Tuesday, December 06, 2022

In 40 Seconds, The Reporter’s Reason for Existence …via @NEWSLarryHenry


Larry Henry is a veteran print and broadcast journalist who spent more than 16 years in Nevada, including serving as legislative reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal and as political editor at the Las Vegas Sun. He's also written about popular culture for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. As a broadcast journalist, he worked as managing editor at KFSM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Arkansas, where he now lives and where casino growth is a hot topic. A Marine Corps veteran and LSU graduate, he is also an avid movie fan, especially of classic film noir from the 1940s and ’50s. Henry spoke last month with journalism students at the University of New Haven about the reporting life and the careers of two fallen investigative reporters, Jeff German and Ned Day.

Larry Henry story on Jeff German and Ned Day


Ned Day was wired to sources


The Mob came after Ned. They blew up his car ...



Day told a friend it was the best day of his life

Mob on the Run, documentary by Ned Day

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Jeff German paid the ultimate price

NIGHTLINE SEGMENT:


Murder and Loathing in Las Vegas


INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 

DEFINITION, via IRE 

 

Journalists have for many years debated the specific meaning of the term “investigative journalism.” IRE defines it as “the reporting, through one’s own initiative and work product, of matters of importance to readers, viewers or listeners. In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed.” Over the years, journalists have expanded the definition to include analyzing and revealing the breakdown of social or justice systems and documenting the consequences. 

 

Others have proposed a broader definition, suggesting that every journalist is an investigative journalist because they all ask questions and read documents, but the broader definition ignores the more rigorous requirements of credible investigative journalism. Every journalist can be an investigator, even if only for one story, if the journalist is willing to put in the time. Investigative journalists ask more questions, go through more documents and data, and spend more time thinking about and producing a story than daily reporters do. Investigative journalism also demands the curiosity and desire to know the story behind the story – that is, to understand the circumstances of a situation and the real goals of a politician or businessperson. 

 

Investigative journalists also spend more thought and time on deciding on what is worthy of coverage. Instead of simply attending a city council meeting and filing a brief deadline story, an investigative reporter will often read council and staff reports, audits and city contracts, and minutes of previous meetings, and collect and analyze city databases to find out if there is favoritism or misdeeds in how the city is being run. 

 

An investigative journalist wants to know how the world works – or fails to work – and takes the time to study it closely. But persistence and study must always be accompanied by a healthy skepticism, stopping short of cynicism. Investigative reporting must be accompanied by an outrage that expresses itself through the journalists’ creed of accompanying the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Those traits of a good investigative reporter – curiosity, persistence, skepticism, a sense of outrage – lead to important exposes not because of luck but because chance favors those who have done the deeper research and interviews. If a reporter has these traits, than much of the rest can be learned. 


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