DRILLING DEEP SABEW , Toronto 2012

1. DRILLING DEEPSABEW, Toronto 2012 Presentation by John Christie and Naomi Schalit Me. Center for Public Interest Reporting pinetreewatchdog.org Rotman School, July 19, 2012

2. Finding the story • If you want to do these kinds of stories, you need to look at your beat or subject with a different point of view than the reporter who only looks to get out today's story.

3. Stories in the news that need digging

4. “Everybody knows” stories Leonard Cohen gets it

5. “Everybody knows”

6. Finding the story, cont’d • Connecting the dots/seeing potential patterns • Observation + skepticism = story • Follow Hemingway: “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.”

7. Tips Connecting the dots Connecting the dots Tips Observation

8. Tips: Listen to lunatics —Jerry Mitchell "Be willing to listen to lunatics. Much of my reporting has centered on the radical right, the lunatic fringe. The truth is, if you want to truly cover these people, you have to spend a lot of time with them and, more important, you have to listen to them. An occasional head nodding won't cut it. As crazy as it sounds, you have to be interested in them. Just because someone is nuts, has no credibility and a personality so offensive that you feel a need for a shower later doesn't mean that person can't be a valuable source. He may be crazy enough to get you those sealed documents you've been coveting for months."

9. Make friends with obsessive people who carry large briefcases stuffed with papers This guy is a state legislator who knows a lot – and he really wants to tell you what he knows

10. Read online comments – suspicious people dig up useful stuff

11. Be patient and respectful -- long-winded sources may have a good story Political crony who got high-paying job in governor’s office; an office mate didn’t approve

12. Hunch + tip = story

13. Tip + data = story

14. Recreational data cruising • Used to be called “reading government reports and the federal register”

15. Read the state audit notes

16. Hang out in the licensing and disciplinary files for your state

17. There’s lots of useful stuff there

19. Auditor, inspector general reports

20. Getting the time to work on the story • First you have to make the case for your story: “There are two sides to this story.” “We take a long, in-depth look at…” “FEH.”

21. . To persuade an editor, you have to be able to convince them that your story will say something authoritative and strong. Long doesn’t necessarily mean investigative.

22. You’re never going to get the time. So these stories have to be done on your own time. No way around it. Any reporter can do an investigative story, even if they’re not a fulltime investigative reporter. You need to have a burning desire to live with a story for a long time and ignore your family, dietary, health and sanitation needs. Sixty hour weeks.

23. How to make/get the time Juggle – especially when mining data and documents

24. Negotiate

25. Diminish expectations for daily output

26. Go or no go? Project Checklist Michael Berens – The Seattle Times \ Here’s my 10-point checklist for enterprise projects – stories that I choose to do. There are some stories that are so important or timely that a checklist is irrelevant or misguided. But for discretionary projects – ideas that begin from scratch – I find this checklist a failsafe compass:

27. Writing the investigative story:Be a translator

28. Complex story: Simple lead

29. Remember the reader

30. Remember the reader II “For Pete’s sake, make it interesting. Tell me a story.” —William Blundell

31. Remember the reader III  “Nothing is easier than to stop reading.” —William Blundell