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21st Century MuckrakersThe Challenges and Opportunities of 21st CenturyMuckraking‘… investigative reporters are a hardy breed who will tenaciously uphold theirwatchdog mission in bad times as well as good.’BY MARK FELDSTEINSince spring of last year, NiemanReports has focused on 21st CenturyMuckrakers, a collection ofarticles about investigative reporting.What have we learned to take with usas we move forward?For starters, watchdog reportingfaces extraordinary challenges:Profits in news organizations areplummeting as advertisers abandonnewspapers and magazines, destroyingthe economic foundation on whichprint journalism has depended forthe past century and a half. In turn,beleaguered news outlets, includingtelevision and radio, slash budgets,close bureaus, and lay off employees—especially expensive investigative reporterswhose time-consuming workrequires high-priced legal vetting andoften antagonizes advertisers andgovernment authorities.Legal protections for anonymoussources have eroded in the wake ofthe Valerie Plame case, when reporterswere driven to betray their vowsof confidentiality. Worse, the government’sskillful use of source waiversnow threatens to become a routinetactic to chill future whistleblowing.The federal government has erected awall of secrecy since 9/11, classifyingdocuments that should be public andwithholding information that oncewas routinely provided to the press.While the Obama administration appearsto be loosening this stranglehold,transparency seems destined to giveway to secrecy in the future wheneverthe government invokes nationalsecurity.Authorities around the world are covertlymonitoring journalists and theirsources with satellites, spyware andother technology. In turns, dozens ofinvestigative reporters across the globeare censored, harassed, jailed, beatenup, and even murdered every year.Pushback by multinational corporations,now more powerful than manygovernments, obstructs reporters byemploying batteries of lawyers toscare off potential sources and mediaexecutives. Even at the local level, aproliferation of public relations spindoctors makes it harder for journaliststo get access to information.Finally, a cacophony of tabloid infotainmentmasquerading as journalismroutinely drowns out whatever highqualitywatchdog reporting is able tosurvive these other obstacles.Still, despite these economic, political,legal and cultural threats, embattledmuckrakers also have important newweapons at their disposal:Computer-assisted reporting offers sophisticatedmethods of social scientiststo unearth information from databasesand enable reporters to find misconductthat otherwise remains hidden.Google, online chat rooms, and otheremerging tools of social media—notto mention lowly e-mail—also makeit easier for investigative reporters totrack down and interview hard-toreachvictims and whistleblowers.Citizen journalism, while imperfect,helps the public expose misconductthat otherwise might not come to light.Likewise, online crowdsourcing letsreporters canvass citizens for assistanceon investigative stories. In addition,inexpensive video technology nowhelps journalists and the public collectvisual evidence of wrongdoing.Nonprofit investigative reporting is onthe rise, producing important exposésby The Center for Public Integrity,ProPublica, Talking Points Memo, theCenter for Investigative Reporting,and other noncommercial outlets. TheHuffington Post recently launched aproject to fund investigative reporting,and online sites focusing on localwatchdog journalism have sproutedin San Diego, Minneapolis andother cities. Meanwhile, a nonprofitinfrastructure to train investigativereporters has taken root, and philanthropicfoundations are increasinglyunderwriting freelance writers to takeon challenging muckraking projects.Leading universities, too, are joiningin and guiding eager students throughthe rigors of investigative projects thatoften produce tangible results. 1 [See the1Among the more active university-based investigative projects are those at AmericanUniversity, University of California, Berkeley, Boston University, Brandeis University,Columbia University, Georgetown University, Northeastern University, NorthwesternUniversity, and Southern Methodist University. See Spring 2008 and Winter 2008 issuesof Nieman Reports for articles about some of these projects at www.niemanreports.org.50 Nieman Reports | Summer 2009