Reporting and Writing II
Investigative journalism
David Randall’s four rules:
All journalism is by
nature investigative.
So what is “Investigative
Journalism”?
1. Original Research
It reports something entirely new
2. Wrongdoing or negligence
It exposes something
3. It’s a secret
Somebody doesn’t want you to know
4. High stakes
Cost, resources and danger.
Investigative journalism
Nick Davies is a
freelance investigative
reporter for The
Guardian.
Stories include:
 Phone hacking
 Human trafficking
 Prostitution
 Media practices –
Flat Earth News
http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearing/2011-11-29am/93:30 –124:50
Investigative journalism
Did not begin as an attempt to
bring down President Nixon.
Some examples of investigative
journalism have a clear big target
 Wilfred Burchett in Japan
 Expenses scandal
 Embassy cables
Watergate was a little story,
covered by non-star reporters.
Watergate
Woodward–29. Yale graduate.
Had been at the Post for 9 months, covering minor government stories.
Bernstein–28. College drop-out.
Became a reporter at 19. Some investigations, mainly court and music.
Woodward & Bernstein
The story was unexceptional:
 A break in at the Watergate
Hotel, in Washington
 Five men arrested
 Alfred E Lewis finds out they
had latex gloves, sequential
dollar bills and walkie-talkies
 Bernstein starts calling hotel
staff to get extra detail
 Woodward gets a call at
home and is sent to court
Watergate
Could the same story have been
written here? What would be
different?
 Previous convictions
 Quote from Barker’s wife: no
call by 3pm means trouble
 Evidence: the sequential
notes found in the hotel suite,
linked directly to the men
 “They were caught red
handed”
What if…
Contempt of Court
 UK has much
tougher restrictions
in criminal cases
 Makes investigations
harder
 Once a trial is active,
you cannotattempt
trial-by-media –no
matter how
compelling your
evidence
In America
 The First Amendment guarantees
freedom of the press
 It means courts cannotprohibit the
recording of any facts discovered publicly
 That means that details uncovered early
in an investigation are not restricted once
criminal proceedings begin.
 That freedom was crucial to the
Watergate story, as many of the key
figures were subject to investigations
and inquiries.
Law & investigations
1958 –Thalidomide is
licensed in the UK to
treat morning sickness.
1961 –An Australian
doctor notices cases of
deformity in children
linked to use of the drug
1968 –A small
compensation deal is
offered to some of the
affected families.
Thalidomide – Sunday Times
Governments refused to get
involved in the scandal, so the
families launched civil cases.
Newspaper editors feared that
any in depth coverage could
prejudice an eventual trial.
So, the families battled alone for
small pay-outs. Serious coverage
did not begin until 1972.
It eventually won £28m for the
families during the 70s.
Contempt
“No newspaper felt it could examine the
thalidomide tragedy without prejudging
the outcome of any eventual trial and in
most countries this was a serious legal
offence: contempt of court, punishable by
imprisonment. So, in a terrible failure of
journalism, newspapers carried stories on
the lines of ‘Look how well these plucky
children are getting on’, while the truth was
that thalidomide children and their
desperate parents were suffering agonies in
a silence imposed upon them by the
system.”
Phillip Knightley
Sunday Times
Nixon’s five wars:
40 years after the
scandal, Woodward and
Bernstein wrote that
Watergate was Nixon’s
fights against:
The antiwarmovement
The media
The Democrats
The justice system
History
All reflected a mind-set and a pattern of
behaviorthat were uniquely and
pervasively Nixon’s: a willingness to
disregard the law for political advantage,
and a quest for dirt and secrets about his
opponents as an organizing principle of his
presidency.”
Woodward and Bernstein
2012
What was Watergate?
More specifically, it was a
campaign to disrupt the 1972
Presidential Election.
It began in the Primaries, with a
campaign against the biggest
Democrat personalities –Ed
Muskie and Teddy Kennedy.
Most details were only learned
later, when the Oval Office tapes
were discovered.
Watergate
1969: Nixon orders the FBI to wiretap 17
journalists and White House aides to find
leaks
1970: Approved the “Huston Plan” to
authorise politically-motivated burglaries,
aimed at disrupting anti-war campaigns.
1972:Rejects a plan to fund the Primary
campaign of a black female Democrat,
which could have divided the party.
1972: Approves a £250,000 plan to bug
Democrat campaign offices. 50 saboteurs
are employed, led by lawyer Donald
Segretti.
1972: The fund paid Ed Muskie’s driver
$1,000 a month to photograph policy
documents, campaign agendas, etc.
The myth is that two young
reporters brought down the
President.
It isn’t true.
They did more their share –but
they were helped by official
sources and whistleblowers…
The sources
Florida probe
 Miami District Attorney looked into
possible breach of Florida law
 Senate hearings held into the five
burglary suspects.
 Had limited range, but gave the Post
some good leads.
Library Loans
 Reporters accessed White House library
records to investigate claims that
Howard Hunt was looking for dirt on
Teddy Kennedy
 It established a link between the burglars
and attempts to detail the Democrats
A source at Bell gave Bernstein
access to phone records of
burglar Bernard L Barker.
Bernstein fretted over the ethics
of using the phone information.
It eventually uncovered 15 calls
made before the break-in.
It led to Kenneth H Dahlberg,
and a cheque that linked the
burglars to the Committee to Reelect the President.
Anonymous
 The reporters got a list of CRP
staff
 They used phone extensions
to identify accounts staff
 Then targeted them to ask
about money movements
 A woman, only referred to at
the time as the Bookkeeper,
played a key role in
identifying CRP executives
who controlled a slush fund
for dirty tricks
GOP staff
A lawyer called the reporters
and said he had been invited to
join a special team of GOP
election campaigners.
He led them to Donald Segretti, a
lawyer who had taken part in
dirty tricks in university election
campaigns –known as
“ratfucking”.
He eventually admitted to using
the same tactics for Nixon.
Lawyer
Whistleblowersare a
crucial tool for
investigative reporters.
Here, there is no
difference between UK
and US journalists.
Both must be prepared
to face jail to protect
their sources.
Contempt of Court
In 2005, Washington Post journalist Judith
Miller served 85 days for failing to help a
CIA leak investigation.
It related to the unmasking of undercover
spy Valerie Plame.
She only left jail after her source agreed to
lift the confidentiality agreement with her,
allowing her to testify.
 Watergate books
Anonymous sources
 Woodgate’ssource.
 Never referred to in stories.
 Editors and other reporters
did not know his identity –
only that he was a high
ranking source in the
executive branch.
 He provided guidance and
“deep background” –
generally confirming or
denying leads.
 Nickname inspired by porn
film.
Deepthroat
 Mark Felt was named on May
31, 2005
 He was suffering dementia
 Woodward spent days with
him to ensure he wanted the
confidentiality to be lifted
 In fact, Nixon was told that
the source was Felt in 1972.
 The secret Oval Office tapes
revealed that a “legal source”,
probably within the Post,
named him.
 Nixon was warned not to act
–Felt knew too much.
Deepthroat
Protecting your sources
is not just a matter of
honour.
Getting a reputation for
being trustworthy gets
you better stories down
the track…
“Repeatedly, those I had interviewed for my
books or stories for the Post had cited my
willingness to protect a source such as Deep
Throat for nearly 30 years as a reason they
were willing to talk about some of the most
sensitive and Top Secret deliberations in the
U.S. government. “You’ll protect sources,”
was a common refrain, often delivered with
a knowing chuckle or a direct or indirect
reference to Deep Throat.”
Bob Woodward
The Secret Man
Anonymous sources
Investigative reporters deal in
rumour.
 The Los Angeles Times reports that
one or more of Nixon’s top staff will be
named in the scandal
Reporting the right ones make
you look like you’re ahead of the
game…
 You contact Deep Throat – he says
John Dean (Attorney General) and
Bob Haldeman(Chief of Staff) will
resign today.
…reporting the wrong ones
make you look stupid, or set
back the investigation badly.
 He says it is safe to run the story.
So, do you feel lucky?
Bet the farm
 The President announces an urgent
press conference for that afternoon.
It’s not 1972, it’s 2012.
 Do you put the resignations story
online?
Rumour is a weapon in politics always look for the bigger
picture.
BBC guidelines say two good
sources for any story. The Post
would look for further
confirmations if sources were
anonymous.
In 1972, the Post as lucky. It
didn’t have to decide whether to
publish until later, when it was
clear the men would not resign.
Bet the farm
 Ben Bradlee, Post editor, told the
reporters about his own dilemma
 LBJ’s press secretary told him Hoover
would be replaced at the FBI.
 “We’re finally got the bastard,” Bradley
was told.
 The story led Newsweek.
 The next day Johnson held a press
conference to announce Hoover had
the job for life.
 “And as he went in before the
television cameras, he said to Moyers,
“You call up Ben Bradleeand tell him,
‘Fuck you.’” Well, for years people said,
“You did it, Bradlee. You did it, you got
him appointed for life.”’
Resources
Watergate inspired a generation
of investigative journalists to
hold power to account.
But 40 years on, newsrooms
have changed.
Such projects are much harder
to undertake now…
Legacy
 Investigations cost money in travel
and expenses.
 But the biggest cost is in staff:
reporters are tied up on one story for
months or years
 They are also costly if they go wrong
–a serious libel complaint could put
a newspaper at risk
 The internet has filled the gap to an
extent.
 Wikileaks–has its own funding
issues and questions about its
motives
 ProPublica-and other
crowdsourcewebsites
 But both work with traditional
media to give work authority
Thalidomide
 Sunday Times paid £2,500
for files obtained by a
Swedish lawyer, relating to
German cases.
 Phillip Knightley was first
sent to Stockholm to look at
the files –along with a
translator.
 They brought back three
suitcases of documents…
Case study
Resources
 A unit, with a translator and 2-3
reporters, was set up in the Times
office to translate and sort the files.
 A researcher created an indexed
library of them.
 It took a year.
 Knightley then took the most
relevant files to his house.
 Evans told him he had four pages –
about 10,000 words.
 He spent three months writing it.
 It was then passed to a sub-editor,
who added drama or simplified
complex points.
Meeting expectations
Watergate changed perception
of journalists.
Particularly after the release of
the film adaptation.
They were rigorous, questioning,
undaunted by authority,
champions of the people.
It raised expectations about
what journalism could achieve.
Legacy
 The side-effect was a dismay at the
failure of journalism to properly
warn of modern crises:
 Iraq war
 Credit crunch
 Climate change
“…dramatic shifts in audience and
advertising revenue have undermined
the financial model that subsidized so
much investigative reporting during the
economic golden age of newspapers.”
Leonard Downey Jr
Ex Washington Postreporter and editor
Assangeled the charge for the
new investigative journalism.
WikiLeaksbreakthrough was
the video, Collateral Damage
It showed American troops
shooting Reuters journalists in
Iraq.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rX
PrfnU3G0
WikiLeaks
Is Julian Assangea good journalist, a bad
journalist, or even a journalist at all?
Investigative journalism
Next Tuesday
From me:
 Nellie Bly
 Wilfred Burchett
From you:
 Come along with your own
examples of great
investigative journalism.
Show & Tell