#353 Reveal sues ICE for not responding to FOIA request

In the course of researching stories, reporters will often ask their sources directly for documents needed to explain a situation. This is pretty common practice.

When Aura Bogado was talking with a representative from government contractor MVM, she asked to see the company’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, given that MVM was hired by the agency to assist with the transport of immigrant children at the U.S. border. That meant any contract would stipulate the conditions under which those children would need to be housed and cared for, as MVM would be acting as a government entity.

Victoria Baranetsky

“It’s a growing trend that media attorneys have been seeing: the actions of government have been contracted out,” says Victoria Baranetsky, a fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and the legal counsel for the Center for Investigative Reporting. “Being able to obtain this kind of information is important as a form of government accountability, despite being in the hands of private contractors.”

Bogado filed a record request, a common practice for obtaining documents, but there was no word from ICE within the 20-day response period. She then filed a more detailed Freedom of Information Act request, making it incredibly focused and specific in requesting just one document – the contract between ICE and MVM – but ICE still hasn’t responded.

The agency hasn’t denied the request, Baranetsky says. It just hasn’t answered at all.

“ICE has not said they’re withholding,” she says of the contract. “Here, ICE did not give a determination. … [Bogado] had previously discussed with the agency, she had gone to the agency and asked for records. They said she would have to formally submit a FOIA request for them. The agent did say they had in their possession and she’d have to go through the process.”

This isn’t a typical FOIA request in which a wide and deep net is cast. “There’s one document we’re talking about that very clearly exists,” Baranetsky says.

Now Reveal, the radio show, podcast and online presence for CIR, is suing for the information.

“Lawsuits like this, they absolutely are a lot of work and they’re costly,” Baranetsky says. “They’re not something we take lightly. This is a circumstance where there’s a clear public interest in the material. It went directly to her reporting. The delay made it rise to the need of litigation.”

Victoria Baranetsky, legal counsel for the Center for Investigative Reporting and a research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, joins producer Michael O’Connell to discuss the need to sue the government when contracts with private companies of particular public interest aren’t provided.

#350 Texas law protecting journalists under attack
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#351 Mistrust of the media isn’t new, but it’s getting worse

The American public’s distrust of the media is not new. Neither is it surprising, says Kyle Pope, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journalism Review.

Kyle Pope

But how bad is it? And what do people outside the media bubble think about how journalists do their job?

The level of trust in the media seems to have taken a bit of a nosedive around the time of the stock market crash in 2008 and it hasn’t rebounded, according to a recent wide-reaching survey conducted by CJR in partnership with Reuters/Ipsos.

The 4,214 respondents, split roughly in half between self-identifying Republicans and Democrats, did provide a few surprising answers, such as indicating that TMZ and the National Enquirer were more representative of the mainstream media that Rachel Maddow on MSNBC or Vice News.

“What took us back the most was, we tried to think of some fundamental misconceptions about how reporters do their jobs,” Pope says. “We asked, ‘do you think reporters are paid by their sources.’ You and I know that’s a taboo that doesn’t happen by reputable news organizations, but 60 percent of the people overall said they thought we were paid. It’s overwhelmingly believed by Republicans, 70 percent, but more than half the Democrats, 54 percent, think reporters get paid by their sources sometimes or often. That’s really stark.”

The survey, published in CJR’s print magazine, indicates Americans have lost their trust in many public institutions, including schools, universities, religion, corporations and Congress, just as much as they’ve stopped trusting the news media, he says.

“I think a lot of news consumers decided the news business was part of the power structure of America that wasn’t working for them. I think they’re on to something. I think journalism, for a time, lost its way. I think the press in general … (are) paying the price for it.”

As much as the press wants to point the finger of blame at the president, Pope says Trump has only given a name and a platform to something people have felt for a long time.  

“What he did was put a language to it and he made it — I believe it is arguably the central plank of his presidency,” Pope says. “His focus on the media as a foil or even as an enemy has been the one consistent thing he’s carried through his presidency and I have no doubt it’s going to continue for the rest of it.”

Kyle Pope, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journalism Review, joins Michael O’Connell to take a closer look at some of the findings in a recent wide-ranging survey of Americans’ trust of the media. The results aren’t great.

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#350 Texas law protecting journalists under attack

Texas has one of the nation’s leading state laws to protect reporters and others from being sued for trying to obtain or share public information.

Kevin Goldberg
Kevin Goldberg

Anti-SLAPP statutes, where SLAPP stands for strategic lawsuits against public participation, are designed to deter “a lawsuit filed for the purpose of shutting someone up,” explains Kevin Goldberg, legal counsel for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (making his third visit to the podcast). “We see these mainly filed by people who are rich, powerful and don’t mind how much money they need to spend on attorneys. They file them as defamation lawsuits, as copyright infringement lawsuits or against unfair trade practices. These lawsuits are filed not only to punish someone from speaking out against them, but maybe send a message to others to deter them.”

In 2010, Texas passed a state anti-SLAPP statute that’s so robust and has served its purposes so well, it’s held up as a standard and used as a model by states who haven’t yet adopted similar legislation.

But the law as currently written is under attack, despite broad support from legislators on both sides of the aisle as well as organizations that often don’t see eye-to-eye, including the ACLU and more libertarian organizations.

While other states have seen their anti-SLAPP laws challenged by trial lawyers associations, the one in Texas is being poked apart by the torte reform community, Goldberg says.

“Texans for Lawsuit Reform did a study and … found that the statute is being used by people for things that have nothing to do with free speech,” he says. “They think (the statute) is being construed too broadly and will touch any type of lawsuit. They feel the same about what would constitute a legal action. They think the evidence needed of a plaintiff to win a case doesn’t match what’s needed in other legal proceedings. This law uses clear and specific evidence (as a mandate for proving an anti-SLAPP premise), which they say is a little difficult and undefined to follow. They think the structure overly encourages the filings of motions to dismiss. They have problems with how the law is being implemented.”

The Texas law does have strong support from the Texas Press Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters, led by the groups’ attorney, Laura Prather, a partner with the firm Haynes and Boone LLP.

“She’s been working with sponsors, many of the people on the legislative committees in Texas, to walk some of this back,” Goldberg says of the law’s challenges. “She’s had a little success but not enough yet.”

The biggest challenge, that could make the protective law ineffective, including limiting the law’s application only to matters of constitutionally protected speech – which would not apply to defamation or copyright protection or invasion of privacy – instead of matters of public concern. “It blows a big hole in the law,” he says.

In his third visit to the podcast, Kevin Goldberg, legal counsel for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, joins producer Michael O’Connell to shed some light on anti-SLAPP legislation and why Texas’ law, a model for other states, is in trouble.

#209 – Lawsuits that have chilling effect on free speech
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#349 Reconsidering the editor-reporter relationship

How much thought is given to the relationship between journalists and their editors?

George Sylvie, an assistant professor of journalism with the University of Texas at Austin and author of Reshaping the News: Community, Engagement, and Editors, says that people forget that “journalism is, number one, based on relationships between individuals and grounds. The bedrock of that is trust. Too often, we take trust for granted, particularly in newsrooms.”

George Sylvie

This applies not only between journalists and their audience – something discussed on this podcast at length a handful of times – but between the person doing the report and the one working to ensure the story is presented clearly and cleanly.

“I think editors, as former journalists themselves, tend to bend over backwards toward the autonomy of the reporter,” Sylvie says. “And with good reason – that person is closest to the story. They are the one who’s executing and arranging the facts in the best communicative manner possible.”

But is that done, sometimes, to the detriment of the story and the audience who will read or watch it?

“I think over time, particularly in the last generation, editors may have ceded too much authority or too much to the journalist’s discretion. I think that, as a result, we have stories that are written by journalists, essentially, for journalists and their sources and not for the general public. I think that’s why, particularly newspapers but also other media, are having some problems retaining some audience.”

He thinks there might be too great a focus on the person doing the researching and writing and not enough consideration given to the person reading or listening to the work and how the details will matter in the audience’s life.

Journalists aren’t reporting for politicians, he says; the audience is “people who pay taxes. We have to understand they’re more concerned about how this affects them.”

George Sylvie, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Reshaping the News: Community, Engagement, and Editors, joins producer Michael O’Connell to question whether editors are working with their journalists to ensure their final reporting best serves the audience instead of the writer or sources.

#339 Rebuilding trust by peeling back the curtain in newsrooms
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#348 Decoding metrics means embracing journalism that matters

Metrics have always played an important role in journalism, but different newsrooms might not think about them in the same way.

By measuring something as simple as a reader comment, or whether a far-reaching and well-received investigative piece was well received and a tool for change, newsrooms and journalists can better gauge if they’re doing the work their communities need.

Betsy O’Donovan

In a new report from the American Press Institute titled How to build a metrics-savvy newsroom, Betsy O’Donovan and Melody Kramer find that metrics are a hot topic of conversation everywhere from Sesame Street to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a program in which the singer sends free books to young children.

But metrics are nothing new in journalism.

“Journalists don’t need be persuaded to care about metrics, they already do,” O’Donovan said. “I think we’ve all had experiences like the call from a reader who talks about a story that changed their point of view, or helped their church, or one they cut out because it featured their granddaughter. Metrics, fundamentally, are pieces of data that tell us how we’re doing our jobs.”

Melody Kramer

The types of metrics being weighed as a measure of success are changing, however, and it’s going back to items that veteran journalists have always held in higher esteem.

In the early days of digital journalism and news on websites, clicks were the all-important indication of success. That’s not the case any longer, O’Donovan said.

As people in leadership roles in newsrooms “develop a more sophisticated understanding of what is and is not useful to the survival of journalism, we’re finding things like engagement are significantly more important than just encounters,” she said. “Page views matter less than returning visits, for example. That’s something the grizzled old cops reporter who’s been on the beat for 40 years could’ve told you 10 years ago.”

Metrics can also help newsrooms identify a specific section of an audience that might be highly committed but underserved – like fans and attendees of Southern Methodist University in Texas, a school whose population was dwarfed by Texas A&M University but whose fans were eager to subscribe to a newsletter provided by the Dallas Morning News dedicated to their interests.

After all, if readers usually need to click on a site for valuable information hundreds, if not thousands, of times before they’re willing to subscribe, why not give them something more in line with what they’re looking for, a tactic proven to entice subscriptions earlier?

“We’re not talking about reporters having to get into a spreadsheet or analytics, but connecting something every organization needs. What can the newsroom do to affect that without creating ethical problems,” Kramer said. “Just tell the stories you’re excited to tell. You’re great at that.”

Betsy O’Donovan, an assistant professor of journalism at Western Washington University, and Melody Kramer, senior audience development manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, join producer Michael O’Connell to discuss a new report on metrics in journalism from the American Press Institute, why they’ve always mattered and why veteran journalists will embrace more easily the priorities newsrooms believe matter most.

#332 How well are journalists really listening to their audience?
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#347 How one podcast changed journalism

Once again, it all comes back to Serial.

Martin Spinelli, a senior lecturer in media and cultural studies within the Media, Film and Music School at the University of Sussex in Great Britain, was talking with young student journalists and audio producers during an event at Reuters’ international headquarters in London back in 2014 and all the students could talk about was the first season of Serial.

Martin Spinelli

“Almost every table I stopped at, they were enthusing about Serial, which had just launched,” he said. “These kids were super enthusiastic. I went home, downloaded all the available episodes and binge listened. There was something new happening. It was a new kind of journalism, in my mind, and it was a new kind of engagement. That’s how I got excited about it.”

Podcasting has considerably lowered the bar to entry for media production and engagement, but it’s also a form of media that’s nearly inextricably linked with social media. That’s how people find out about new podcasts – from the recommendations and likes of their friends (in addition to word of mouth) on Facebook, Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Instagram.

He discusses this phenomenon in his new book, Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution, written with Dr. Lance Dann.  One chapter looks at the interconnection of podcasting, social media and the role both play in a new era of journalism.

Another chapter of the book is dedicated to Serial.

In “The Truth about Serial: It’s Not Really About a Murder,” Spinelli argues that the blockbuster podcast was more about host Sarah Koenig’s relationship with podcasting and a new form of journalism, more than whether a man convicted of killing a young woman in 1999 was guilty or innocent.

“She’s trying to figure out what it can be, what it should be and how much baggage she’s going to take from her old career,” he said. “Maybe that’s too academic a thing to say, but it’s not about (the two men and the murder), it’s about Sarah.”

Part of that calls into question whether journalism ethics have shifted in some or many ways that would be unacceptable in other outlets; whether the methods used by Koenig and her co-producer, Julie Snyder, opened them to libel accusations and whether they lost objectivity in the pursuit of a good story told in a new medium.

Dr. Martin Spinelli, a senior lecturer in media and culture studies within the media, film and music school at the University of Sussex in Great Britain and co-author with Dr. Lance Dann of Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution, joins producer Michael O’Connell to discuss how podcasting changed the media world and whether Serial deserves all the praise it gets.

#315 — Journalism for, of and by local audiences
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#346 Helping journalists decode research

Research papers come out all the time, but how do journalists know which ones are worth noting and which aren’t worth the paper the press release was printed on?

Journalist’s Resource, a website and tool from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, wants to help make that distinction exquisitely clear.

Carmen Nobel

“Our main mission is to bridge the gap between journalism and academia,” said Carmen Nobel, one of the three people working on Journalist’s Resource. “Our primary goal is to help journalists improve their work by relying more on scientific evidence and high-quality, peer-reviewed research in reporting. When setting out to cover an unfamiliar topic, we want them to ask what the research says and to look at academic findings before setting out to cover something.”

It’s increasingly rare that journalists, especially for newspapers or more general-knowledge publications, will have a specific beat or topic they cover regularly. If a general assignment reporter is tasked with covering, say, climate change, Journalist’s Resource can help identify credible, noteworthy and unbiased research that has been reviewed and deemed acceptable and reputable by a group of other scientists, allowing the reporter to write a more complete, up-to-date and factually accurate piece.

“We want to give them a tool to help inform themselves before setting out to cover something,” Nobel said. “Our main focus is running a website that features summaries, round-ups and stories about recent public policy research.”

While most of the work is focused on U.S.-based research on topics ranging from the environment and climate change to economics, public policy, immigration and poverty, the Journalist’s Resource team finding that at least some factions of their audience are interested in the research of journalism as well.

Journalist’s Resource also publishes tip sheets, summaries and bits of advice for journalists to help understand the research they see and prompting questions to better report the findings of a study.

“One of our most popular pieces lately is 11 things journalists should ask before covering the results of a public opinion poll,” Nobel said. It suggests a journalist ask about who was responsible for conducting the poll, how it was funded and who paid for it, as all of those questions can indicate whether the results might be biased in one direction or another.

Carmen Nobel, a program director with Journalist’s Resource, joins producer Michael O’Connell to discuss why the name is a bit of a misnomer and how a tool designed to help reporters find credible research comes up with tip sheets to make reporting better.

#345 HARO connects reporters and sources in a snap
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#345 HARO connects reporters and sources in a snap

Every reporter has been there: An editor assigns a story on an unfamiliar topic and there’s a mad-dash to find a source who can provide crucial information.

Kristen Sala and Allison Richard

But how to find a reputable, reliable source?

In 2007, a public relations professional named Peter Shankman created a database that would put reporters in touch with sources and help experts share their knowledge with credible media outlets.

Now that database, Help A Reporter Out, or HARO, has more than 800,000 people who receive emails three times a day, plus access to specialized topic and keyword-based newsletters.

“By and large, it’s still a free membership platform,” said Kristen Sala, a senior director of U.S. media research. “People love that, both sources and journalists alike.”

HARO is now under the umbrella of Cision and continues to grow.

“We connect journalists seeking expertise with sources that have relevant expertise,” said Allison Richard, one of HARO’s managers. “We send about 200 queries from journalists a day, maybe closer to 300. Each day we send three emails – at 5:35 a.m., 12: 35 p.m. and 5:35 p.m., all Eastern time, Monday through Friday.”

Journalists looking for a source fill out a form detailing the topic, with as much information about the questions to be answered as possible, along with the deadline.

“If you’re submitting a query for a story about a medical insurance policy, you might select business and finance as a category for your query, or health care. When we send daily alerts in the business and finance edition, that query will be included in that.  We leave in the hands of journalists the ability to code the query accordingly,” Richard saids.

It’s also of the utmost importance to be very clear about the deadline for the story, to avoid a situation in which the reporter is up against a wall waiting for information when the story needs to be published.

There are also some guiding rules to protect both reporters and sources. If a source turns out to be unhelpful or doesn’t come through with the promised information, the reporter can make note of that. Alternately, reporters must work for a publication that has been around for at least one month – whether print, online, broadcast, etc. – to ensure the source’s time and information will be published as intended.

“It’s a win-win,” Sala says. “You’re a source because you’re looking to get your brand or your name mentioned. If an outlet hasn’t been established for very long, there’s a chance that outlet could go under or a story doesn’t get published. It’s a protection of our sources.”

Kristen Sala and Allison Richard join producer Michael O’Connell to explain their service, Help A Reporter Out, which connects reporters with expert sources that are guaranteed to be helpful and responsive.

#341 Use a little Shoeleather to find freelancers
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#344 One reporter’s fumbled joke and a lesson learned

It was supposed to be a lighthearted, playful joke in a sports-loving city.

The week before the Super Bowl, Michael Telek wanted to have a little fun on a sports story at his CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh. The story was about how the New England Patriots were on their way to a record-tying Super Bowl, on the edge of matching the Steelers’ record for most Super Bowl wins.

When an image of Tom Brady came up, he set up the reporter package to identify him as a “known cheater.”

Michael Telek and a screenshot of his joke about Tom Brady.
Michael Telek and a screenshot of his joke about Tom Brady.

Telek lost his job the next day.

“I had been there seven months. I’m from Pittsburgh, I wanted to work in Pittsburgh,” he said. He spent time in Ohio and other markets in order to work his way back to his hometown. The KDKA station was a great place, filled with people who made him a better journalist, he said.

“I thought it would be fun at the end” of a newscast geared toward more national news, not one that featured more local stories. “Sports are meant to be fun and playful. Everyone hates the Patriots.”

He had considered a different graphic, identifying Brady as “Giselle’s husband,” flipping on its head a sports trope in which successful women are identified by their relationship with an athlete.

“I thought ‘known cheater’ would be funnier, especially with the deflate gate situation and the NFL suspending him,” Telek said. “I thought I could save face. My bosses talked to me after the broadcast and asked what were you thinking, this is PR nightmare, it’s all over social media already.”

Disliking Brady, after all, has become an easy punchline in cities well beyond Pittsburgh. People don’t have to know or be interested in sports or football to know who he is and know details of his life – in fact, one of Telek’s friends who doesn’t follow sports thought the “known cheater” was in reference to Brady leaving his then-pregnant girlfriend, actress Bridget Moynahan, for his now-wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

By the next morning, it was on every sports news outlet in the country, including Sports Illustrated, and other sites, like Breitbart.

If the package had aired in the sports portion of the broadcast, Telek thinks it might have been easier to shrug off, to play off as a joke. He acknowledges that even though sports stories can be lighthearted, one that airs during a news portion has to stay within the non-biased, impartial lines of ethical journalism.

Michael Telek joins producer Michael O’Connell to discuss a sports joke gone wrong and the need to play things straight even when the target of a joke is one of the most unpopular and talented athletes in history.

#295 — Putting sports second, athletes first
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#343 Leave Facebook and fake news wins

It’s the new cool kid thing to do: Declare that the time has come to leave Facebook, complete with a long post about how it’s not working anymore, it’s too corrupted, it’s no longer fun.

Mandy Jenkins thinks people, especially reporters, should reconsider.  In fact, she says leaving Facebook or social media in general is the last thing journalists should do.

Mandy Jenkins – JSK Fellows – 2018/2019

“Why are you leaving and letting the disinformation providers take it over?” she asked. “The more we leave, the more they’re going to have the market share of attention.”

Jenkins currently is a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University. In addition to taking courses, all fellows work on a research question, publishing a report at the end of their term. For Jenkins, an early adopter of social media and an unabashed and unashamed social media junkie, she’s taking a closer look at fake news and the people who make and spread it.

“We can we learn from fake news purveyors as real news purveyors,” she says. “I’m going out and talking to people who have shared misinformation before, really getting into their media habits, what they think about social media, the media in general, and I’ll distill that down into a report I’ll put out at the end of my fellowship.”

Facebook is no saint, Jenkins admitss. She understands the impulse to leave, but every time a journalist leaves, “a little part of me dies inside. Other people are still here. I’m still here. As a friend, I still want to know what’s going on with you,” but she’s not inclined to follow those people to whatever new, unfamiliar platform they’re going to, and it’s unlikely their readers will follow them either.

Many journalists will use Facebook to not only post their work but to interact with friends and family, blurring the line between personal and professional. It can be difficult to find the right balance, but when it’s done well, it can be a very useful tool and a great way to lead conversations, she says.

“It’s really hard work to do social media well,” Jenkins said. “You have to be a conversation leader to make Facebook work. You have to go in, ask questions, take on some hard questions from other people, even get into the fray a little bit and sometimes break up fights between other people. That goes for family and friends as well as readers and peers you interact with on Facebook. It takes time but it can be so valuable.”  

Friend of the podcast Mandy Jenkins returns to talk with producer Michael O’Connell about why journalists who leave Facebook due to fake news or other controversies are just helping the bad guys win.

#279 — Collaboration key to combating fake news
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