Recent issues of Uplink focus on CAR at TV stations

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Mar/Apr 1998 by Johnson, Brent

Uplink is the monthly publication from the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism. For $40 you can get a subscription to Uplink and be able to read the most up-to-date information and issues concerning computers and journalism. Contact IRE/NICAR at 573882-2042 or check out the NICAR web site at www.nicar.org.

* In February, Uplink served up a menu of computer-assisted stories exposing deficient food inspections. Joel Grover of KCBS in Los Angeles recounted his series on the county's restaurant inspection system, which failed to reach each of the area's 20,000 restaurants three times a year as required and failed to penalize or shut down those operations that continued to receive poor inspection marks.

Stuart Watson of WRAL in Raleigh, N.C., described his series on the city's misleading sanitation ratings system, which allowed restaurants chronically failing surprise inspections to clean up their act for follow-up inspections and then post high grades. On the print side, Cox News Service story by Elliot Jaspin and Scott Montgomery detailed the USDA's infrequent closings of food processing plants.

Included in the issue as well was ar^Gannett News Service analysis of privately sponsored Congressional junkets that revealed China as the hottest destination and the House Commerce Committee as the most well-traveled.

* In March, Uplink profiled the increased frequency of computerassisted stories at TV stations across the country.

Stuart Watson of WRAL described the stories his CAR-prolific station has run.

The issue profiled two stories by Paul Adrian of WBNS in Columbus, Ohio: on payment delays caused by companies habitually contesting worker's compensation claims and another on local food processing plant violations that used the same USDA database as the Cox News Service analysis.

A review of a story by Mark Lagerkvist of News 12 Long Island analyzed embezzlement of pension plans and the daunting task to protect them.

Chris Heinbaugh of KOMO in Seattle recounted a story he did while at KNXV in Phoenix on paramedics and emergency medical technicians who had lied about their criminal histories.

Nancy Amons of WSMV in Nashville discussed her stories on abuses in the administering of speeding and parking tickets.

Ray Robinson of the Virginian-Pilot checked in with a CARintensive campaign finance story that used contribution data available through the Virginia Public Access Project.

- Brent Johnson, Managing Editor