Reviewing the investigative reporting craft

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Sep/Oct 2003 by Weinberg, Steve

PULITZER PRIZE FEATURE STORIES

Great writing is almost always built on great reporting. The 25 newspaper features collected in this volume by University of Texas journalism professor David Garlock certainly prove that truism.

No rule suggests to the Pulitzer Prize judges that winners in the feature story category should be doing something investigative (which has its own Pulitzer category) or even explanatory (which also has its own category). Still, each of these 25 stories is in-depth by any standard. By my standard, many of them would qualify as investigative.

What a gift to find all of these stories collected in one thick volume. Garlock follows each story with a few pages of his analysis, which, by the way, he admirably sent to the authors for their comments before going to press. It's unfortunate that a publishing error resulted in an image of Joseph Conrad, not Joseph Pulitzer, to appear on the cover of the book.

Chronologically, the collection starts with "Mrs. Kelly's Monster" by Jon Franklin, from the Baltimore Evening Sun, and ends with "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario, from the Los Angeles Times. In between are narratives about airplanes and family farms and AIDS and racism and immigration and murder - and more.

Some of the authors have changed newspapers, moved from reporting to editing, become primarily professors or book authors. Others have stayed put. Wherever they are, whatever they are doing, their stories deserve to be studied for both the information-gathering techniques and for the memorable writing style.

BEST BUSINESS CRIME WRITING

Lordy! The third anthology in a row.

Book publishers have started releasing numerous "Best of ..." annual writing books over the past decade. Best science writing, best travel writing, best humor writing, best music writing, best sports writing, best nature writing, and so on.

But "Best Business Crime Writing"? Talk about a niche publication. Talk about great investigative pieces about the private sector. Surowiecki, who writes a column about business for The New Yorker magazine, had plenty to choose from during 2002, and he has made wise choices. Pieces from newspapers, magazines and Web sites are represented. Some of the magazines are highly specialized (U.S. Banker, Business 2.0) and some of the newspapers arc intensely local (Rocky Mountain News, Edmonton Journal), which means the stories failed to achieve wide circulation originally. Hooray to Surowiecki for including them.

Some of the pieces probably will not wear well after 2003 - stories done about Enron, accounting firm Arthur Andersen and the like. But they still have something to teach this year. Other stories appear to be relatively timeless.

Surowiecki places each story into one of three sections: "Visionaries, Hucksters, and Con Men: CEOs and the Games They Played"; "Who Watches the Watchmen?"; and "What Went Wrong, and How Do We Fix It?" Whether largely prescriptive or largely descriptive, the selections have a great deal to teach investigative journalists.