CONTENTS 17 FOI REPORT THE IRE JOURNAL Don’t wait! Fight proposed medical privacy rules now By Charles Davis TABLE OF CONTENTS JULY/AUGUST 2002 18 HIGHER EDUCATION Stories stop developers from grabbing prime college land 4 Is better journalism profitable? By Sandra Peddie Workshops take direct aim at Newsday quality/bottom line question By Brant Houston 20 – 30 HIDDEN HEALTH HAZARDS 5 NEWS BRIEFS AND MEMBER NEWS CHEMICAL WARFARE Bureaucratic infighting 6 BOARD DEFINES IRE MISSION, cripples public safety effort ADJUSTS COMMITTEE STRUCTURE By Les Zaitz By Cheryl Phillips The (Portland) Oregonian for The IRE Journal RADIOACTIVE WASTE 7 IRE HOLDS SUCCESSFUL ANNUAL Old records reveal history CONFERENCE BY THE BAY of Navy shipyard dumping By The IRE Journal Staff By Lisa Davis SF Weekly 12 LUCRATIVE SPORT International agents make money placing TOXIC EMISSIONS foreign athletes at U.S. schools Cancer rates soar in By Russell Carollo and high-discharge area Christine Willmsen-Vasconez By Scott Streater Dayton Daily News Pensacola News Journal 14 POLICE CONFESSIONS FATEFUL HARVEST Records review shows cops using illegal, Toxic waste found in coercive tactics to nail innocent people ordinary fertilizers By Steve Mills By Duff Wilson Chicago Tribune The Seattle Times 16 ELECTION CHALLENGE More investigations required in key year 31 ANTHOLOGY SHOWS JOURNALISM OFTEN LEADS TO of finance reform SIGNIFICANT CHANGE By Aron Pilhofer By Steve Weinberg The IRE Journal The IRE Journal 32 RED CROSS Disaster leads to questions about handling of ABOUT THE COVER donations What appears to be simple By Norberto Santana Jr. fertilizer is considered a The San Diego Union Tribune hazardous waste by 33 LEGAL CORNER some because of its high Curtailing access to jurors: Judicial regulation of lead content. press? Cover story, pages 20-30 David A. Schulz 34 SELLING INNOCENCE By Dave Savini Cover photo by WMAQ-Chicago Mike Siegel, The Seattle Times 36 PATENT WEB SITE PROVIDES BACKGROUND, POTENTIAL SOURCES By Carolyn Edds The IRE Journal JULY/AUGUST 2002 3 THE IRE JOURNAL FROM THE IRE OFFICES VOLUME 25 NUMBER 4 DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS & EDITOR Is better journalism profitable? Len Bruzzese MANAGING EDITOR Workshops take direct aim at Anita Bruzzese ART DIRECTOR quality/bottom line question Wendy Gray BRANT HOUSTON e had one of most inspiring and productive annual conferences SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Steve Weinberg ever in San Francisco in June as more than 1,000 journalists – many paying their own way – joined us for four days of panels and hands-on training. But we know CONTRIBUTING LEGAL EDITOR Wthat many more journalists couldn’t find the time and money to get there, nor could they get David Smallman the backing of their organizations. EDITORIAL INTERN In response, we continue to focus on the grassroots nature of IRE and will travel around the Elizabeth Collins country in the coming year to offer our training and resources in basic investigative reporting in as many locations as possible. We have kicked into high gear our on-the-road “Better Watchdog Workshops.” With the IRE cooperation of the Society of Professional Journalists and support from its SDX Foundation, we IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR have gotten core funding for the first five workshops and hope to get funding for many more. Brant Houston (Details of the workshops as they come together will be posted at www.ire.org/training.) We will still need the support of local and regional news organizations and associations, but the BOARD OF DIRECTORS SPJ collaboration has allowed us to move forward quickly. CHAIRMAN The one-day workshops are intended to help our members at small- to medium-sized news David Dietz, Bloomberg News organizations and bureau staffers at larger papers. These are our members who seldom receive help in going to our conferences or longer seminars. PRESIDENT Shawn McIntosh, The Clarion-Ledger Several veteran journalists and instructors will cover the basics of document trails, interview- ing and using databases, but most of all they will focus on how to do investigative reporting VICE PRESIDENT while working a beat – the reality for most of our members. David Boardman, The Seattle Times The workshops will be inexpensive and we plan for our Web site to provide materials that TREASURER will help our members follow up on what they’ve learned. Duane Pohlman, WEWS-Cleveland We have responded as an organization to the sorry lack of training support by our industry SECRETARY (see the May-June column on the Knight Foundation survey). But individuals have initiated Edward DeLaney, Barnes and Thornburg efforts to encourage backing for training and the newsroom. They want to show the industry and Wall Street that a respected, credible news organization can actually produce more long- Paul Adrian, KDFW-Dallas/Fort Worth term profits. Stephen K. Doig, Arizona State University Philip Meyer, a journalist, author and professor at the University of North Carolina, has under- James V. Grimaldi, The Washington Post taken a study called “The Quality Project” (www.unc.edu/~pmeyer/Quality_Project/index.html). Andy Hall, Wisconsin State Journal He has received funding and support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, New Chris Heinbaugh, WFAA-Dallas/Fort Worth Directions for News, and the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina Dianna Hunt, Fort Worth Star-Telegram at Chapel Hill, which he holds. Stephen C. Miller, The New York Times Meyer, a pioneer in using social research methods in journalism, says about the project: Cheryl Phillips, The Seattle Times “Good journalism has always been the product of tension between profit making and social Mark J. Rochester, Newsday responsibility. But there are recent signs that the struggle is getting out of balance as publicly held Stuart Watson, WCNC-Charlotte companies defer to the short-term demands of the investor community… The Quality Project aims to correct this imbalance by finding ways to measure quality and track its benefits to the The IRE Journal (ISSN0164-7016) is bottom line.” The project involves wide-ranging studies and surveys and is well under way. published six times a year by Investiga- Meyer already is excited by his preliminary research that shows the credibility of a newspaper tive Reporters and Editors, Inc. 138 Neff Annex, Missouri School of Journalism, has a direct impact on circulation and advertising and thus, revenue. Columbia, MO 65211, 573-882-2042. He says that when he looks at reader surveys – measuring credibility – and compares them to E-mail: [email protected]. Subscriptions are circulation figures and other data, he finds that newspapers that are “believed” by their readers $60 in the U.S., $70 for institutions and those hold their circulation longer and get higher advertising rates. outside the U.S. Periodical postage paid at Columbia, MO. Postmaster: Please send ad- Let’s hope his project gets the good readership it deserves. dress changes to IRE. USPS #4516708 Brant Houston is executive director of IRE and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted © 2002 Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. Reporting. He can be reached through e-mail at [email protected] or by calling 573-882-2042. 4 THE IRE JOURNAL I R E N E W S IRE launches Better Watchdog Workshops with SPJ support MEMBER NEWS ohn Broder, formerly the Washington editor organizations – from both print and broadcast. J for The New York Times, is now the bureau An April workshop chief in Los Angeles. Jeff Cohen has been in Madison, Wis., drew named executive vice president and editor 130 journalists from of the Houston Chronicle. Cohen was formerly four states. With the backing of SPJ’s Sigma vice president and editor of the Times Union in Delta Chi Foundation, Albany, N.Y. Lisa Davis and John Mecklin of IRE hopes to take these SF Weekly won the John Bartlow Martin Award workshops to more than for Public Interest in Magazine Journalism, Craig Schreiner Wisconsin State Journal State Wisconsin Schreiner Craig a dozen sites in the next two years. More support sponsored by the Medill School of Journal- will be sought locally. John Ullmann, executive director of the World Press Institute, speaks at a Better ism for a story investigating the dumping of Some workshops will be Watchdog Workshop in Madison, Wis. radioactive material by the U.S. Navy. (Davis held in conjunction with IRE and the Society of Professional Journal- SPJ regional conferences. details the story in this issue of The IRE Jour- ists have joined forces to conduct a series of In most cases, workshops will consist of one nal.) Joe Demma has moved from city “Better Watchdog Workshops” for beat report- day of intensive instruction. In some cases, a editor at The Sacramento Bee to managing ers. The workshops will teach journalists how to second day of training will be offered in com- editor at The Modesto Bee. Freelancer Jack do investigative and enterprise reporting while puter-assisted reporting. on a beat and will emphasize the use of free- Newsrooms or other groups interested in El-Hai won the 2002 June Roth Memorial dom-of-information laws in the pursuit of these sponsoring one of these events should send an Award for Medical Journalism, given by the stories. The workshops will specifically serve e-mail to IRE executive director Brant Houston American Society of Journalist and Authors, for journalists from small- to medium-sized news at [email protected] “The Lobotomist,” which appeared in The Washington Post Magazine. Michael Fabey More IRE members named award winners has been named senior investigative reporter for IRE members cited in various journalism contests were mentioned in the last issue of The IRE the Daily Press, in Newport News, Va. Previously, Journal. This edition, we point out winners in the latest round of industry awards.