Nieman Reports
Spring 2008 Issue
21st Century Muckrakers
Universities and Investigative Journalism
By Charles Lewis
For three years, I have been conducting research for a new book about truth, power and the role of journalism today.
In the summer of 2005, for a chapter about the Iraq War, I asked researchers, led by Mark Reading-Smith, at the Fund for Independence in Journalism, to begin tracking every single utterance by eight of the top U.S. officials (President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, The University of California at Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program is directed by investigative producer/correspondent Lowell Bergman and houses the West Coast editorial and production facilities for the PBS programs “Frontline” and “Frontline/World,”
as well as the three Investigative Reporting Post Graduate Fellows who receive stipends during their year of study and training at the journalism school. In September 2004, The Elaine and Gerald Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism became the nation’s first such center to be housed at a university (Brandeis) and is directed by its founder, investigative journalist Florence Graves. [See her story in referred articles.] And the newest of these, the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University, is headed by Sheila S. Coronel. [See her story referred articles.] —C.L.
Next article: Gilbert Cranberg
Table of contents
Printer-friendly format |