Dangerous Confinement Wasting Water Data Breach Investigating violence Uncovering Journalists accused at mental hospitals unpunished violations of hacking The P. 6 P. 8 P. 2 9 Journal FALL 2013 INVESTIGATING THE MILITARY PRESENTED BY IRE AND NICAR Feb. 27 - March 2 Conference Hotel Looking to learn skills Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards that will help you and 110 S. Eutaw your newsroom thrive? Baltimore, MD 21201 The room rate is $149 (single/double) plus tax, which is currently 15.5%. The discounted room rate is available Join IRE and NICAR in Baltimore until February 7, 2014, or until our room block is full (whichever comes for our annual conference first). Our room block has sold out prior to the deadline the past few years, devoted to computer-assisted so make your reservations early. Attendees staying in the IRE block at reporting, Feb. 27 to March 2, the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards will receive complimentary 2014 at the Baltimore Marriott wireless Internet in their guestrooms Inner Harbor. during their stay. If you need to cancel your reservation you must do so by 6 pm the day prior to arrival to avoid any cancellation fees of Come learn about tools you one night room and tax. need to dig deeper into stories All reservations must be guaranteed by and give readers, viewers and a major credit card or first night’s room deposit plus tax. your online audience the If you have hotel or general conference information they’re demanding. questions, please contact Stephanie Sinn, Conference & Events Director, [email protected] or 901-286-7549. Register at: ire.org/conferences/nicar-2014 The Journal FALL 2013 Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway/FLICKR.COM Andy Master Sgt. 4 DON’T WORK LIKE A DOG By Mark Horvit INVESTIGATING 5 IRE NEWS THE MILITARY 6 DANGEROUS CONFINEMENT Violence at mental hospital causes injuries, staffing problems By Dave Biscobing and Mark LaMet, KNXV-Phoenix 8 OVERT OVERPUMPING Reporter finds hundreds of unpunished water violations in rural Minnesota By Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio 29 DATA BREACH Journalists accused of hacking By Isaac Wolf Scripps Howard News Service 31 FOI FILES Shields up: It’s a war over information By David Cuillier, University of Arizona School of Journalism 12 SHIP SHAPE? 22 NO RELIEF 32 UPLINK Investigation finds major flaws Long waits for disability Flaws in hazardous chemical data benefits, faulty health care, By Michael B. Pell and Ryan McNeill in new Navy ships leave wounded veterans Reuters BY MIKE FABEY AVIATION WEEK struggling to get by 34 SNAPSHOTS FROM BY AARON GLANTZ OUR BLOGS 17 ABUSES OF POWER THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING Air Force trainees sexually assaulted, given 25 TARGETING MILITARY psychiatric discharges CONTRACTS BY KARISA KING Powerful accountability journalism can come 19 FRIENDLY FIRE from examining the billions Post-9/11 veterans fight the military spends on on new fronts at home weapons programs BY JACQUEE PETCHEL BY TONY CAPACCIO ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY / AND KATHLEEN MILLER NEWS21 BLOOMBERG 28 IRE RESOURCES The FROM THE IRE OFFICES Journal Don’t Work FALL 2013 Like a Dog Volume 36 | Number 4 MANAGING EDITOR BY MARK HORVIT Megan Luther ART DIRECTOR Erica Mendez Babcock often talk about my dog during training sessions. CONTRIBUTING LEGAL EDITOR Teddy usually comes up when I’m leading a hands-on session in Excel. It’s not that he knows Sam Terilli I how to work with spreadsheets (though now that I think about it, he might; I’ve never given him the chance). I talk about how, once we establish a pattern, he follows it exactly. Time for bed? Jumps EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE AND STORY EDITOR off the couch, heads straight to the front door, goes out and does what he must, runs back in to the Aaron Cooper laundry room, gets a treat, goes to bed. Every night. IRE (And just for the record, Teddy is half Chihauhau, half German shepherd. Really. That’s not re- motely relevant, but if you dwell on it, it will haunt your dreams). IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR His behavior is not a bad metaphor for the way a computer program like Excel follows rules rigor- Mark Horvit ously and does exactly the same thing every time – whether you want it to or not. BOARD OF DIRECTORS That’s mostly fine, for a computer program – we need that rigidity so that we know what will hap- PRESIDENT pen when we enter data and press a button. David Cay Johnston author/freelance It’s not so great, however, for newsrooms. One of the biggest problems I find when I visit some news organizations, or talk with journalists VICE PRESIDENT Sarah Cohen who come to our training sessions, is that rigidity to pattern. It can guarantee a long, slow road to The New York Times irrelevance. Once upon a time it was an acceptable business model to attract readers or viewers by relying on TREASURER Andrew Donohue breaking cop news, press conferences and meetings to fill pages or air time. People needed to know The Center for Investigative Reporting those things had happened, and no one else could tell them about it. The best newsrooms did much more, but that wasn’t always reflected on the balance sheet. SECRETARY Ellen Gabler We all know that’s no longer the case. There are lots of places to learn the latest breaking news Milwaukee Journal Sentinel out of city hall – increasingly, from city hall itself, via the city’s own Twitter account, Facebook page, EXECUTIVE MEMBER website or text alerts. Mc Nelly Torres But like Teddy, many news organizations remain locked in the old patterns. The results can be Florida Center for Investigative Reporting dramatic when newsrooms break out. Journalists send us work they’ve done following IRE training. Recent examples include a project CHAIRMAN Manny Garcia that found a third of the employees in a police department had been accused of misconduct, com- Naples Daily News mitted felonies or had left under suspicious circumstances; an investigation that uncovered more than $150,000 in food and travel spending by a water district and another that rooted out misuse of Ziva Branstetter Tulsa World money in a sheriff’s department. Getting more, and better, information has always been a fundamental focus of IRE training. The Robert Cribb The Toronto Star only difference is that now, it’s also a business model. One unanticipated outcome of both the proliferation of nontraditional means of getting news, and Leonard Downie Jr. cutbacks in the traditional news industry, is that good reporting has become much more important to The Washington Post the bottom line. IRE sees that in the greatly increased interest at the corporate level in many media Matt Goldberg companies for our training. Our members always knew this was important; now more of those who NBC Bay Area control the budget also see the value. Josh Meyer That’s good, but the next step – reorganizing the newsroom around new priorities – has proved to Northwestern University be a tough sell in many places. If your staff isn’t getting bigger – and in most places, it’s not – then T. Christian Miller you have to be willing to reprioritize what your existing team is doing with its time. That can result ProPublica in some hard decisions, but it is paying off for those newsrooms willing to forgo coverage they once Stuart Watson counted on to bring their audience what they want – and need – today. If you consistently have WCNC-TV, Charlotte information no one else has, the audience notices. Old patterns are comforting – it’s one of the things I love about my dog. I just don’t rely on him The IRE Journal (ISSN0164-7016) is published four times a year by Investigative Reporters & Editors, for my news. Inc., 141 Neff Annex, Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, MO 65211, 573-882-2042. Email: journal@ ire.org. U.S. subscriptions are $70 for individuals, Mark Horvit is executive director of IRE and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. He can be reached at $85 for libraries and $125 for institutions/businesses. [email protected] or 573-882-2042. International subscriptions are $90 for individuals and $150 for all others. Periodical postage paid at Jefferson City, MO. Postmaster: Please send address changes to IRE. USPS#451-670 © 2013 Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. 4 THE IRE JOURNAL IRE NEWS MEMBER NEWS IRE, AAJA announce partnership for conferences IRE members win Barlett and Steele Awards The Asian American Journalists Association and Investigative Reporters from Reynolds Center & Editors are creating a unique opportunity for members of both Four IRE members were among journalists honored in the seventh annual organizations to take advantage of the training offered at three national Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism. Named for the events in 2014: IRE’s Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference in investigative team of Don Barlett and James Steele, the awards celebrate the Baltimore in late February, IRE’s annual conference in San Francisco in best in investigative business journalism. The awards are funded by the Donald June and the AAJA National Convention in Washington, D.C., in August. W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. Members of each organization can use their existing membership to register for any of these events, meaning AAJA members don’t need Kris Hundley of the Tampa Bay Times and Kendall Taggart of The Center for Investigative Reporting shared the gold award of $5,000 for their joint project, to purchase IRE memberships, and IRE members won’t be required to “America’s Worst Charities.” join AAJA. “AAJA and IRE have a long tradition of training our members on the The reporters identified charities that steered as much as 95 percent of latest technology and knowledge needed to excel in their jobs,” AAJA donations to boiler-room operations and direct-mail companies, leaving only President Paul Cheung said.