Investigative Reporting

I must say that I did a very poor job as a reporter during last Tuesday's class. To be completely honest, I did not feel all that well. In the past, there would have been no way that I could've made it to class at 10:15 feeling like that. I did make it to class though, but I was not prepared to be the quickest, smartest, and obviously most modest reporter in the class. It was lucky for me that we didn't have to write a formal article about our visitors, because if we did I wouldn't have any quotes to use. The reason that I am bringing this up is because we had two very interesting visitors speak with us, and I can't even tell you their names. They were investigative reporters for a newspaper in Belville, Illinois,(the only piece of information that I did write down) and gave our class an inside look at their lives and their jobs. I am disappointed in myself at my laziness during that visit, but I do feel that I learned a few valuable things in the process.

These reporters brought to our attention certain cases that they have been following over the past few years involving the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Through their investigations, they found over 50 cases of neglect and poor practice by this agency that led to many children's death. The two won prizes and have recieved enormous amounts of praise for their thorough work in uncovering these tragic cases. The reporters then provided us with therapy session records from a current case that they are keeping an eye on. This case was about a very young girl who told a therapist that her daddy "puts his finger in my butt" and "makes me kiss him where he pee-pees." I apologize for putting those quotes in here, I struggled with the decision. These are the things that investigative reporters come across all the time. They then asked the class what we would do with this case. Is it a story that needs to be written about? This brings up a very important conflict in the realm of investigative journalism. These reporters recieved high acclaim for uncovering the cases of over 50 dead children. The fact of the matter is, these children were already dead. Is it really a reporters job to try and prevent crime from happening? If a reporter got a hold of this information and printed something about this man sexually assaulting his daughter, whether true or not, their jobs are in serious danger. This story should never be written by a reporter unless there is unquestioning, authoriatative evidence that this crime has in fact been committed. So then there's the answer right, easy as pie.

Well, not any kind of pie I want to be eating. Put yourself in the shoes of one of these investigative reporters. You spend six months of your life going through the evidence and talking to families of dead children. You have heard so many first hand accounts of the horrible things that have happened under the watch of the DCFS, which you know is a very flawed agency. Now you come across the case of this innocent little girl, who may or may not be in danger. What are you going to do? I don't know what the answer is to be honest. Part of me believes that this isn't a story until something horrible happens to that little girl. You can't print anything about the case until there is hard evidence. A possible option may be to contact the DCFS, and tell them that you are watching the specifics of this case and possibly even threaten them to be thorough.

The place of an investigative journalist is usually to point out the horrible things that people are capable of doing. These two reporters are starting to get caught up in the possibility in prevention of these atrocities. Maybe it is out of their line of responsibility. Or maybe they're the only people who can prevent things like this from happening. The world is filled with terrible people. Terrible people who are capable of doing terrible things. When there are children who get caught up with these people it tends to be the most tragic.

There was one question that was boiling in my head during their visit that I wussied out of asking. I am sure when my professor reads this she will scold me in her head for not asking it. This is what I was dying to ask them:

When you came across these horrible cases what was the first thing that popped into your mind? Was it "Oh my god we need to help these children? Or was it "Cha Ching! This is the best story i've had in years, call up the editor, we're gonna sell some papers!"

I think the real reason that I didn't ask it is because I knew that the answer would be some combination of both, and the fact that I asked it may hint to them that I assumed that they didn't care about these children. This is partly true, but I think it's an important question to ask. Are investigative journalists out to save the world from evil, or are they there to make a buck?