Chapter 6: Monitor Power and Offer Voice to the Voiceless
ISSUES IN JOURNALISM
Investigative reporting
 Coverage of
the Watergate
scandal
reinforced the
need for
investigative
reporting as a
necessary and
critical tool to
monitor
power.
Watchdog role
 Journalists must serve and an independent
monitor to power
 Investigative reporting as a tool
 But isn’t all good reporting investigative?
 Overuse, pandering to audiences,
(ratings)“faux watchdogism”
 Public service role threatened by
(page 141)
conglomeration/technology
Being a watchdog
 “Today journalists continue to see the
watchdog role as central to their work.” (page
143)
 …”keeps political leaders from doing things
they shouldn’t do.”
 Informing the public
 Watchdog role is unique from other types of
communication
Watchdog role
 “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the
comfortable”
 Connotations of liberal bias
 It’s more complicated. Not just a watchdog of
government, but of institutions, corporations,
people and the process of power that
influences daily life.
 Gauging success and failures of the powerful
Three types of Investigative reporting
 Original investigative reporting uncovers
facts/activities unknown to the public.
 Interpretative investigative reporting takes an
approach that is analytical and thoughtful.
Taking data and interpreting it to provide
insight. Sometimes criticized as advocacy
journalism.
 Reporting on investigations involves taking
government/academic/corporate studies and
reporting the information.
Watchdog role weakened
 Investigative reporting
changing from monitoring the
powerful elite to more everyday
issues.
 Cult of personality (60 Minutes,
Dateline)
 Local TV news or newspapers
purporting to be watchdogs but
the real intent are
rating/audience building.
Watchdog role
 “The watchdog is unlike any other role” in
journalism. (page 159)
 Special skills, expensive, time-consuming
enterprise
 Efforts meet push back from the powerful
 Is it worth it?
 Demands accuracy. Demands trained and
dedicated journalists.
 New investigative units (non-profit) cropping up
The rise of nonprofit watchdog
journalism
The WikiLeaks controversy

The release of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S.
State Department cables and U.S. military
communications by the website WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks shocks the world with the April 2010
release of U.S. Army helicopter attack on its website

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/04/video
-wikileaks-obtains-footage-of-2007-us-armyhelicopter-attack-on-reuters-employees-children

The New York Times account of the initial helicopter
attack using information provided by the U.S.
military.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/world/middleeas
t/13iraq.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagew
anted=prin

The New York Times account after WikiLeaks went
public

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/middleea
st/06baghdad.html
Using WikiLeaks to

http://
video.
nytim
es.co
m/vid
eo/201
1/01/2
6/mag
azine/
12480
69587
816/wi
kileak
s-thebackstory.
html
monitor power
Pot-calling-kettle-black
Department
 Judith Miller’s
take on
WikiLeaks

http://crooksandliars.com/scarce/judi
th-miller-criticizes-julian-assangenot

For comparison’s sake, here’s what
Miller once told Michael Massing in
defense of her reporting (courtesy of
Crooks and Liars):

“[M]y job isn’t to assess the
government’s information and be an
independent intelligence analyst
myself. My job is to tell readers of
The New York Times what the
government thought about Iraq’s
arsenal.”