investigative journalism

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

TVNewsCheck is occasionally featuring examples of exceptional TV station reporting from across the country. Here are the first four, taking on everything from fraud, wasteful spending and public safety to a parking lot owner with a penchant for driving other people’s cars.

Scott Friedman to lead a new investigative unit as the station’s weekday morning newscast gets additional resources.

Chris Buck, Larry Chollet and Steve Ives are starting a new nonprofit, RetroReport.com, that will examine high-profile stories from the past to find out if they were true and what has happened since. They hope the site will educate people to be more critical about what they see on TV.

In a speech and interview at the RTDNA/SPJ conference in New Orleans today, Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and executive producer for 60 Minutes, said there isn’t enough investigative reporting because it’s expensive and time consuming. “We succeed at 60 Minutes by doing it and by caring about it and by working hard to make it as interesting as we can because there is a place for it and I think there’s a hunger for it out there.”

One of local TV’s most accomplished investigative reporters, WFAA Dallas’ Byron Harris believes he may be part of a dying breed as broadcasters fixated on the bottom line keep cutting the people and resources needed for in-depth reporting. But for now he is happy to be with Belo, one of the few station groups committed to its investigative tradition.

The Dispatch Broadcast Group’s NBC affiliate in Indianapolis has a clear goal — to be the best station in the country — and a strong strategy to accomplish it: a total commitment to enterprise and investigative reporting. It’s working as its RTDNA, DuPont-Columbia and Peabody awards this year attest. And it’s No. 1 in the ratings, too.