hu- edented level, in a country considered does not…. The stories of such indi- manitarian and political strife that broke an African success story during the viduals seldom make the news and out while he reported from the conti- 1960’s and 1970’s. And according to thus go unnoticed by most Africans nent—especially in Somalia and Africa Watch, the regime was respon- and non-Africans alike. Yet they make Rwanda—and the grim lessons they sible for instigating ethnic violence, up an important part of what is hap- held for the United States. For instance, which began in 1991 and continued pening in Africa today.” he carefully reconstructs how in 1993 sporadically in subsequent years, to “The New Africa” contains more than about 100 elite U.S. soldiers, already

84 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 International Journalism stationed in Somalia, were flown by ine-hit regions, amid a country in civil always men, and were held in respect helicopters to try and capture warlord war and with no functioning central by the people. Family and clan rela- Mohamed Farah Aideed and his top government. The sad fact, as Press tionships were more highly valued than aides at a house in Mogadishu where warns, is that when Americans look official titles. And this same society, he was supposedly meeting. The war- back at Somalia they are likely to re- comprised of individuals as diverse as lord led one of the feuding clan fac- member the 18 Americans who lost desert nomads, entrepreneurs and tions in the civil war that erupted after their lives, not the thousands of Soma- scholars, rose up and kicked out Gen- the ouster of the country’s leader, Gen- lis who were saved from starvation. eral Barre. The despot, as a means of eral Mohamed Siad Barre, in 1991. The Somalia legacy went on to exact staying in power, had set one clan Aideed was wanted because his men a heavy price for Africa, as later crises in against the other. In other words, Barre had killed 24 Pakistani U.N. soldiers in various African countries failed to stir tried to undo the important ethnic ties Mogadishu four months earlier. Washington into any meaningful ac- that actually held the country together When the troops got to their sites, tion. Press sums up this legacy best in and had dangerously politicized clan what originally seemed like an opera- his chapter entitled “Genocide Ignored: awareness. tion that would succeed quickly turned Rwanda.” Of Somalia, he writes, “This When American troops went after into a 14-hour battle. Americans took was a turning point in U.S. foreign Aideed, they suddenly lost their neu- heavy fire from men “in wraparound policy: the United States, at least under trality and appeared—to the warlord’s Somali skirts and flip-flops,” according Clinton, would no longer send its clan and allies—intent on preventing to Press, who hid in the nearby build- troops on peacekeeping missions that him from becoming the nation’s leader. did not directly affect This is when the mission took an espe- its national security— cially dangerous turn. Also, Press con- The message that comes…is regardless of the hu- tends that the search for peace was straightforward, yet his advice manitarian needs.” In flawed. The United States and U.N. is often overlooked: Take time 1994, in tiny Rwanda, paid too much attention to Aideed and about a million people his main rival, Mohamed Ali Mahdi, the to really understand Africa. were killed. Most of the interim president. Other potential lead- victims were Tutsis ers, who might have helped to negoti- who were killed by fel- ate an agreement, were left out. All low citizens who were these points now seem particularly ings. One helicopter was downed, an- Hutu. The United States, United Na- worth studying given how the Somalia other one crashed. When the fighting tions, Africa and the rest of the world experience inhibited action in Rwanda. was over, 18 Americans were dead and stood by and did nothing. According to Whether the world is now ready to the naked body of one of them was Press, the world had not heeded the confront the next conflict that threat- dragged through the city’s streets. The lesson of the Holocaust. ens to become another Rwanda re- grisly scene was captured on camera The book’s no-frills approach in ex- mains to be seen. What was the lesson, and immediately flashed around the plaining Africa is reminiscent of Sanford this past May, from Sierra Leone? There, world. Understandably, there was a Ungar’s “Africa: The People and Poli- the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel harsh public outcry back in America. tics of an Emerging Continent,” which group trying to seize power, held 500 President Clinton, who inherited the came out in 1978. Ungar, currently the ill-equipped U.N. peacekeepers hos- operation from President Bush, had Director of the Voice of America, is a tage and stole their weapons, equip- never given Americans a clear explana- former host of National Public Radio’s ment and personnel carriers. What tion as to why the United States was “All Things Considered” and dean of would have happened if Britain had engaged in combat in Somalia. He the School of Communication at Ameri- not sent in troops? Is peacekeeping quickly ordered the troops to be re- can University. Both writers are short without any risk of losing lives realis- turned home within five months. on colorful language but effective if tic? What’s considered a fair expecta- The painful episode, furthermore, one isn’t looking for a quick read. The tion of America’s peacekeeping role as prompted the U.S. government to pro- advantage of this approach is that when the world’s remaining superpower? Do duce Presidential Decision Directive they hit upon a particularly crucial partisan dispues in Congress over ap- 25 in 1994, which had the effect of topic, it gets the coverage it deserves. propriating money to pay the U.N. to reducing the possibility of committing The message that comes through in confront far-flung hot spots uninten- American forces in future U.N. opera- reading Press’s account is straightfor- tionally embolden warmongers? These tions—especially those that held the ward, yet his advice is often overlooked: questions deserve continued debate in potential for casualties and humiliat- Take time to really understand Africa. a dispassionate manner. Press’s book ing media coverage. All this resulted Americans, before they landed in So- enriches the discussion. ■ from an operation in which almost malia, should have been educated to 26,000 Americans had gone in, not as understand that this was a society Wilson Wanene, a Kenyan-born combatants, but as a means to ensure steeped in tradition. Its community freelance journalist in Boston, has that relief convoys made it to the fam- leaders, Press points out, were almost lived in the United States since 1978.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 85 International Journalism

Doctors Without Borders Top 10 Underreported Humanitarian Stories

In December 1999, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Angola: Sans Frontières issued its second annual top 10 list of Displacement, Landmines, Hunger underreported humanitarian stories. Doctors Without Threaten War Victims Borders compiles this list to call attention to stories it The 30-year civil war resumed in December 1998. Since believes are largely ignored by the U.S. media. The list, then, 800,000 people have been displaced, with food, which is based on events witnessed firsthand by the clothes and medicine being denied. In the first six organization’s volunteers, is not intended to be abso- months of 1999, there were 354 landmine injuries. lutely comprehensive, and the stories are not presented in any particular order. Millions Die from Lack of Access to Medicines Congo Republic: Treatable communicable diseases are still the leading A Forgotten War Rages cause of death in developing world. Patent protection There is mass displacement of persons seeking refuge keeps effective treatments prohibitively expensive; dis- from conflict between government and rebel forces, eases like malaria and sleeping sickness are not re- resulting in widespread malnutrition, the use of refugees searched because drugs for such illnesses are not prof- as human shields, and the systematic rape of women and itable for pharmaceutical companies. children.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Afghanistan: Health Care System in Ruins War Enters 20th Year; Toll on Civilians Civil war divides the country, as nearly one million Escalates citizens are either internally displaced or refugees in This country has the worst maternal mortality rate in the neighboring countries. The only health care structures world, and women’s access to health care is severely are those supported by foreign agencies. Plague, chol- restricted. Chronic malnutrition stunts children’s physi- era, measles and meningitis outbreaks are frequent, cal and mental development. malnutrition is common, and 50,000 new cases of sleep- ing sickness are reported each year.

Dr. Darin Portnoy examining a TB patient in Uzbekistan, 1999. TB is one of the target diseases of the Access to Essen- tial Medicines Campaign. Photo © Gary Calton/MSF.

Feeding center in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, January 2000. Médecins Sans Frontières©.

86 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 International Journalism

Colombia: Burundi: Danger and Threats Plague Medical Staff War and Displacement Leave Civilians and Aid Workers Without Health Care Most victims of this undeclared civil war are civilians. Since the beginning of civil war in 1993, 800,000 persons Medical staff avoid dangerous areas where the need have been voluntarily or forcibly displaced by govern- among the indigenous population is greatest. Hundreds ment. In summer 1999, the government moved 300,000 of medical staff have been attacked and violence has people into 50 regroupment camps, then prevented aid spread to cities. agencies from entering all but 19 of them, thereby hin- dering their ability to treat malnutrition and epidemics.

Mozambique: Cholera Epidemic Strikes Somalia: Cholera epidemic began in December 1998; by May 1999, Civilians Face the World’s Neglect 62,000 were infected and 2,000 had died. This epidemic International commitment decreasing as the country puts strains on limited health care resources and makes engages in a decade-long civil war. Health care is cur- treatment of malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis more diffi- rently at its lowest level since 1991. There are constant cult. epidemics and food shortages due to natural and human causes. Infant and maternal mortality rates are high and cholera, meningitis, measles are prevalent. ■ Sri Lanka: Civil War Intensifies The country’s 16-year civil war escalated in November 1999. Many civilians injured by bombing and shelling, yet the government prevents displaced civilians from fleeing the impending assaults. Medical care and transport of medical supplies greatly restricted.

The regroupment camps in Burundi, 1999. Photos © Médecins Sans Frontières.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 87 International Journalism From Darkness Into Blinding Glare What does it take to get the press to shine its searchlight in distant places?

By Susan Moeller

o make it big in a culture driven was not the hundreds of hostages, nor The media’s herd coverage of the by images, there are clear advan- their rescue. It was the riveting image story was not in response to any new Ttages to being photogenic. These of the Janus-faced twins—a month-old understanding of the increased use of days, news reporting seems little dif- photograph of two 12-year-olds who, child soldiers during the last decade or ferent. while the leaders of the 200 or so even to a new interest in the chronic And with news, it doesn’t hurt, ei- youthful Karen tribesmen who com- Karen conflict. Most news outlets ran ther, if the essence of an event can be prise the force called “God’s Army,” with the story because of their love for distilled down, à la Hollywood, to a were not actually among the masked gee-whiz items. They counted on view- succinct, tabloid-like phrase, such as gunmen at the hospital. ers’ emotional reaction to the image of “Terror Twins,” or “Kid Guerrillas,” or The photograph pictured two boys the twins. even “War as Child’s Play.” looking more like six-year-olds than The compelling photograph also These headlines were trumpeted by 12-year-olds, one child feminine in ap- allowed the media to touch on a cul- the newsmagazines—Newsweek, Time pearance, with long hair and a soft face tural ambivalence about children in and U.S. News & World Re- the news. As New York Times port—in their February 7, reporter Keith Bradsher wrote 2000 issues. The news, in 1999 about the public’s re- Time’s inside headline told sponse to children who are vio- us, was about “Leading God’s lent: “Americans are caught be- Army: The bizarre tale of boy tween two contradictory twins with reputed mystical impulses: to preserve child- powers who command a re- hood as a time of innocence bellion.” The reason for the and to deny that children who coverage, suggested the ar- commit crimes are indeed chil- ticle, was a photograph: “the dren,” Bradsher observed. picture that shocked the Dramatic pictures, espe- world…the one widely cially of children—big-eyed broadcast of Johnny [Htoo] children staring into the cam- and the cigar-smoking era, children hurt, children Luther, still at large.” fearful, and children dying— There was a legitimate Johnny Htoo, left, a 12-year-old Karen boy, watches as his twin can drive coverage. Visual im- news peg. A splinter group brother, Luther, smokes a cigar during a meeting with the ages of child refugees in of ethnic Karen rebels had Associated Press at their jungle base in Myanmar in December Kosovo, of swollen-bellied in- crossed the Myanmar-Thai 1999. Photo by Apichart Weerawong, courtesy of AP Photo. fants in Somalia, and even vivid border and taken patients verbal descriptions of Kuwaiti and staff hostage in a Thailand hospi- and expression, the other defiantly newborns thrown from hospital incu- tal. The small Karen force had com- masculine, with shaved eyebrows and bators (although later shown to be mandeered a public bus and seized the hairline and smoking the stub of a false) can open wallets, prompt politi- hospital to protest the shelling of some cigar. Although these youngsters’ im- cians to call for humanitarian interven- Burmese hill tribes by Thai military ages drove the coverage, most media tion, and push a story up the news units acting in cooperation with the outlets did not take the occasion to agenda. military government in Myanmar. reflect on issues relating to children Yet, at times, good old-fashioned Within a day, Thai commandos stormed and war, even though earlier that same news values—without an accompany- the hospital 75 miles west of Bangkok, week the U.N. protocol agreement pro- ing glitzy photograph—will win a story killed the handful or so of Karen fight- hibiting the use of child soldiers in war a place on the front page. One such ers, and released hundreds of hostages. finally won passage in Geneva, after example was Seth Mydans’ article about But what propelled this 50-year-old the United States dropped its long- the Thai security forces’ rescue of the ethnic conflict story into all three standing opposition to establishing 18 hostages from the band of Karen guer- newsmagazines and onto all three of as the minimum age for sending sol- rillas. His piece received front-page the network evening news programs diers into combat. treatment from The New York Times

88 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 International Journalism even before the famous image of Johnny Asia, described the decision: “We don’t picture you don’t have to think twice.” and Luther Htoo surfaced. In fact, it usually consult about pictures but in Most international crises have to claw was Mydans himself who called the the morning here—evening there— their way into the public’s view, except photo to his editors’ attention. The during discussions of my story I asked for those crises involving American bulldog edition of the paper came out if they were running the twins’ shot. troops or those crises that have put— with another AP photo, a more stan- They seem to have missed it. They went or may put—Americans at risk, such as dard one of the Thai security forces. As and found it and put it in. As for that a mad cow or an Ebola epidemic. Last Mydans, who is stationed in Southeast editorial decision, once you see the year, after receiving the Nobel Peace Coverage of AIDS in Africa: The media are silent no longer.

If you had to plan an AIDS conference and Yet it was only in January that the U.N. Security dealing with AIDS in Africa, so too did most you wanted to command the world’s attention, Council—in a session orchestrated by U.S. Am- in the media. A few, such as Mark Schoofs of you might have chosen the city of Durban in the bassador Richard Holbrooke and chaired by Vice The Village Voice, made major reporting South African province of KwaZulu Natal for President Al Gore—declared that AIDS in Africa is commitments, but for most the story never the meeting. a threat to global political stability. Gore’s state- rose to crisis stature. The tiny news hole for South Africa is one of the few sub-Saharan ment that it was the world’s moral duty to “wage international coverage rarely seemed to have countries covered well outside the region. Its and win a great and peaceful war” against AIDS space for a chronic problem troubling the struggles under apartheid brought it infamy; marked the sudden recognition by the Clinton African continent. But when the political its post-apartheid political and religious lead- administration that action in Africa was needed. climate changed in January, so too did the ers, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, This year it has been common to hear National media’s attention to the story—a trend that brought it prestige and honor. What was less Security Advisor Sandy Berger and Treasury Sec- accelerated in April after Schoofs won both reported on by the world’s press was how hard retary Lawrence Summers speak publicly about the Pulitzer Prize for International Report- AIDS had struck. In South Africa, one in five the epidemic. Both have pressed for greater for- ing and an Overseas Press Club award for adults is infected with the HIV virus. Durban eign aid earmarked for AIDS. his eight-part series. has an infection rate approaching 40 percent. Consistent attention to AIDS in Africa has been The media turned en masse to AIDS Deciding to hold an AIDS conference in a long time coming. In 1997, international donor coverage in the weeks before the Durban Durban thrust the 12,400 delegates and hun- countries spent just $150 million on AIDS preven- conference. Startling statistics often led the dreds of attendant journalists into the epicen- tion in Africa—less than is spent on a single pieces, when heart-rending anecdotes did ter of the epidemic. “There’s nothing like Hollywood blockbuster. Washington Post reporter not. Suddenly journalists were employing being in the middle of it to understand what Barton Gellman, in a searing article written imme- dramatic language—such as “plague,” that means,” said Sandra Thurman, Director diately before the Durban conference, indicted “apocalypse,” “holocaust,” “ground zero,” of the White House Office of National AIDS “those with power,” especially the international even “heart of disease’s darkness”—and Policy, immediately before the start of the 13th aid organizations, for the neglect. Turf wars and using emotional images such as abandoned International Conference on AIDS this past the politics of “demand management” have re- infants and orphaned toddlers to draw at- July. “What we’re going to walk away with is the sulted in the World Health Organization commit- tention to the epidemic. Stories drew con- enormity of the problem and the huge gap in ting only nine professionals to full-time work on nections between the African victims of the resources available to deal with it.” AIDS out of a secretariat of 2,000, he noted. virus and American sufferers. Articles and And astonishingly, that is essentially what The West did not heed its own early projec- tape packages focused on the rapacious- happened. Astonishing, because recognition tions of infection rates and death tolls (which ness of drug companies that price their of the crisis in Africa by both politicians and the tended to be roughly accurate). It lost its sense of therapies well beyond what the world’s poor media has been exceedingly delinquent. As urgency about the disease when it became evident can afford. Nelson Mandela said during his speech which by 1990 that there was not going to be a hetero- In short, most in the media are now closed the conference: “AIDS today in Africa is sexual epidemic in the United States, Gellman doing what they normally do when an inter- claiming more lives than the sum total of all charged. Racism led to inattention when AIDS was national crisis is inaugurated: They are flock- wars, famines, and floods, and the ravages of perceived as being “no longer a threat to the ing to cover the emergency now that it is such deadly diseases as malaria.” West.” And in 1996, when the cocktail of anti- government-certified. They are emphasiz- In 1998, death from all wars in Africa killed retroviral agents was discovered to be effective at ing the sensational (easy to do in this in- 200,000 people. AIDS killed 10 times that staving off the fatal complications of the virus, stance!). And they are dwelling on the risk number. The statistics are numbing: Six Afri- many convinced themselves that a global pan- factors and ramifications for American in- cans each minute are stricken with the HIV demic would be escaped “without grave results.” dividuals and companies. But at least, now, virus; in 10 years the number of AIDS orphans This conclusion was reached despite the fact that they are covering the story. It remains to be in Africa will reach 29 million, and AIDS is the cost of bringing the drug cocktail to Africa and seen whether they will stay with it. ■ expected to kill between one-third to one-half the rest of the developing world was unthinkable. of today’s 15-year-olds. Just as the diplomats and politicians avoided —Susan Moeller

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 89 International Journalism

Prize for its humanitarian work, Doc- cost-effective. Sometimes the personal porting of an obscure crisis by one or tors Without Borders/Médecins Sans risks to journalists to cover events ap- even several journalists can get easily Frontières [MSF] took advantage of its pear too great and the story not signifi- lost in the maelstrom of the constantly brief time in the media spotlight to cant enough to merit such risks being churning news cycle. highlight the crises that members of taken, such as during the leveling of With the general cutting of news the press continue to all but ignore. Grozny, for instance. budgets, the media (television espe- [Please see accompanying list on pages Sometimes, as MSF observes, crises cially) can’t afford to cover all the crises 86-87.] “Victims of chronic conflicts are too chronic; they might be qualita- in the world. So they choose chauvinis- are continually neglected by the me- tively at a crisis level, but so static at tically. Coverage of international af- dia,” said Joelle Tanguy, executive di- that level that the immediacy or even fairs is often viewed through the lens of rector of the U.S. office of Doctors the notion of crisis has dissipated for “What does this mean for us?” When without Borders. The prolonged wars the American audience, such as the on- there are no obvious or direct reper- in Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, the going conflict in Algeria. Sometimes cussions, news items can be struck Congo Republic, and Sri Lanka made events, which are critical in the life and from the budget, resulting in the situ- the list, as did treatable medical emer- politics of their own nations, do not ation where distant disasters remain gencies such as cholera, tuberculosis, resonate for the U.S. press because the distant and prosaic diseases, such as meningitis, pneumonia, malaria and events take place in regions which fall malaria and virulent diarrhea, which sleeping sickness. below the radar of U.S. media notice: kill thousands and millions every year, Certainly these chronic cases de- This is the case with many events that are all but invisible. serve worldwide attention. Such expo- occur in Africa. Sometimes access is Not every distant story has a Johnny sure would serve to educate Americans difficult, visas can be denied or even, and Luther able to pose for the camera, and much of the West and North about when print reporters can get in, cam- able to seize the imagination of the these situations. And that exposure eras are forbidden. This has been the media gatekeepers, able to encapsu- would likely be helpful to those who case in Syria, for example, and was the late a moral complexity of our time. are affected—a key concern, of course, case in apartheid South Africa for sev- Walter Lippmann wrote in 1922 that of MSF. Yet, it is very unlikely news eral years during the 1980’s. the press was “like the beam of a search- editors or producers will be sending And sometimes sensational break- light that moves restlessly about, bring- off reporters on such stories any time ing news—especially domestic, but on ing one episode and then another out soon. The reasons for such inattention occasion international—will jostle an of darkness into vision.” From black- are related to the bottom-line business otherwise “newsworthy” international ness into blinding glare, then back into decisions of owners of news organiza- story off the news budget. It’s harder to blackness. It’s a problematic way of tions, many of whom in this brave new get such news on the front pages dur- covering the world. But as distorting as world of media mergers do not come ing the high season of the American it may be, those crises that for some out of a journalistic tradition. Other election cycle, for example. Even dur- reason do manage to have their mo- reasons for the invisibility of these sto- ing quieter news moments at home, ment in the light are the fortunate ries are related to the logistical and current media attention to one world ones. “Lucky are the people in Yugosla- bureaucratic imperatives of the news crisis will tend to keep other global via and Somalia, for the world is with business. crises in the dark. This is especially true them,” wrote a missionary in a letter Certain global events are reflexively if the crises can be stereotyped into an smuggled out of southern Sudan. “It covered in the American media. These analogous category: another ethnic may be a blessing to die or get killed in are the no-brainers—“tape at 11”— war, for instance, or another famine, or front of the camera because the world that even freshly minted editors recog- another massacre. will know.” ■ nize as meriting front page, top-of-the- Without the drama of an arresting news coverage. Such events include image, a photo or videotape, either to Susan Moeller is the author of “Com- the assassination of the Israeli head of bring a critical mass of recognition or passion Fatigue: How the Media Sell state, a massive earthquake in Japan, to reinvigorate a “dying” story (as in Disease, Famine, War and Death” the ascension to power in South Africa the recent case of the video document- (Routledge, 1999). She is currently a of a former imprisoned black leader, ing Russian war crimes in Grozny), fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center the downing of a plane by terrorist even those crises which receive cover- on Press, Politics and Public Policy bomb over Scotland. age in one media outlet typically fade at the John F. Kennedy School of Then there are other kinds of crises. away, having made little impression on Government at Harvard University, Sometimes the bottom-line costs for the public consciousness. On very lim- writing a book to be called “A Hier- coverage are assessed as being too great: ited budgets, many responsible media archy of Innocence: Images of Chil- Stationing or even parachuting corre- institutions, such as National Public dren in the News.” Moeller is the spondents into a geographically or psy- Radio and a number of the major met- director of the Journalism Program chically remote country for a (presum- ropolitan newspapers, try to regularly at Brandeis University. ably) short-term crisis is often seen by revisit countries and regions that are the bean counters as not sufficiently typically out of sight. But diligent re-

90 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Nieman Notes Nieman Notes Compiled by Lois Fiore Reading Between the Lions By Judith Stoia

e had just finished up work “Between the Lions” is the product Kids love to be read to, so we fea- on a film tracking a homeless of a rare partnership including WGBH, tured a read-aloud story in every pro- Wcouple over five years of their Sirius Thinking, a company formed by gram. Phonics was trickier. How would remarkable and disturbing lives. The gifted veterans of “Sesame Street” and we nestle lessons about short vowels, resulting documentary won a bucket- Henson Productions, the top reading silent “e” and word blending into seg- ful of awards and was seen by fewer specialists in the country, the U.S. De- ments that children would enjoy? In people on PBS than I would have liked. partment of Education, the Corpora- short, how would we make phonics I was thinking already of the follow-up, tion for Public Broadcasting, five foun- fun, not a lesson? My friend and col- maybe two years down the line. In the dations, and two corporate league Christopher Cerf said, “Every clutter of notes on my desk the next underwriters. good idea begins with a bad pun.” Boy, day was one from a vice president at “Sesame Street,” which I admire, do we have them. (Beginning with the WGBH in Boston, where I work, won- teaches numbers and letters to title: Our program takes place in a dering if I might take on a new project: preschoolers. “Lions” is for “Sesame mythical library and one must pass overseeing the most ambitious and ex- Street” graduates. Aimed at children between lion statues guarding the en- pensive series WGBH had ever at- about to read or those just starting, trance). Here is a sample of recurring tempted. “Lions” unravels the mysteries of de- segments: At WGBH, one of the country’s most coding the English language: blending overachieving broadcasters, an ambi- letters to make words, putting words •Martha Reader and the Vowelles, a tious series usually means a documen- together to make sentences, mastering 60’s Motown group that only sings tary project in public affairs, science, the horrors of short vowels. Who vowel sounds (if they want to make history or the arts. And this new project thought of short vowels, by the way? a word, they must sing with Hoboken would be—a series to help children Why is the sound of the letter ‘a’ differ- great Johnny Consonati who only learn to read. Right. I looked at the ent in ‘map’ and ‘Carl’? I know, I know, sings consonants). background materials I’d been given: the controlling ‘r.’ Try explaining that •Gawain’s Word, in which two brave to a four year old. But that’s just what knights, each yelling part of a word, •Forty percent of American children we’re doing. charge together to create a whole read below grade level. Before we thought of characters, word. •A child who is not a competent reader animation or music, we spent several •Tiger Words, a golfing phenom, who by age nine might never catch up. months with the country’s leading read- approaches a tee and must figure •One of the most critical indicators of ing specialists constructing a curricu- out which vowel will make a word. a child’s later academic success is lum that continues to inform every- •Chicken Jane, a hapless chicken who whether or not he or she is read to at thing we produce. This was five years scratches out word clues to two chil- an early age. Nearly half are not. ago, when the battle between believers dren who might remind parents of •Level l is the lowest, barely func- in whole language and phonics was at Dick and Jane. tional level of reading skills. Forty full pitch. Those of faint heart should •Dr. Ruth Wordheimer (yes, it’s the million Americans are at Level l. Dis- not wander into academic reading wars. Dr. Ruth, for which we’ve received count non-English speaking Ameri- Our advisors concluded, and we some heat) who counsels early read- cans, and it’s still 30 million. agreed, that “Lions” should include ers suffering from Long Word •Semi-literate children grow into both whole language and phonics. We Freakout. (Just take it one syllable at adults who cannot read newspapers, arrived there before it was fashionable: a time.) books, or magazines; who cannot Some months later, leading educators fill out job applications or follow decided that whole language (the love And so on. instructions; who cannot read to of reading, reading in the world around “Between the Lions,” now seen daily their own children. you) and phonics (mastery of funda- on PBS, debuted in April. Since then mental reading skills) were both im- we have been encouraged by two Would I move to New York and portant. So “Lions” is a combination of events. First, the American Television oversee the project? I believed I would. whole language and phonics. Critics Association recognized “Be-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 91 Nieman Notes tween the Lions” for Outstanding four weeks of “Between the Lions” the families that most need it. This, as Achievement in Children’s Television. showed a 50 percent increase in we try to figure out how to teach the “- Essentially, they called it the best specific reading skills. The control ed” concept (a song called, “It’s All in children’s program of the year. In a group improved by 13 percent. the Past”), how to explain that some crowded and competitive children’s •Scores on standardized tests rose 26 words are the same forwards and back programming field, this award has percent among children who viewed (watch for the “Palindrome Polka”) and proved enormously helpful in terms of “Lions” versus five percent for chil- the vagaries of spelling (“I Couldn’t Be validating our work. Second, and more dren who did not. Q Without U”). As we say at PBS, check important, independent research from your local listings. ■ the University of Kansas shows that Other results were just as dramatic. children who watch “Between the Li- Now deep into producing season Judith Stoia, a 1980 Nieman Fellow, ons” demonstrate a startling improve- two, we are trying to get the word out has produced documentaries, news ment in reading skills by virtually all to parents and teachers that this pro- magazines, drama and comedy for measures. gram actually helps children learn to PBS and commercial television. She read. We’re trying to be inventive about is the executive producer of “Be- • Kindergartners who watched only how to put the series into the hands of tween the Lions.”

—1942— recruit high school students. He re- tion by Harvard University President ceived the prestigious Harvard Medal Neil Rudenstine in August. Giles fol- Neil O. Davis died on June 7, 2000. for his work in 1983. lows Bill Kovach, who retired this year He was 85 years old. The obituary in His wife, Carroll Day Locke, to after 11 years as head of the Nieman the Montgomery Advertiser described whom he was married for nearly 62 program. While at The Freedom Fo- Davis, the longtime publisher of the years, died in 1999. Locke leaves two rum, Giles was editor in chief of their Auburn Bulletin, as follows: daughters, a son, and three grandchil- Media Studies Journal and directed an “In a time of great moral cowardice, dren. Contributions in his honor may in-depth study of fairness in the news Neil O. Davis stood as a consistent be made to the Francis P. Locke 1933 media. [See book review on page 71.] voice of reason and intelligence in Ala- Scholarship Fund, c/o The Harvard Before joining The Freedom Forum, bama.… When Alabamians in droves College Fund, 124 Mount Auburn he spent 11 years as executive editor were running away from racial issues Street, Cambridge, Mass., 02138, and/ and, later, editor and publisher, of The or shamelessly exploiting them for or to the Mission Inn Foundation, 3696 Detroit News. Two newspapers won political benefit, Davis addressed them Main Street, Riverside, Calif., 92501. Pulitzers under Giles’s leadership. unflinchingly, in print and in person. While he was managing editor, The He saw, and wrote about in piercing —1953— Akron Beacon Journal was honored in prose, the necessity of coming to grips 1971 for its coverage of the shootings with these issues for the greater good John Strohmeyer has created an at Kent State University. While he was of all. For years, Davis told his readers endowment for the establishment of editor, The Detroit News won in 1994 that their state could and should be the Robert B. Atwood Alaska History for the disclosures of a scandal in the better, that it could and should do Reading Room at the University of Michigan House Fiscal Agency. more for its poor, that it could and Alaska-Anchorage, where Strohmeyer should offer greater educational op- is writer in residence. Atwood spent a —1967— portunities for all its people.” half-century as Publisher of the Alaska Times and frequently lamented the Hiranmay Karlekar writes that he —1947— scant attention paid to Alaskan history was the editor of “Independent India: in the state’s educational system. The First Fifty Years,” which was pub- Francis Philbrick (Phil) Locke d i e d Strohmeyer made an initial gift of lished by Oxford University Press in unexpectedly on July 28 in Arlington, $2,400 shortly after Atwood’s death in 1998. The book includes two essays by Massachusetts. He was 88. 1997 and contributed $7,600 more in Karlekar: one on historical develop- Locke began his journalism career November 1999. He is also working on ments prior to Independence and one as a reporter with the Miami Daily a book about the demise of fisheries in on the Indian media. Since his Nieman News. After two years, he began writ- the United States. year, Karlekar has been editor of The ing editorials, which he continued to Hindustan Times, deputy editor of the do for the rest of his career. He retired —1966— Indian Express, and assistant editor of in 1972 at age 60. the Statesman. He has also helped lead A 1933 graduate of Harvard Univer- Bob Giles, former senior vice presi- a number of press-related organiza- sity, Locke spent more than 30 years as dent of The Freedom Forum, was tions and written two novels in Bengali a volunteer for Harvard, working to named Curator of the Nieman Founda- and, in English, a socio-political book,

92 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Nieman Notes

“In The Mirror of Mandal: Social Jus- publishes Family Circle, McCall’s, YM and the dedication of CDF’s Langston tice, Caste, Class and the Individual.” and several other magazines. Hughes Library in Clinton, Tenn., she Bertelsmann AG, the largest privately completed a statewide research project Joseph Mohbat writes: “What a held media company in the world, owns funded by the Mott Foundation on splendid performance by all of you in 75 percent of Gruner + Jahr. Brewster New York’s pre-kindergarten program. arranging the reunion weekend. The had been president and CEO of Ameri- More recently, she has written on fos- mood was so right that even a 45- can Express Publishing since 1993. ter care for the Benton Foundation, minute wait for a bus Saturday night early interventions with high-risk chil- was most pleasant. Thank you very —1984— dren and teens for the Annie E. Casey much. Please note that I am no longer Foundation, and educational innova- with ‘Inform’ but am now an assistant Jane Daugherty, former projects tions for the Danforth Foundation. corporation counsel (i.e. lawyer) for editor of The Detroit News and Chil- Earlier this year, she also helped de- New York City; office address is 198 E. dren First editor of the Detroit Free sign and edit the Web site for the Cali- 161st Street, Bronx, New York 10451; Press, is now a policy analyst and writer fornia-based corporate investigative my office telephone number is 718- on children’s issues based in Albany, firm the W Group, and is currently 590-6168, and office e-mail address is New York. After directing media rela- collaborating with the National Safe [email protected]” tions for the Children’s Defense Fund’s Workplace Institute on a pre-K-12 anti- 1999 national conference in Houston violence curriculum. Daugherty can be —1974—

Shirley Christian, who has worked Kovach Library at Lippmann House as a reporter in New York, Latin America, and Washington and won the Nieman Fellows from around the world cially for the international fellows,” 1981 Pulitzer Prize for International have donated nearly $12,000 for the Zremski said. Reporting, is at work on a new book newly named Kovach Library at The fundraising drive was conducted that, she says, “excites me more than Lippmann House. The contributions through e-mails and telephone calls, anything I have done for many years.” honoring outgoing Curator Bill Kovach without Kovach’s knowledge. Dona- The book is currently titled “Before will be used to improve and expand tions ranged from $25 to $1,000, and Lewis and Clark: The Chouteau Dy- the collection of books and other ma- the total stood at $11,745 in mid-July. nasty of French America,” and is slated terials devoted to journalism. Much of the initial funding will be used for publication by Farrar, Straus & A plaque, describing Kovach as “the to catalog the existing library holdings Giroux in 2004, the 200th anniversary conscience of journalism,” now hangs and put the information on the Internet. of the beginning of Lewis and Clark’s in the library area. “The outpouring of Organizers also plan to expand the expedition. The Chouteaus, who were donations far exceeded our expecta- collection as part of an ongoing project. French fur traders, helped open the tions,” said Jerry Zremski (NF ’00) and Harvard University has granted per- Midwest to settlement by founding St. Washington, D.C., correspondent for mission to name the library in Kovach’s Louis and the outpost that became The Buffalo News, who organized the honor. Longtime National Public Ra- Kansas City, beginning steamboat ser- fundraising after the ’00 Fellows de- dio China correspondent Mary Kay vice on the upper Missouri river, and cided on this tribute. Most of the dona- Magistad, (NF ’00), oversaw the design outfitting Lewis and Clark for their tions came from the classes of 1989- and crafting of the plaque, which fel- expedition. 2000, when Kovach served as Curator. lows presented to Kovach at the final Kovach notified Harvard University dinner during the 2000 Nieman Re- officials last summer that he would union. Ellen Goodman is this year’s recipi- step down in June 2000. He and his The plaque hangs over the back door ent of the Lyndhurst Prize, sponsored wife, Lynne, returned to the Washing- of the library in Lippmann House, sur- by the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based ton, D.C., area, where he is focusing on rounded by bookcases. Bill Kovach in- Lyndhurst Foundation. The prize is his work with the Committee of Con- stalled it on June 30, his last official day awarded annually to individuals who cerned Journalists and writing projects. as curator. ■ have made a significant contribution to “Nothing the Nieman Fellows could —Deborah Schoch (NF ’00) the arts. Goodman is a syndicated col- have done for me could have had more umnist for The Boston Globe. meaning, and both Lynne and I were Donations can be made by check very moved by this act,” Kovach said. payable to the Nieman Foundation, —1983— Naming the library in Kovach’s honor with “Kovach Library Fund” written grew out of a spring brainstorming in the lower left-hand corner, sent to: Daniel Brewster was selected by session. “From everything we heard, The Nieman Foundation, c/o Eliza- the German media giant Bertelsmann he had a great interest in the library beth Tibbitts, One Francis Avenue, AG to be president and chief executive and wanted it to be a resource, espe- Cambridge, Mass., 02138. officer of Gruner + Jahr USA, which

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 93 Nieman Notes reached at Stoney Associates, 308 Thais we returned to Toronto, I was given since our Nieman year, and her travel Road, Averill Park, New York 12018. the job of editing major front-page book, ‘Foreign Correspondences,’ will Phone (518) 674-5635. Fax (518) 674- features and then became national edi- be published this fall. She also has 2799. Email: [email protected]. tor for beat reporting. After two years done magazine freelancing and teaches Jane also reports that then-four-year- of that I asked to return to writing. For writing in the continuing education old Nieman kid Ryan Daugherty the last five years I’ve been back on the program at Ryerson Polytechnic Uni- Robinson graduated from Bloomfield international side, although based in versity in Toronto. Hills (Mich.) Andover High School June Toronto. I write about global issues “Gabe, who was just seven weeks 11 and is headed to Denison University and travel several times a year–mostly old when we began the Nieman year, is in Ohio this fall. “My classmates will to New York and Latin America, al- now 17 and an accomplished musi- not be surprised that his intention though I was thrilled to be able to cian, dividing his time among voice, seems to be to major in golf and minor spend three weeks reporting from electric guitar, bass and theory.” in music.” His post-Nieman sister, South Africa in May 1999. I also do a Meghan, 13, visited Lippmann House weekly commentary for the Spanish- —1985— July 14 and plans to attend Harvard as language service of Radio Canada In- an undergraduate to make up for be- ternational–our answer to VOA. In July, Lucinda Fleeson has moved to ing Nieman-year deprived. I was named one of four winners of the Washington, D.C., where she is work- annual Maria Moors Cabot prize for ing as an independent writer and con- Paul Knox brings us up to date: reporting on the Americas. The awards sultant after five years of traveling and “Perhaps remarkably, I’m still at The are to be presented in September by working in Hawaii and Eastern Eu- Globe and Mail—now in my 23rd year. Columbia University’s Graduate School rope. In 1998, she was a Knight Inter- As you know, after our Nieman year I of Journalism. national Press Fellow in Hungary, was posted to Mexico City (1985-88) “Lesley [ P a u l ’ s w i f e , L e s l e y K r u e g e r ] Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Re- and Rio de Janeiro (1988-91). When has published three books of fiction public, teaching young journalists and

Nieman Foundation Announces Fellows For 2000-01

Twelve journalists from the United regulation of the media. Knight Latin Stefanie Friedhoff, freelance jour- States and 12 international journalists American Fellow; funding provided by nalist from Germany based in Cam- have been named Nieman Fellows for the John S. and James L. Knight Foun- bridge, Mass.; the history of society’s the 2000-01 academic year at Harvard dation. reactions to technological develop- University to make up the 63rd class of Sayuri Daimon, reporter and edi- ments; the effects of the new media on Nieman Fellows. tor, The Japan Times, Tokyo; changes society, and the ethical issues surround- The journalists in the new Nieman in the Japanese and U.S. political sys- ing new technologies. class and their areas of interest are: tems after the Cold War, U.S. foreign Kirstin Downey Grimsley, staff Sulaiman Al-Kahtani, columnist policy towards Asia, and women in writer, The Washington Post; history of and correspondent based in Washing- politics. economics; labor laws; immigration; ton, D.C., Al-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; glo- Sunday Dare, general/online edi- class, culture, race, religious and gen- balization, the implications of new tech- tor, The News, Tempo and P.M. News, der issues. Funding is provided by the nology, and American politics. Lagos, Nigeria; media ethics, and eth- Stark Fellowship Fund in honor of Louis Ken Armstrong, legal affairs writer, nic diversity and identity issues. Stark, a pioneer in the field of labor Chicago Tribune; the historical roots Anne Fitzgerald, agribusiness reporting. of American legal principles and the writer, The Des Moines Register; con- Kelli S. Hewett, city hall/special intersection of law, history and ethics. centration of ownership in agriculture; projects writer, The Dothan (Ala.) Don Aucoin, television critic, The genetic engineering issues; farm policy Eagle; the civil rights movement, po- Boston Globe; effects of the cultural and how it relates to domestic and litical history, sociology, religion, pov- fragmentation of the television view- foreign markets. erty and the emerging Latin popula- ing audience; interaction between tele- Paula Fray, editor, Saturday Star, tion. vision and the Internet; how the broad- Johannesburg, South Africa; the im- Hu Jingcao, director, China Central cast media will contend with these pact of international economics on Television, Beijing; the political, eco- issues in the future. South Africa, business and manage- nomic and technological effects of in- Ana Lourdes Cardenas, reporter, ment, issues of gender, and globaliza- formation technology on the media CNI Channel 40, Mexico City; tion. Funding provided by The United and on society. Chiba-Nieman Fellow; television’s coverage of social conflicts States-South Africa Leadership Devel- funding provided by The Atsuko Chiba in various countries and government opment Program. Foundation.

94 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 Nieman Notes consulting at newspapers. The Inter- Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Soci- national Center for Journalists pub- Stanley Tiner is now executive edi- ety of Professional Journalists. lished in May 2000 her two teaching tor at The Sun Herald in Gulfport, manuals developed during that fel- Mississippi. Tiner was previously ex- —1991— lowship: a training model for teach- ecutive editor of the Daily Oklahoman. ing investigative reporting in devel- Casino gambling has generated sharp Rui Araujo writes: “Almost 15 years oping democracies and a guide for economic growth in Gulfport, and Tiner after writing a nonfiction book on the workshop participants. says he wants the Sun Herald to pro- war in East Timor, I wrote my first Fleeson is working on a non-fic- vide aggressive coverage of the gam- thriller. It was a real challenge, because tion book about Hawaii and writing a bling industry. as a writer I had everything to prove. I chapter for the American Journalism also realize now that a thriller is more Review’s State of the American News- —1989— difficult to write than nonfiction. But it paper Project. is much more fun. Rodney Nordland received two “‘A Queima-Roupa’ (Close-Range —1986— awards for his overseas coverage in Shot), published by Terramar, Lisbon, Newsweek. For his article about Kosovo was presented to the press in July 2000 Geneva Overholser has been ap- Albanians massacred by Serbs, “Daddy, at the Portuguese Press Club in Lisbon. pointed to the newly created Curtis They’re Killing Us,” Nordland received It is a 200-page novel based on true B. Hurley chair in public affairs re- the Overseas Press Club’s Ed stories—I wrote it after spending 14 porting at the University of Missouri’s Cunningham award for best magazine long months with the Homicide Bri- School of Journalism in Washington. reporting from abroad. “The Next gade in Lisbon. I am now writing a Overholser will continue to write her Chernobyl,” Nordland’s story about second book—the adventures of the semiweekly syndicated column for aging nuclear power plants in the same Portuguese cop and his brigade the Washington Post Writers Group. former Soviet bloc and the West, won a dealing with crimes in Portugal.”

2000-01 Fellows continued

Dong-Kwan Lee, assistant editor, conduits of the community and what impact on society; government and political news desk, Dong-A Ilbo, Seoul; can be done to solidify their positions politics. North Korea’s economic and political as local institutions. Andrew Sussman, senior program situation and its emerging policies to- Linda Robinson, Latin America producer, “The World,” a co-produc- wards other countries. Funding pro- bureau chief, US News & World Re- tion of the BBC World Service, Public vided by The Asia Foundation and The port; U.S. foreign policy, the evolving Radio International and WGBH Bos- Sungkok Journalism Foundation. practice of journalism, Latin American ton; Europe in the 21st century; chang- J.R. Moehringer, Atlanta bureau culture, and the Latinization of the ing national identities; economic and chief, Los Angeles Times; American civi- United States. legal aspects of the European Union’s lization, with emphasis on the post- Consuelo Saavedra, reporter, an- development. World War II period; sociology of orga- chor and editor, National Television of Peter Turnley, photojournalist nizational behavior; cultures faced with Chile, Santiago; democracy and poli- based in Paris, Newsweek; interactive revolutionary change. tics in Latin America; market economy; media; computer science; public ser- Anil Padmanabhan, economic af- globalization, and the international vice and social and political science; fairs editor, Business Standard, New network relating to the environment, business management and leadership. Delhi, India; the ways electronic gover- human rights, and labor laws. Nuri Vallbona, photojournalist, nance can empower people in devel- Helena Smith, southern Balkans Miami Herald; the society and history oping countries, cyberspace laws, eco- correspondent based in Athens, of Cuba, Haiti and other Caribbean nomics and political science. Ruth Greece, The Guardian and The Ob- countries, and writing. Cowan Nash Fellow; funding provided server, London; peace processes and by the Nash Fund. negotiation, the influence of non-gov- The selection committee included Senad Pecanin, editor, Dani, ernmental organizations on diplomacy K. Anthony Appiah, Professor of Afro- Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Is- and public policy, and nationalism and American Studies and of Philosophy, lam and politics in an emerging demo- national identity. Harvard University; Bill Kovach, com- cratic, multi-ethnic society. Ron Stodghill II, Midwest bureau mittee chair and 1989 Nieman Fellow; Mark Pothier, executive editor, chief based in Chicago, Time; forces and Melanie Sill, Managing Editor, MPG Newspapers, Plymouth, Mass.; that have inspired individuals into po- The News & Observer, Raleigh, and community newspapers as mirrors and litical activism and leadership and their 1994 Nieman Fellow. ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 95 Nieman Notes

Katherine M. Skiba b e c a m e a W a s h - is a very famous program in China. It for the past 23 years. He has covered ington, D.C. correspondent for the covers every topic in the environmen- most international news stories of sig- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in May. tal field, from policy and legislation to nificance in the past two decades. “Pa- Skiba is the first woman to be appointed the current environmental situation. I risians” will be accompanied by exhib- to the two-person bureau in its 50-year was both reporter and editor then. I its in September at the Leica Gallery in history. She writes: “I was told that in interviewed many top environmental New York and at the Galerie Agathe Washington, the circus always is in officers…. Gaillard in Paris. town. Only after arriving did I realize “About two moths ago, I started to Because of Turnley’s long-standing it’s a nine-ring spectacle. I’m thrilled work for the People’s Daily, a leading and intimate knowledge of Paris, “Pari- (and busy). My husband, Tom Vanden newspaper in China. I work for the sians” catches Paris from an insider’s Brook, and I are living in Arlington, Internet department, and I am respon- point of view. It is a city that, Turnley Virginia. All the D.C. Niemans have sible for international news. Every day, says, “offers me not only beauty but been wonderful friends to us. We in- I write some articles and put them in also a cherished haven from the hor- vite outside-the-beltway friends to visit the Web site: www.peopledaily.com.cn. rors of war and upheaval that I have and are accepting reservations via e- I like environmental news and always documented in the course of my career mail: [email protected].” give priority to it, so I can say I am still as a photojournalist.” ■ doing some international environmen- —1994— tal news. “Recently I went to Washington, Larry Tye, staff writer for The Bos- D.C., for the International Women’s ton Globe, was honored for “Patients Media Foundation conference. Actu- At Risk,” his 1999 series about medical ally, it is Bill Kovach who recom- International Journalist errors. The series won the top prize for mended me to the IWMF for this con- Added to Nieman general circulation publications in an ference. It is a high-profile annual health care journalism compe- conference…about women’s leader- Class of 2001 tition sponsored by the National Insti- ship in the media.…” Ignacio Gomez, a Colombian tute for Health Care Management Re- journalist who fled to the United search and Educational Foundation. —2000— States in July after receiving death threats in his own country, will be —1995— Thrity Umrigar’s first novel, a 2001 Nieman Fellow. As an in- “Bombay Time,” will be published by vestigative reporter for the Bogota Lisa Getter reports that she mar- Picador in July 2001. The book is set in newspaper El Espectador, Gomez ried Jonathan Peterson, a reporter in a Bombay apartment building and be- has reported on the relationship the Los Angeles Times Washington gins as a group of middle-aged resi- between the Colombian govern- bureau, in May. She is sorry she missed dents gather for the wedding recep- ment and Colombia’s major eco- the Nieman reunion last April. tion of a younger man who grew up nomic groups, and on the U.S. among them. All of the action takes military’s growing role in the Co- Anne Hull left the St. Petersburg place in one evening. The novel re- lombian civil war and links with Times in August to join The Washing- counts the life stories of the characters, organizations accused of violat- ton Post as a national reporter. most of whom are Zoroastrian or Parsi, ing human rights. Gomez dis- and also examines their experiences as closed that the 1997 massacre in —1999— affluent members of a religious minor- the village of Mapiripan, in which ity in a city whose residents are prima- 49 people were killed, was car- Gonzalo Quijandria is the Press rily poor and Hindu. Umrigar, who ried out by right-wing Director at Apoyo Comunicaciones, a says that she wrote most of the book paramilitaries with the help of Peruvian mass media conglomerate that during her Nieman year, has also ac- Colombian military forces. publishes three magazines on econom- cepted an invitation from Harvard’s The Nieman Foundation occa- ics and politics. He’s also writing about English Department to read from sionally awards a fellowship after South American politics for EsMas.com, “Bombay Time” next spring. the class has been selected to a an Internet portal based in Mexico City journlaist who is faced with a dan- and edited by Martin Holguin, (NF —2001— gerous or career-threatening situ- ’99). ation. Peter Turnley’s new book of pho- Funding for Gomez’s fellow- Yu Sun writes: “I was with China tographs, “Parisians,” will be released ship is provided by The Freedom Central Television Station for several by Abbeville Press in September. Forum. ■ months in an environmental program, Turnley is a contract photographer for called ‘Economy of Thirty Minutes.’ It Newsweek and has been based in Paris

96 Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 End Note Nieman Notes Howard Simons’ Legacy Lives On Scholarships for minority journalism students bear his name.

By Marcia Slacum Greene

hey never met. Megan Kay Scott three-year-old Young Journalists De- job,” Bowean said. “They showed me was entering grade school when velopment Project, which was designed how journalism has the power to THoward Simons ended his leg- to support students interested in news- change things, to make things better….” endary career as managing editor of paper careers and to encourage more Simons certainly understood the The Washington Post and became Cu- minorities to enter journalism. power of the press. He received the rator of the Nieman Foundation. Yet, In the Simons tradition, the devel- first telephone call about a break-in at like the many journalists whose ca- opment project has guided young jour- the headquarters of the Democratic reers Simons influenced before his nalists with help from an extensive National Committee and later man- death in 1989, Scott will benefit also network of volunteers from The Wash- aged the coverage of what became from the editor’s reputation for nur- ington Post’s news staff. In addition, it widely known as Watergate, the big- turing young talent. has allowed the newspaper to assist gest story in the newspaper’s history. This fall, Scott, a recent graduate of students in the District of Columbia, But even as he pushed reporters to Clark Atlanta University, will pursue a Maryland and Virginia through writing pursue the big stories, Simons also master’s degree in journalism as a re- seminars, equipment donations, and emphasized that the reporting had to cipient of the newly created Howard technical assistance. The program meet the high standards he valued— Simons Graduate Fellowship to the helped revive a number of the District’s fairness, completeness and evenhand- University of Maryland. The Washing- high school newspapers. edness. ton Post initiated the Howard Simons As the Young Journalists Develop- When the newspaper celebrated the Scholarship and Fellowship program ment Project expanded to include col- new Simons awards during a gala re- last year as part of an education part- lege level education partnerships, it ception last year, a program note ex- nership with the university’s College of became clear that financial assistance plained the designation: “The scholar- Journalism. Each year, two outstand- could play a key role in attracting tal- ship and fellowship are named for ing minority students will be awarded ented journalists, said Dorothy Butler Howard Simons because he embodied a graduate fellowship and an under- Gilliam, the project’s director. “Lack of the attributes The Washington Post graduate scholarship. funding for higher education often had values most: a relentless drive for the Scott, who has dreamed of a writing been cited as a barrier to minority truth, a nurturing and inclusive pres- career since childhood, already under- enrollment,” she said. Financial assis- ence, a reverence for the language stands that the business of journalism tance for University of Maryland stu- and—above all—a sense of fun.” requires commitment. Her credentials dents became one way of addressing When Katharine Graham, chair of include internships at The Boston that barrier. the executive committee of The Wash- Globe and The Detroit News, report- Lolly Bowean—the first Simons’ ington Post, addressed the gathering, ing and editing experience, and an graduate scholar—concentrated on she referred to Simons as a “brilliant award for editorial writing. “I’ve always public affairs reporting and spent a writer and editor” who had “stood for believed in doing the maximum, not semester of reporting work at the Capi- the best in our profession.” She contin- the minimum,” Scott said. “The fellow- tal News Service. She took classes taught ued, “Thanks to this program, I feel ship involves a lot of hands-on experi- by Gene Roberts, former Philadelphia sure his influence and his standards ence. In journalism, that is one of the Inquirer editor and New York Times will endure in journalism—and in jour- best ways to learn, and I’m really look- managing editor, and Haynes Johnson, nalists—for many generations to ing forward to it.” a former Washington Post columnist. come.” ■ Like Scott, Simons was passionate Bowean praised the program’s pro- about journalism. His enthusiasm was fessors for giving her a new apprecia- Marcia Slacum Greene is a special matched only by his endless efforts to tion for the power inherent in great projects reporter at The Washington develop, encourage and challenge good journalism. “Before the University of Post and a 1991 Nieman Fellow. journalists. In fact, the program named Maryland, I thought of journalism as a in his honor is part of the newspaper’s job—a good one that I loved, but a

Nieman Reports / Fall 2000 97 “…to promote and elevate the standards of journalism”

—Agnes Wahl Nieman, the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation.

Vol. 54 No. 3 NIEMAN REPORTS Fall 2000 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Publisher Bob Giles Editor Melissa Ludtke Assistant Editor Lois Fiore Editorial Assistant Adam Reilly Design Editor Deborah Smiley Business Manager Cheryl Scantlebury

Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Please address all subscription correspondence to in March, June, September and December One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, and change of address information to One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. ISSN Number 0028-9817 Telephone: (617) 495-2237 Internet Address (Business): Second-class postage paid [email protected] at Boston, Massachusetts, and additional entries. Internet Address (Editorial): [email protected] POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WWW address: Nieman Reports, http://www.Nieman.Harvard.edu P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. Copyright 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Subcription $20 a year, $35 for two years; add $10 per year for foreign airmail. Single copies $5. Back copies are available from the Nieman office. NIEMAN REPORTS THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

VOL. 54 NO.3 FALL 2000 Five Dollars

Photojournalism Pondering the Power of Images and The Risks Taken By Those Who Make Them

Narrative Journalism: Reporting and Writing in a Different Voice ‘My editor’s proposal: When the case went to trial, why not cover it like a serial narrative? Write it live, but treat each day’s story like the latest chapter in an unfolding saga. No news ledes. No nut grafs. No concessions to the conventions of traditional newswriting. Just pure storytelling, delivered within the constraints of a daily deadline.’ — Thomas French, St. PetersburgTimes