investigative journalism

Jonathan Mitchell, news chief at KNTV San Francisco, explains how the NBC O&O built what today, he says, is the biggest investigative unit in the country — and at the same time created an enterprise culture in the newsroom.

The annual IRE Awards recognize outstanding investigative work and help identify the techniques and resources used to complete each story. This year’s winners included WVUE New Orleans and KHOU Houston. Other TV winners included Telemundo, The Weather Channel and PBS Frontline.

Investigative journalists take enormous risks in their reporting, and for nonprofit news organizations, those risks can extend to their very funding. Kevin Davis argues that the best defense against funding recriminations for honest reporting is three-fold. Investigative news orgs must be transparent, adopt strict policies for independence and conflict of interest and they must tell their own stories before someone else does to undermine them.

New Orleans nonprofit investigative site The Lens (which has collaborated with WVUE and WWL there) is facing a crucible year after a string of funding setbacks that may be directly tied to some of its hard-hitting reporting. Most recently, that involved the loss of its rent-free office space at Loyola University, a move that some posit is retribution for critical reporting on its president. Diana Marszalek looks at the sustainability of a brand of reporting “that upsets people by design” in a city that sorely needs deep digging into public interest subjects.

The Sinclair’s Washington ABC affiliate’s 7 On-Your-Side team will focus on covering consumer problems and government waste.Led by Holly Shannon, the team will also produce content for the co-owned NewsChannel 8 cable channel as well as wjla.com and newschannel8.net.

Dallas NBC O&O KXAS and the Dallas Morning News teamed up to investigate complaints of harassment by hundreds of soldiers at the Army’s Warrior Transition Units that were designed to help the injured heal. In the process of documenting the poor treatment of Army veterans the two media outlets learned about how to work together.

The award-winning reporter for Dispatch Broadcast Group’s Indianapolis NBC affiliate believes local TV can have a far greater impact on communities than network news. But, he emphasizes, stations have to make a commitment to investigative journalism “in good times and bad,” versus the more widespread practice of building I-Teams and the like only to dismantle them when money gets tight.

One of the benefits of my job is that as I travel around the country working with TV stations, I see story ideas that spread like kudzu from one market to the next. One station in one city finds some success with the story, others hear about it, copy the idea and localize it.  I find most of these cut and paste ideas pop up around “sweeps” months and most are awful.  Here’s one that isn’t. It is worth looking at where you are and it may keep some kid from getting hurt.

Gannett-owned ABC affiliate WZZM Grand Rapids, Mich. (DMA 39), has given anchor/investigative reporter Lee Van Ameyde new responsibilities as managing editor of the WZZM 13 Watchdog Investigative Team. This will […]

Steve Eckert, a veteran TV newsman with stations and NBC news, was given the task of building an investigative unit at Gannett’s NBC affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul. He’s adding staff and equipment as part of a plan that involves more than rooting out the corruption, flawed systems and stupidity on which journalists thrive. He wants KARE to produce stories so compelling that they “make viewers feel the same exhilaration that I felt when I found that smoking-gun document in the dusty basement of the courthouse.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group has hired former CBS Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson to work as an investigative reporter for the company. Attkisson left CBS News after she said that the network kept spiking her stories.

How to do just that was what many in the record crowd of journalists at the Investigative Reporters & Editors conference were eager to learn. And they weren’t disappointed. Session participants say the strong interest among TV reporters reflects a widespread resurgence in watchdog and investigative journalism.

The Scripps Baltimore ABC affiliate’s overhauled evening newscast will “slow down a bit, dig deeper, and ask more questions,” says News Director Kelly Groft. The original reporting and investigations will be augmented by additional original and side-story content online, as well as comprehensive support on both social media and mobile platforms.

The combined investigative efforts of WVUE and NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune produced Louisiana Purchased, an exhaustive, data-heavy investigation, yielding about two dozen TV news stories, 73 articles, an online database of more than 741,000 individual contributions — and a 2013 Peabody Award. And it may also be the future template for other ambitious media outlet cooperative journalism..

Fox-owned WTTG Washington (DMA 8) has appointed Emily Miller chief investigative reporter. Beginning April 28, she will contribute to all station newscasts, primarily Fox 5 News at 5, 6, and […]

Hearst Television-owned ABC affiliate WCVB Boston (DMA 7) today named Karen Anderson to its NewsCenter 5 team beginning this week. The station said Anderson, an investigative and political reporter, “will […]

While much of what passes for news on local television has hit the skids, fortunately there’s still something to be said for solid, old-fashioned investigative reporting in Chicago.

LIN-owned CBS affiliate WISH Indianapolis (DMA 26) has doubled the size of its I-Team 8, making the station’s investigative news team the largest in Indiana, according to the station. “I-Team […]

The Scripps Cincinnati ABC affiliate’s website is giving users a taste of what they will be missing if they don’t subscribe — a six-month investigative report on the murder of a local cop Scripps plans to put such reports and other premium content on the site behind a paywall early this year.

Hours before a consumer-watchdog story about his remodeling business was to air Monday on Gannett NBC affiliate KSDK, Jamie Hart was found dead.

Gannett-owned ABC affiliate WZZM Grand Rapids, Mich. (DMA 39) has hired John Hogan as part of its Watchdog Investigative Team. The Watchdog Team is headed by Lee Van Ameyde who […]

As it finds new ways to expand its activities, the Center for Investigative Reporting is unveiling a new logo and marketing campaign for free, courtesy of a leading creative agency.

The Kansas City public TV station says it will use an anonymous donation to create the KCPT Center for Journalism, “an interactive digital news center for multimedia and multi-platform projects.” KCPT says the center will focus on news and “public affairs storytelling in the digital age.”

With more television stations and groups investing in investigative journalism, some industry groups, including Investigative Reporters and Editors, are seeing a resurgence of interest and attendance, and not at the expense of other organizations.

The NBC O&O is adding five members to its NBC 5 Investigates team, including reporter Phil Rogers and producer Courtney Copenhagen.

A new study by AR&D and Investigative Reporters and Editors shows that 62% of consumers consider investigative content reason enough to follow particular news outlets, including TV stations.

The NBC-owned station dedicates Mari Payton and Wendy Fry to full-time investigative work.