“Preparation equals success.” That’s Wendy Salzman’s motto and it served her well as an investigative reporter in Atlanta and Philadelphia. She shared tips on preparing for interviews and more at the 2018 Excellence in Journalism conference in Baltimore. Do your research. Go online, collect documents, and …
Less than a week into the Trump administration, multiple government agencies have told their employees not to speak to the news media or release information to the public. Journalists have responded by spreading the word that it's easy to reach them, securely and confidentially. Many news …
Add another plaque on the wall for New Orleans investigative reporter Lee Zurik of WVUE. His series Louisiana Purchased, co-produced with the Times-Picayune's NOLA.com, just won IRE's small-market broadcast award. The investigation of campaign finance in Louisiana "exposed...direct influence peddling going on across the state," the judges wrote. The …
It started with a tip from a source to KNTV. It sounded crazy but it turned out to be true. The world's biggest food distributor, Sysco, was storing raw meat, milk and other food in unrefrigerated storage units before delivering it to restaurants. NBC Bay Area …
If you tell an investigative reporter they'll never find what they're looking for, you can bet they won't give up until they get it. Just ask WRC reporter Tisha Thompson, who spent 6 years unearthing the State Department's list of accident reports and driving violations committed …
The video is black-and-white and grainy, but it makes the case. A manager at a company selling what it claims is health insurance instructs employees on what to tell prospects on the phone: "Tell them any f---ing thing," he says. Reporter Jeremy Finley's story for WSMV-TV in Nashville about United …
by Stephen Stock, Investigative Reporter, NBC Bay Area (KNTV) San Jose, California Whether we like it or not, collaboration between various media partners is fast becoming the way many big journalism projects get done. In fact, a vast majority of the Peabody, IRE, DuPont and other …
Organized chaos. That's how Lee Zurik of WVUE in New Orleans describes his work days. And no wonder. He anchors two prime time newscasts every night and also serves as the station's chief investigative reporter. How does he manage to keep producing award-winning work? We asked …
Ask an entire generation of journalists what inspired them to go into or stay in the news business and the answer often comes down to one word: Watergate. Forty years ago this month, two young reporters at the Washington Post filed their first stories about …
It's not a first, but it's exceedingly rare. This year's IRE Medal, the highest award for investigative reporting by Investigative Reporters and Editors, went to two broadcast outlets: KRTK and KQED. Only once before in the 18-year history of the medals has broadcast recorded a …
A good source is worth every minute you put into cultivating him or her. A source can tip you off to stories you might not find any other way, steer you in the right direction and keep you from making embarrassing mistakes. But reporters need …
Whoever said news about important subjects doesn't sell? CBS News chairman Jeff Fager is happy to contradict them. The ratings for 60 Minutes, he says, make it clear that Americans are hungry for that kind of reporting. His goal now is to make the rest …
