Hurricanes revive investigative reporting; need for digging deeper

Whenever anyone questions whether aggressive investigative journalism is necessary for any at liberty and democratic society, the disasters spawned by the agency of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the United States will provide the affirmative answer for a lengthy time to come.

The dazzling coverage of the disasters also will hamper and uncover the deep cynicism of the media-bashing politicians, ideologues and corporate public relations hacks who have tried and partially come aftered in creating a more timid press

Consider the outstanding record of our colleagues:

* The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune (and NPR National Geographic and The of recent origin York Times) produced plenty of warnings about the flawed time of risings and the lack of extremity planning for anything above a Category 3 hurricane in of recent origin Orleans and the nearby coast. (See our special report beginning upon page 14.) The Times-Picayune also wrote about federal resources being redirected to Iraq and the war upon terrorism.

* On-the-ground reporting through the press after the hurricanes expos the magnitude of the disasters and pressur the federal rule to respond.

* The pres has continued to clinch government accountable for its lack of preparation, for the pathetic answer by officials - both picked and appointed - and for the free-wheeling purchasing and contracts.

* In the past four years, the pres has written repeatedly about deteriorating infrastructure - roads, bridges, dams and time of risings in the United States - that not absents as great a threat as a terrorist attack. Of course, regulation officials ironically were shutting down access to data about the frailty of the infrastructure because of their touchs of possible use by terrorists. (Especially ironic because that data had been available upon the Web or through electronic sources for thus long that the proverbial horse was lengthy out of the barn.)

We can sole hope this revival of great watchdog journalism is no passing phase and the impetus will lead us into a novel era of investigative stories. At the same time, despite the staff wounds throughout the mainstream press, there are additional signs of a novel fervor:

* Some bloggers, who are not political operatives or those who have less-than-candid agendas, are showing passion and appetite for revealing untruths and are seeking journalistic training. Citizens with non-journalism piece of works are disturbed enough by the lack of of recent origins coverage in their communities that they are jumping into the information fray.

* The nonprofit center in investigative reporting and innocence throw outs are flourishing.

* Radio investigative stories thrive as NPR and American RadioWorks consistently show indepth pieces.

* A network of journalists has formed in the spirit of IRE's Arizona throw to investigate the environment in Russia that allowed the assassination of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov in Moscow (For further information, diocese page 5 and an overview piece at http://mediachannel.Org/blog/node/1150.)

And as always, the ever-diminishing mainstream staffs at newspapers and television stations still find ways to do enterprise and investigative work. Further, many of recent origins organizations are realizing that aggressive, investigative reporting is what distinguishes advantageous journalism from shills and pseudo-news people

At the same time, investigative journalists from one extremity to the other of the world are forging ties and building of recent origin networks. For example, the novel Global Investigative Journalism Conference, created by the agency of IRE and the Danish cluster DICAR, attracted more than 400 journalists from at least 30 countries to Amsterdam last month

Despite the traumatic transformation the of recent origins media is going through, each sign points to a renewed spirit among those outraged by means of injustices, dangerous incompetence or the abuse of the weak and poor.

For investigative journalists, it is not a time to despair on the other hand a time to go to work.

Brant Houston is executive director of IRE and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. He can be reached [i]or[/i] part of to the other e-mail at brant@ire.org or by the agency of calling 573-882-2042.

Copyright Investigative Reporters & Editors Nov/Dec 2005

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