The Jeremiad Over Journalism

American borders for investigative reporting. According to the British journalist, John Pilger, the
newspaper helped craft a wholly new journalistic concept.
―The term, investigative journalism, did not exist when I began my career; it became
fashionable in the 1960‘s and 1970‘s and especially when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
exposed the Watergate scandal.‖ 451
The same lack of knowledge was displayed by the Danish journalist Knud Søndergaard, when he
wrote about an American murder-case in 1978 and pointed out, ―investigative reporting is a concept
in the United States. We would probably translate it to something to the effect of in-depth,
analytical journalism.‖ 452
Clearly, investigative journalism had not become mainstream in Denmark by 1978 since
Søndergaard needed to explain the concept to his journalistic colleagues but within the subsequent
decade, investigative journalism became appropriated by Danish journalists and have since played a
increasingly important role in Danish journalists‘ self-image.
Though there are subtle differences, the similarities of the Danish journalists‘ appropriation of New
journalism and investigative journalism respectively are striking. As we saw in the previous section,
Tom Wolfe‘s book formalizing practices was published in 1973, in 1974 it was described in
Journalisten by Berendt, in 1980 Smistrup taught New Journalism at the newly established DJE
based on his experiences at Columbia School of Journalism, and in 1982 the first Danish language
book on New Journalism was published.
In the summer of 1974 Woodward and Bernstein published All The President’s Men based on their
work on the Watergate-story and later that year the book was reviewed very positively in the pages
of Journalisten, by 1978 American journalists were coming to DJH to teach investigative
journalism, and by 1983 the first Danish book on ―research journalism,‖ was published. There are
451 John Pilger, ed. Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism That Changed the World (New York: Thunder's Mouth
Press,2005). Introduction xiv. The investigative journalism that had existed before the the 1960‘s was called
―muckracking,‖ and had its zenith in the early 20 th century with exposure of fraudulent meat-packing practices and
unethical business dealings in the oil industry. Ward, The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity and
Beyond. Page 232-233.
452 Knud Søndergaard, "Journalistik Eller Hævntørst? [Journalism or Revengefulness?]," Journalisten, May, 1978. Page
12-16.
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