Slide1: Lecture 6  Monitoring the Powerful: Investigative Journalism, the Watchdog and the Fourth Branch of Government 


Slide2: Historic Cases http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/splash.html Post Coverage | Deep Throat Revealed | Interactive Guide | Chronology | Map Key Players | Documents | Cartoons | Sights & Sounds | Video Discussion Decades after Richard Nixon resigned the office of the president, Watergate remains one of the top presidential scandals of modern time. Early in the morning on June 17, 1972, police discovered five intruders inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. The burglars were there, it turned out, to adjust bugging equipment they had installed during a May break-in and to photograph the Democrats' documents.


Slide3: (A) Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon (http://www.watergate.info/) The Burglary Watergate has entered the political lexicon as a term synonymous with corruption and scandal, yet the Watergate Hotel is one of Washington's luxurious hotels. Even today, it is home to former Senator Bob Dole and was once the place where Monica Lewinsky laid low. It was here that the Watergate Burglars broke into the Democratic Party's National Committee offices on June 17, 1972. If it had not been for the alert actions of Frank Wills, a security guard, the scandal may never have erupted.   Chronology of Events The story of Watergate has an intriguing historical and political background, arising out of political events of the 1960s such as Vietnam, and the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1970. But the chronology of the scandal really begins during 1972, when the burglars were arrested. By 1973, Nixon had been re-elected, but the storm clouds were building. By early 1974, the nation was consumed by Watergate.


Slide4: Richard Milhous Nixon  Nixon served as Vice-President for the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower for eight years since 1952, then lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy. He recovered from political defeat to be chosen again as the Republican Party's candidate at the 1968 election. Nixon became the nation's 37th President on January 20, 1969. Later that year, he delivered his 'Silent Majority' speech on the Vietnam War, articulating his belief that the bulk of the American people supported his policies and programs. He was vindicated by winning a landslide re-election. He was sworn in for a second term in January 1973.   Nixon Reacts To Watergate  Nixon made three major speeches on the Watergate scandal during 1973 and 1974. The first was on April 30, 1973, in which he announced the departure of Dean, Haldeman and Ehrlichman. A more defiant speech was delivered on August 15, 1973. Perhaps the politically most difficult speech was the one on April 29, 1974, in which Nixon released partial transcripts of the White House tapes.  


Slide5: The Investigations  Initial investigations of Watergate were heavily influenced by the media, particularly the work of two reporters from the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, along with their mysterious informant, Deep Throat. Political investigations began in February 1973 when the Senate established a Committee to investigate the Watergate scandal. The public hearings of the Committee were sensational, including the evidence of John Dean, Nixon's former White House Counsel. The Committee also uncovered the existence of the secret White House tape recordings, sparking a major political and legal battle between the Congress and the President. In 1974, the House of Representatives authorised the Judiciary Committee to consider impeachment proceedings against Nixon. The work of this Committee was again the spotlight a quarter of a century later when Bill Clinton was impeached.


Slide6: The Final Days  Nixon's last days in office came in late July and early August, 1974. The House Judiciary Committee voted to accept three of four proposed Articles of Impeachment, with some Republicans voting with Democrats to recommend impeachment of the President. The final blow came with the decision by the Supreme Court to order Nixon to release more White House tapes. One of these became known as the 'smoking gun' tape when it revealed that Nixon had participated in the Watergate cover-up as far back as June 23, 1972. Around the country, there were calls for Nixon to resign. At 9pm on the evening of August 8, 1974, Nixon delivered a nationally televised resignation speech. The next morning, he made his final remarks to the White House staff before sending his resignation letter to the Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger.


Slide7: (B) The Aftermath Since the Watergate scandal, the media has on occasion referred to political scandals by adding the suffix "-gate" to one of the key words used to describe the scandal. Here are some: Billygate — U.S. President Jimmy Carter's brother, Billy Carter, legally represented a Libyan terrorist "Billygate - 1980", The Washington Post, 1998. Chinagate (also "Campaign finance scandal"). — Allegations that China illegally attempted to funnel campaign funds to the Democratic Party of the United States during the 1996 elections. Coingate — the mishandling of Ohio government funds entrusted to Republican operatives, involving rare coin funds "Gov. Taft sued over ‘Coingate' scandal", WKYC, 2005-07-06. Filegate — The illegal possession and scrutiny of 300-900 FBI files by the Clinton Administration without the file's subject's permission. Hookergate — The US Cunningham Scandal in which defense contractors paid bribes to members of Congress and officials in the US Defense Department, in return for political favors in the form of federal contracts. Irangate or Contragate — (Usually referred to as the Iran-Contra affair) — The Reagan Administration sold weapons to Iran and diverted the proceeds to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. "1989: Irangate colonel avoids prison", St Louis Post-Dispatch, 1989-07-05.  


Slide8: The Aftermath (Cont’d) Kremlingate — The diversion of $4.8 billion in funds from the IMF to Russia by Bank Menatep, owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. MasturGate, PageGate or FoleyGate, in which senior Republican leadership covered-up instances of Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) exhanging sexually explicit emails with under-age pages. Monicagate, Lewinskygate, or Sexgate ("Zippergate", "the Lewinsky scandal") — named after Monica Lewinsky who had an "inappropriate relationship" with the then–US President, Bill Clinton. Muldergate — South African political scandal of the late 1970s in which funds were clandestinely diverted by defence minister Connie Mulder for overseas propaganda in support of the apartheid regime. The scandal brought about the downfall of BJ Vorster. Skategate, 2002. An international sports scandal involving figure skating judging at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Shawinigate, 1999. A Canadian scandal involving then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's profiting from real estate deals in his home riding of Shawinigan, Quebec Troopergate — the allegations by two Arkansas state troopers that they arranged sexual liaisons for then-governor Bill Clinton. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_"-gate"_suffix


Slide9: (C) Past Examples: (1) The Great American Fraud (1905)/ Samuel Hopkins Adams In a series of eleven articles he wrote for Collier's Weekly in 1905, "The Great American Fraud", Adams exposed many of the false claims made about patent medicines, pointing out that in some cases these medicines were damaging the health of the people using them. The series had a huge impact and lead to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. In 1911 the Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition of falsifications referred only to the ingredients of the medicine. This meant that companies were again free to make false claims about their products. Adams returned to the attack and another series of articles in Collier's Weekly, Adams exposed the misleading advertising that companies were using to sell their products.


Slide10: (2) The Silent Spring (1962)/ Rachel Louise Carson With the publication of "Silent Spring" in 1962, Rachel Louise Carson, set off a nationally publicized struggle between the proponents and opponents of the widespread use of poisonous chemicals to kill insects. Miss Carson's position, as a biologist, was simply that she was a natural scientist in search of truth and that the indiscriminate use of poisonous chemical sprays called for public awareness of what was going on. She emphasized that she was not opposed to the use of poisonous chemical sprays--only their "indiscriminate use," and, at a time when their potential was not truly known. Quoting Jean Rostand, the French writer and biologist, she said: "The obligation to endure gives us the right to know." On April 3, 1963, the Columbia Broadcasting System's television series "C.B.S. Reports" presented the program "The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson." In it, Miss Carson said: "It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts.”


Slide11: (3) The American Way of Death (1963)/ Jessica Mitford Through working with unions and death benefits, Jessica Mitford became interested in the funeral industry and wrote an investigative article on the subject. Though the article, "Saint Peter Don't You Call Me" published in Frontier magazine, was not widely disseminated, it caught considerable local attention when Mitford appeared on a local television broadcast with two industry representatives. Convinced of public interest, Mitford wrote The American Way of Death, which was published in 1963. In the book Mitford harshly criticized the industry for using unscrupulous business practices to take advantage of grieving families. The book became a major bestseller and led to Congressional hearings on the funeral industry, and suggested to some that Evelyn Waugh's 1947 novel The Loved One might not be a satire.


Slide12: (4) History of the Standard Oil (1904)/ Ida Tarbell Following extensive interviews, her investigation of Standard Oil for McClure's ran in 19 parts from November 1902 to October 1904. After the series ran, the parts were collected and published as a best-selling book, The History of the Standard Oil Company, in 1904. Although public opposition to Rockefeller and Standard Oil existed prior to Tarbell's investigation, her work fueled public attacks on Standard Oil and on trusts in general, and the book is credited with hastening the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil. "They had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me", she wrote about the company.


Slide13: (5) Unsafe at Any Speed (1965)/ Ralph Nader In 1965 Nader released Unsafe at Any Speed, a study that purported to demonstrate unsafe engineering of many American automobiles, especially the Chevrolet Corvair and General Motors. GM tried to discredit Nader, hiring private detectives to tap his phones, investigate his past, and hiring prostitutes to trap him in a compromising situation. GM failed to turn up any wrongdoing. Upon learning this, Nader successfully sued the company for invasion of privacy, forced it to publicly apologize, and used much of his $284,000 net settlement to expand his consumer rights efforts. Nader's lawsuit against GM was ultimately decided by the New York Court of Appeals, whose opinion in the case expanded tort law to cover "overzealous surveillance". Ironically, a 1972 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety commission study conducted by Texas A&M university ultimately exonerated the Corvair and declared it possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporaries in extreme situations.  


Slide14: On November 12, 1969, Hersh broke the story of the My Lai Massacre, prompting widespread condemnation around the world and reducing public support for the Vietnam war in the United States. The explosive news of the massacre fueled the outrage of the American peace movement, which demanded the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. It also led more potential draftees to file for conscientious objector status. Hersh wrote about the massacre and its cover-up in My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath and Cover-up: The Army's Secret Investigation of the Massacre at My Lai 4.        (6) My Lai Massacre (1969)/ Seymour Hersh


Slide15: (7) Eyewitness News (1972)/ Gerald Michael Rivera Rivera was hired by New York City station WABC-TV to be a reporter for Eyewitness News. In 1972 he garnered national attention and won an Emmy Award for his report on sexual abuse of mentally retarded patients at Staten Island's Willowbrook State School, and began to appear on ABC national programs such as 20/20. After John Lennon watched Geraldo's report on the mentally retarded patients at Willowbrook State School, John Lennon and Geraldo formed a benefit concert called "One to One" (Released in 1986 as "Live in New York City" ).


Slide16: Contemporary Examples (1) Dark Alliance (1996)/ Gary Webb In August of 1996 the San Jose Mercury News published Webb's "Dark Alliance", a 20,000 word, three-part investigative series which alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold and distributed crack cocaine in Los Angeles during the 1980s, and that drug profits were used to fund the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras. Webb never asserted that the CIA directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras, but he did document that the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of cocaine into the U.S. by the Contra personnel (Webb's 1999 book, Dark Alliance, substantiated these allegations with copious references). "Dark Alliance" received national attention. At the height of the interest, the web version of it on San Jose Mercury News website received 1.3 million hits a day. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the series became "the most talked-about piece of journalism in 1996 and arguably the most famous -- some would say infamous -- set of articles of the decade."


Slide17: (2) Born to Steal (2003) and Wall Street Versus America (2006)/ Gary Weiss Born to Steal, published in 2003, is the true story of a Mafia-linked stockbroker named Louis Pasciuto. The book described how Wall Street firms were infiltrated by organized crime figures during the 1990s. Often the brokers were little more than teenagers. Wall Street Versus America, published in April 2006, is a wide-ranging, acerbic attack on the morality of Wall Street, its regulators and the financial press. The book uses humor and ridicule to drive home its points. The book is critical of hedge funds, mutual funds, and the Wall Street securities arbitration process, as well as the New York Stock Exchange. His book also provides an unflattering assessment of former Securities and Exchange Commission chairmen Arthur Levitt and William H. Donaldson.


Slide18: (3) Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001)/ Eric Schlosser Schlosser examines how the increasing dominance of fast food and the industry which supports it have led to changes in American society. In particular, Schlosser argues that the fast food industry has used political influence to increase profits at the expense of human health and the social conditions of its workers. The book explains the transformation from countless independent restaurants into a few uniform franchises. This shift led to a production-line kitchen prototype, standardization, self-service, and a change in marketing demographics: from teenager to family-oriented. Schlosser explains how the McDonald's Corporation modeled the child-targeted marketing tactics of The Walt Disney Company. It would not only attract children but also their parents and grandparents as well. More importantly, it would instill brand loyalty in them, which would persist throughout adulthood through nostalgic associations to McDonald's. Its ills are discussed: the exploitation of children's naïve, trusting nature and that the average child watches 21 hours of television per week.


Slide19: (4) Supersize Me (2004)/ Morgan Spurlock Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me was released in the U.S. on May 7, 2004. The film depicts an experiment he partook in 2003, in which he ate three McDonald's meals a day every day (and nothing else) for 30 days, taking the "super-size" option whenever it was offered, the end result being a diet with twice the food energy recommended by the USDA. Further, Spurlock attempted to curtail his physical activity to better match the exercise habits of the average American (1.5 miles). Spurlock underwent a full examination at the beginning of the experiment, and was monitored by three different medical specialists throughout it. He was of above-average health for his age when he undertook the project, but his health declined dramatically: he gained 25 pounds (11 kg), suffered severe liver dysfunction and developed symptoms of depression. Spurlock's supervising physicians noted the effects caused by his high-fat, high-carb diet. After the completion of the project, it took Spurlock several months to return to his normal weight of 185 pounds (84 kg).


Slide20: (5) A Triology on the Bush Administration (2002-2006)/ Bob Woodward Woodward's three most recent books, Bush at War (2002) Plan of Attack (2004), and, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III (2006) are purported to be detailed accounts of the Bush presidency, including the response to the September 11 terrorist attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a series of articles published in January 2002, he and Dan Balz described the events at Camp David in the aftermath of September 11. In these articles, they mention the Worldwide Attack Matrix. In 2004 both the Bush campaign and the Kerry-Edwards campaign recommended his book Plan of Attack, and The New York Times said the book contained “convincing accounts of White House failures... presented alongside genial encounters with the president.” Rick Hertzberg in the New Yorker wrote “Plan of Attack” is Woodward’s best book in years" and that "Woodward is welcomed as a fair witness."


Slide21: Woodward Woodward's latest book, State of Denial, describes alleged tensions and dysfunctions within the Bush administration in the lead-up to, and following, the invasion of Iraq. On Monday, October 2, 2006, Woodward's new book "State of Denial" was released. Excerpts of the book have already been provided to the CBS's "60 Minutes" and the Washington Post. Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal writes, "It may be a great (book). It is serious, densely, even exhaustively, reported, and a real contribution to history in that it gives history what it most requires, first-person testimony. It is well documented, with copious notes. 


Slide22: Watchdog Journalism: Purposes and Features (A) Three Levels of Reporting:


Slide23: The First Level of Reporting  Layer I reporting is objective reporting, careful and accurate transcription of the record, the speech, the news conference; Journalists have to rely on ready-made information provided by the sources (such as statements, press releases, handouts, declarations) assuming it is true or keeping a distance from it by writing it in a reported speech; Most stories appearing in daily news media belong to layer I reporting; While we may be content to use the ready-made information, we must be aware of its limitation (reported facts are not equal to facts) until we can confirm them.


Slide24: Examples (Layer I): SCMP Oct 11, 2006 (1) Stressing the importance of education and family life in Hong Kong, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said the government would give more support to pre-primary education. In his second annual policy address, he said upgrading the quality of pre-primary education was vital. (2) Complaints to the Travel Industry Council from mainland tourists are up 74 per cent this year, and despite the imposition of penalties on shops and tour guides accused of providing bad service, visitors still face unpleasant experiences. (3) Setting up a fund to help underprivileged schoolchildren take part in extracurricular activities was not the best way to promote child development, a taskforce under the Poverty Commission decided yesterday. (4) The Social Welfare Department has been accused of keeping the emergency phone numbers for their domestic-violence outreach team hidden from those in need.


Slide25: The Second Level of Reporting  Layer II reporting requires a journalist to verify material, seeks out additional facts, and use his/her knowledge as a source of facts for the story; Journalists take initiative to verify source-provided material and base their stories on material gathered through checking and digging; Investigations may reveal that official stories are misleading the public and challenge offifical expnations which may be widely accepted by society.  


Slide26: Examples (Layer II): SCMP Oct 11, 2006  (1) Legislators and activists calling for a minimum wage law interrupted Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen while he was delivering his second policy address on Wednesday morning. Shortly before Mr Tsang began to outline his blueprint for the coming year, legislators “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung and Chan Wai-yip rose from their seats and protested. (2) More than a thousand passengers were delayed and Chek Lap Kok airport disrupted when the in-town airline check-in system broke down yesterday morning. 


Slide27: Examples (Layer II): How Wall Street firms were infiltrated by organized crime figures during the 1990s; What have gone wrong with Wall Street, its regulators and the financial press? The existence of Nicaraguan drug traffickers that sold and distributed crack cocaine in Los Angeles during the 1980s, using drug profits were used to fund the CIA-supported Nicaraguan ruling party. The cover-up of massacre of civilians in Vietnam by US troops; The demonstration of unsafe engineering of many American automobiles, especially the Chevrolet Corvair and General Motors; Exposition of many of the false claims made about patent medicines, pointing out that in some cases these medicines were damaging the health of the people using them.


Slide28: The Third Level of Reporting It is about causes, meanings and consequences of what happened; The purpose is to inform us on how things work, why they work that way, or why they don’t work, in addition to telling what did happen today; It is analytical as it moves beyond the reporting of facts into the subjective area of judgment and inference; Journalists must have good command of the subject matter in addition to journalistic skills.  


Slide29: Examples (Layer III): What are the effects of eating MacDonald’s meals everyday and in particular implications for your health? Why US invasion of Iraq is a wrong decision and how they come to conceive the invasion as necessary? Why MacDonald has been successful in attracting children? Why CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of cocaine into the U.S. by the Contra personnel, but taking no action? Who is/are responsible for US failure in the Iraq project and how soon could US retreat from Iraq? The real and potential impact of the indiscriminate use of poisonous chemical sprays on human health and environment.  


Slide30: (B) Watchdog Journalism: Some Formal Features Layer II or III Reporting: Must go beyond what other people say,  establish facts by yourself, and explore the meaning of these facts in a context; The Use of Layer I material: Investigative reporting always gets hints from layer I material provided by others. Watergate Scandal: It started as a burglary story and was later found out that one burglar was a former White House employee; Super Size Me: The producer conceived the idea for the film when the he was at his parents' house for Thanksgiving, watching a news story in TV about a lawsuit brought against McDonalds by two teenage girls who blamed the fast food chain for their obesity.  


Slide31: (C) Watchdog Journalism: Objectives Objectives of watchdog story: It is to … seek and tell the truth; sort out the causes that lead to the problems in question; explore the consequences and implications of the discovered findings. The Purpose: The watchdog stories address concerns of great public interest (such as wrongful behavior, problematic practice, and abuse of power of government agency or officials. The Goal: In doing so, they are expected to keep the government in check by arousing strong public attention, exerting enormous pressures on the government in power, and pushing for a change for the better. The Objects for Monitoring: Public authorities and now expands to big corporate.


Slide32: III. Why The Press Monitoring the Powerful? (A)  Some preliminary thoughts/Best Quotes “The liberty of the press is…….justly esteemed the firmest bulwark of the liberties of this country. It has been the terror of all bad ministers; for their dark and dangerous designs, or their weakness, inability, and duplicity, have thus been detected and shewn to the public, generally in too strong and just colors for them long to bear up against the odium of mankind….. A wicked and corrupt administration must naturally dread this appeal to the world; and will be for keeping all the means of information equally from the prince, parliament and people.” John Wilkes (1763) “The liberty of exposing and opposing a bad administration by the pen is among the necessary privileges of a free people, and is perhaps the greatest benefit that can be derived from the liberty of the press.” Father of Candor (1764)


Slide33: Some preliminary thoughts/Best Quotes (Cont’d) “As the indulgence of private malice and personal slander should be checked and resisted by every legal means, so a constant examination into the characters and conduct of ministers and magistrates should be equally promoted and encouraged……..In that state of abandoned servility and prostitution, to which the undue influence of the crown has reduced the other branches of the legislature, our ministers and magistrates have in reality little punishment to fear, and few difficulties to contend with, beyond the censure of the press, and the spirit of resistance which it excites among the people.”          Letter of Junius “…the freedom of speech is a principal pillar in a free government: when this support is taken away the constitution is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the actions of the magistrates.”   James Alexander


Slide34: Some preliminary thoughts/Best Quotes (Cont’d) “The importance of this (freedom of the press) consists, besides the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of Government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequent promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated, into more honourable and just modes of conducting affairs.” The First Continental Congress (1774) “….the executive magistrates are not held to be infallible, nor the legislatures to be omnipotent; and both being elective, are both responsible…..Is it not natural and necessary, under such different circumstances, that a different degree of freedom in the use of the press should be contemplated?...it is natural and proper, that, according to the cause and degree of their faults, they should be brought into contempt or disrepute, and incur the hatred of the people.”     James Madison (1799-1800) “This formidable censor of the public functionaries, by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform peacefully, which must otherwise be done by revolution….. It is also the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man and improving him as a rational, moral, and social being…..”  Thomas Jefferson (1823)


Slide35: Some preliminary thoughts: Officials and the administration are fallible and need to be checked; Freedom of the press serve to examine the conduct of officials, expose their wrongdoings and diffuse liberal sentiments; Freedom of the press is meant to be the terror of all bad ministers, who will be shamed and put into disrepute for their misdemeanors. Freedom of the press is a principal pillar of a free government.


Slide36: (B) Why the Press Checking the Government? The abuse of official power is an especially evil Capacity to employ legitimized violence; Ability to achieve a higher degree of        compliance with its decisions; Potential to produce maximum amount of harm; Examples: Vietnam War, Nazism in 1930s, The Cultural Revolution…… Press as an added momentum for the existing system of check and balance Public agency or official may also benefit from the findings of the press; The system of checks and balances usually functions only when there is strong popular sentiments to demand for government action; The press provides the electorate with information on the misconduct of officials so that they could decide what to do next.  


Slide37: A person entrusted with public authority is morally obligated to serve the general welfare and to uphold the fundamental principles of the polity. Public servants are probably more likely than those who possess private power to lose their humility and acquire an inflated sense of self-importance; The public is probably less skeptical of officials than of powerful private figures; The cost to the society is greater when public power is abused. Human beings have an unmistakable tendency to hurt each other, so much so that the prevention of man-made evil can be viewed as the most important task of all political arrangements. Much of that suffering is caused by persons who hold public office; Freedom of the press could mitigate the human suffering by checking those in power.


Slide38: The general populace must be the ultimate judge of the behavior of public officials. It is assumed that citizen retains a veto power to be employed when the decisions or behaviors of officials pass certain bounds; The media is an effective channel to inform the citizenry about the decisions or behaviors in question so that they can judge by themselves . We need well-organized, well-financed, professional critics to serve as a counterforce to government. The general public may be very diffuse and they may lack the leading power to mobilize resources to monitor the government; Enormous resources are required for effective monitoring of the government, including acquiring enough information to pass judgment on the actions of government, investigating alleged injustices, and disseminating their information and judgments to the general public. The mass media is an institution that can support the resources for constant examination of the conduct and character of government policies and officials.  


Slide39: Three Main Forms of Watchdog Journalism (A) Original Investigative Reporting It involves reporters themselves uncovering and documenting activities that have been previously unknown to the public. It would often result in official public investigations about the subject or activity exposed. On behalf of the public, the press pushes the public authority to take action. Investigative reporters somehow work like a detective: public records searches, uses of informants, undercover work and monitoring activities.  Historical Origins: Lincoln Steffens/Shame of the Cities 1904: wide-ranging reform in local government; Rachel Carson/Silent Spring 1962: international movement to protect the environment; Jerry Thompson/KKK: documented the true nature of Ku Klux Klan at a time the organization was in resurgence. He disguised his identity as a reporter for eighteen month (Nashville Tennessean).  


Slide40: Contemporary efforts: Bill Dedman/ Atlanta Journal and Constitution 1989: exposed racial discrimination by lending institutions in Atlanta and led to significant reforms in lending policies in banks throughout US. It is based on computer analysis of the documents that lenders were required to file with regulators.  Seymour Hersh/ New Yorker 2006: exposed the Bush Administration was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s retaliatory attacks on Lebanon, in the belief that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preemptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installation.


Slide41: Others:  高官鬆手明益地產商Next Magazine 2006-09-21 隱瞞蚊患食環署造假 Oriental Daily 23/09/2006 上海社保局長祝均一挪用三十億元人民幣社保基金，違規 轉給私企購買高速公路項目。《亞洲周刊》29-7-06 大嶼山巨型木刻《心經簡林》(下稱《簡林》)，開幕至今只一年多，木柱已出現真菌、蟲蛀及裂紋三大問題。Ming Pao 28-9-06 邱毅爆扁親信炒股案新證:三聚會點是性招待場所; 邱毅再揭陳水扁幕僚腐敗 曝鉅額吸金詐騙案內幕; 邱毅再曝扁親信受賄200萬　深喉：扁"棄車保帥"; 公民教育委員會主席、前城規會成員香灼璣涉嫌非法佔用官地，於過去二十年來瞞天過海，以臨時租約方式向政府租用慈雲山觀音山九號屋，該物業原屬非危險品倉庫，但經豪裝後，成為兼備私家花園的大宅。


Slide42: (B) Interpretive investigative reporting  It involves the same original enterprise skills but takes the interpretation to a different level. While the original investigative stories uncover information not gathered by others in order to inform the public of events that might affect their lives, interpretative investigative stories develop as a result of careful thought and analysis of an idea as well as dogged pursuit of facts to bring together information in a new, more complete context which provides deeper public understanding. It reveals a new way of looking at something as well as new information about it.  


Slide43: Examples:   Pentagon Papers 1971/NYT: It is a secret study of American involvement in Vietnam written by the government. A reporter got a copy and then a team of NYT reporters and editors expert in foreign policy and the Vietnam war interpreted and organized the documents into a dramatic account of public deception. Without this synthesis and interpretation, the Pentagon Papers would have meant little to most of the public. 


Slide44: Donald Bartlett and James Steele/America: What went wrong and America: Who stole the dream—Both probed how the American economic political system had failed the lower class. It showed how the country left the poor behind. What attracts public attention is the activist role played by the authors.   


Slide45: Others:  Economist (September 9-September 15)/ The Heat is on: A Special Report on Climatic Change Global warning is for real. This survey examines the uncertainty surrounding climatic change, potential problems and possible solutions.   Economist (September 16-September 22)/The Power of the Emerging World The balance of economic power in the world is changing. China, India, and other developing countries are set to give the world its biggest boost. This survey examines what that will mean for today’s rich countries.  Time Magazine (July 31, 2006)/ The Way Out: Six Keys to Peace in the Middle East As thousands flee Lebanon amid continued fighting, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the Middle East to try to negotiate an end to the immediate crisis. She faces a task that has burdened generations of her predecessors: How to achieve a lasting peace?   


Slide46: (C) Reporting on investigations   The reporting develops from the discovery or leak of information from an official investigation already under way or in preparation by others, usually government agencies. Reporting on investigations is found wherever official investigations are at work.   Examples:   Mark Mazzetti/ National Intelligence Estimate 2006: The intelligence found out that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the September 11 attacks five years ago.  James Glanz/ US hid cost of Iraq projects: A US federal audit unit found out that the State Department Agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq hid ballooning cost overruns on its projects and knowingly withheld information from Congress. 


Slide47: Others: SARS Investigation Reports (http://www.sars-expertcom.gov.hk/english/reports/reports/reports_fullrpt.html) Investigation Reports by the Office of Ombudsman, HK (http://www.ombudsman.gov.hk/english/link_05_reports.html) Government Auditor’s Reports (http://www.aud.gov.hk/eng/pubpr_arpt/rpt.htm) Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China/David Matas and David Kilgour (http://davidkilgour.ca)  


Slide48: The Success of Watchdog Journalism Clear Objectives Transparency: Opening up the Government As government affairs are concerned with our interests, the internal workings of government should not be allowed to be the knowledge of the privileged. Instead, the government is obliged to tell the public what the government actually did. But if the government does not want to tell people the truth, the press should take the trouble to do so without being punished by law and other means.


Slide49: The press assumes the role of a watchdog, monitoring the operations of the government. Its duty is to blow the whistle against government malpractices and abuse of power. Apart from overseeing the government, the press would also watch over all powerful institutions in society (MacDonald/Supersize Me and the Undesirable Journalists). It is also a core principle of the “watchdog” to examine the unseen corners of society.


Slide50: (2) The Fourth Estate: Journalism as Part of Our Government * “Burke said that there were three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than they all." Thomas Carlyle's book, "Heros and Hero Worship in History" (1841). 


Slide51: * The three Estates: The Lords Spiritual - those members of the clergy, mainly Bishops, who are members of the House of Lords. The Lords Temporal - those members of the House of Lords who are either hereditary peers, Law Lords, or Lords appointed for life. The House of Commons - the lower house, or "people's house" of the British Parliament, now the seat of government. * The Press as the fourth estate: It rests on the idea that the media's function is to act as a guardian of the public interest and as a watchdog on the activities of government. “The fourth branch of government” is also used to denote the watchdog role of the press, meaning the press, together with the other three branches of government (administration, legislature, and judiciary), serves the democratic governance of society.


Slide52: (B) The Passion for Righting the Wrong * The disclosure of hidden information about government corruption is not just news for reading. It represents something, as judged by the news organization, which is very important for reader’s attention and action. It is no exaggeration to say that investigative journalists who covered a case go beyond making news to making a case of prosecution that something is wrong. And we must take some actions to right the wrong.   * The investigative journalist can be likened as a prosecutor to make a case in court and put public officials on the defensive. If the prosecutor is an advocate of justice in court, investigative journalist is also practicing advocacy that stands firm in pointing out what has gone wrong and who is to be responsible. It requires strong commitment, input and a sense of justice.   * Its product is also provoking. It is said to be a kind of reporting with “a sense of outrage”


Slide53: (C) The Efforts  * Given the seriousness of the investigative story, the journalists concerned must be prepared to substantiate each attacking point on the wrongful behavior, problematic practice and/or abuse of power of government agency or officials. * Tremendous, tedious, and perseverant efforts are required to dig up facts hidden from the public view, piece them together in a coherent manner, and make sense of it.


Slide54: Example: Loretta Tofani/ Rape inside Maryland jail  In a story about a pattern of widespread rape inside a Maryland jail, she uncovered crimes that were occurring literally under the nose of law officers - the police and judges. To get it, she spent months of her own time in the evenings after work doggedly knocking on doors in order to engage some of the most reluctant possible witnesses to talk to her. She was able to produce a series of stories that documented the prevalence of rape inside the Prince George's Detention Center in Maryland. In the end, she produced what her editors thought impossible - a story documenting the crimes by quoting, by name and on the record, the perpetrators, the victims, and responsible officials who should have acted to prevent the crimes from taking place.


Slide55: Example: Wong Wah Fai/Public Housing Scandal   After spending three years of time in collecting data, the author found out that a few hundred blocks of public housing around Hong Kong, where tens of thousand of people are still living, are not up to basic building standards due to the poor quality of concrete used for building the estates. He goes further to uncover that corruption of officials is the root cause of sub-standard building of these problem housing estates.


Slide56:  Example: A Study on the Chinese Peasants  The authors spent two years of efforts to investigate the ordeal and predicament of the Chinese peasantry as a result of unreasonable financial burden imposed on them by local officials and gentry using means of threats and violence. They go further to offer an explanation of the growing financial burden by looking into a series of issues ranging from the financing of the over-sized local bureaucracy to the sustainability of agriculture in China, given the existing national policies.


Slide57: (D) The Institution  Journalists must be well protected and encouraged legally so that they could honor the responsibility of serving the public’s need for important information. We will come back to this issue later.


Slide58: Conclusion: What you need to be a watchdog?  A Strong Sense of Justice, A Critical Mind, A Passionate Heart, and A Tireless body. 


Monitoring the Powerful: Investigative Journalism, the Watchdog and the Fourth Branch of Government: Monitoring the Powerful: Investigative Journalism, the Watchdog and the Fourth Branch of Government I. Historic Cases Watchdog Journalism: Purposes and Features Why The Press Monitoring the Powerful? Three Main Forms of Watchdog Journalism The Success of Watchdog Journalism Conclusion: What you need to be a watchdog?