The task of reporting an investigative story for the Los Angeles Times may have its share of adrenalin-rush ‘detective’ moments – going under cover in a coffee shop to watch a corrupt doctor prescribe narcotics to his patients; kayaking to the back of a man’s house to get his side of the story; even tracking down a Boy Scout pedophile to a rural truck stop in Canada – but the bulk of the work usually takes place in front of a computer, scrubbing public records and databases.
That’s what LA Times’ reporters Jason Felch, Lisa Girion, and Scott Glover described at a panel on accountability journalism at the Los Angeles Times 2013 Festival of Books in downtown L.A. Moderated by the Times’ self-declared “chief cheerleader,” editor Davan Maharaj, the panel also included insight from California investigative editor Julie Marquis. Here’s a look at some of the main points the panel made about watchdog journalism:
Gathering and curating data is key (and time-consuming).
With a team of only 3 full-time investigative reporters, Marquis has overseen the production of numerous high-profile investigations in recent years, including coverage of the Boy Scout “perversion files,” which examined 1,900 files documenting sexual abuse cases kept by the Boy Scouts of America from 1947 through 2005.
For the Scouts investigation, reporters Jason Felch and Kim Christensen spent the better part of a year combing through confidential files and building a publicly accessible database of abuse cases. Many of those cases had never been reported to the police – or even to the victims’ own family decades later. The result was not only a series of eye-opening reports about the lack of background checks required for the Boy Scouts organization, but the most comprehensive published database of these records.
Investigating a story about a prescription drug epidemic in Southern California, Lisa Girion and reporter Scott Glover spent two years building and cleaning up a database with over 9,000 lines of drug data that needed to be translated into hydrocodone components. Much of their two years of research was spent adding data pulled from death reports to a massive excel spreadsheet. The resulting database revealed patterns and painted a clearer picture of who was dying from prescription drugs, and from where those drugs were coming.
“No one had quantified the role that physicians play,” said Girion. “That’s what we wanted to do.”
Never assume a subject won’t talk for a story.
During the Festival of Books discussion, Felch described how he collaborated on part of his Scout story with reporters in Canada, and eventually managed to track one convicted child molester, who had served as a scout leader and then gone underground, to a rural motel in Canada.
To his surprise, the man in question agreed to speak when confronted, and fully admitted to molesting boys in California and Canada. Their interview lasted for three hours.
“I was out of questions after two and a half hours,” said Felch. “I was exhausted and disgusted but he just wanted to keep talking.”
Girion wasn’t surprised by that fact.
“I find that remarkably common among pedophiles,” she said.
For her part, Girion has a knack for getting suspects of her investigative reports to open up. Her tactic? Explain to subjects that this is their opportunity to air their side of the story; the subject is the only one who can explain what went on from his/her perspective.
While reporting on the prescription drug epidemic, Girion admitted to staking out a doctor who refused to talk by waiting outside of his office for hours. When that didn’t work she and her team kayaked to the back of his house. Ultimately she got him to talk.
Finally, have a great editor.
Girion and Glover ultimately published only 15% of what they know about prescription drug related deaths in Southern California. They said they hope they reported the best, most interesting 15% of the story, but it took a team and a keen editor to help them choose what to ultimately publish.
Currently up for sale by the Tribune Co., the LA Times is facing almost assured cuts over the next few years, and Marquis says she has to fight to keep her small team of reporters focused on their big stories so they don’t get pulled into the newsroom for daily coverage.
For all of the good that watchdog journalists do with their investigative reports – prompting the enactment of new laws, taking down corrupt officials and institutions, even freeing those wrongly accused from death row – their numbers are dwindling. If there were ever a time for legacy publications to keep innovating to find ways to bring home both Pulitzers and the buck, that time is now.
Featured image by Florence Ivy via a creative commons license. Panel Photo by Sarah Erickson.
