It's fatally easy for U.S. journalists, faced with sinking circulation numbers and what seems like public indifference – if not downright hostility – to our watchdog role in a free and democratic society, to feel like divers abandoned in shark-infested open water.
But to tell the truth – and good journalists are nothing if not truth-tellers – the future of our industry just blew through North Texas. Nearly 1,000 investigative journalists from the U.S. and around the world gathered in Fort Worth last week to share tips, techniques and story ideas at the annual conference of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
The most important thing we did was to remind ourselves of the critical need for strong and credible investigative reporting. And it turns out that we might have a lot of company in that view.
For too long, the news industry has regarded investigative reporting as too time-consuming and costly. (And that attitude continues. Just last month, Time magazine laid off two of the best investigative reporters in our time because they were "too expensive.")
Media owners also have seen investigative reporting as a "niche" kind of reporting: nice for the sake of public service and awards-gathering, but not really a daily concern.
But it's becoming increasingly clear that investigative reporting may be the beleaguered newspaper industry's best franchise for the future.
Investigative reporting distinguishes journalists from agenda-pushing bloggers, from advocacy talk shows that parade as fair and balanced, and from the shallow reporting that happens when Wall Street pressures newsrooms to cut staffs.
The worth of investigative reporting is not measured in constant bean-counting, but in how well it serves the public interest. Solid investigative reporting demonstrates the credibility of a vigilant press, as well as the need for one – a need that's greater than ever.
With the advent of the Web and the blogosphere, rumors and misinformation have run rampant.
Simultaneously, officialdom has grown more secretive, public relations and media manipulation have become more sophisticated, and the free press has suffered ever more relentless attacks by governments and corporations that don't want the public to know what they've been up to.
But good investigative reporting cuts through those rumors, misinformation and manipulative practices. Investigative reporting rips through veils of lies that hide corruption, incompetence and injustice. It reveals dangers that governments and businesses should disclose but fail to do. It provides accurate, useable information that ordinary people can use to protect themselves.
These stories are not the kind produced by those who approach the world from an opinionated point of view and fit the facts around preconceived conclusions. No, these are stories supported by detailed documentation and a multitude of interviews – and they often go further by making use of data analysis and social-science methods. You can't do these stories quickly or on the cheap.
A glance back over the past year of investigative reporting turns up numerous important and possibly lifesaving stories: Stories about government failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Stories about government contractors run amok in Iraq. About corruption in Congress. About dangerous and poorly tested pharmaceutical drugs, unsafe working conditions and sexual predators who go unmonitored. Add to that thousands of local stories that shed light on the questionable spending of tax dollars and the shortcomings of public and private institutions – stories that would never have been told if not for journalists who spend days, weeks and even months working on them.
Does your favorite blogger or TV pundit do this? No, only investigative reporters do.
This matters. If you doubt it, think about how many bad guys would have gotten away with it were it not for a free (and intensely curious) press unwilling to settle for the official story.
For more than a century, investigative reporting has been protecting the public and saving lives.
At a time when the news industry is searching for direction, capitalizing on the irreplaceable value of what investigative reporters do is perhaps the best way to restore and renew the American public's faith in and appreciation for journalism.
Brant Houston is executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. You may contact him through the organization's Web site, www.ire.org.
