Photo by Will Steacy/From the Project “Deadline”At precisely 5:27 p.m. on the afternoon of May 13, 1985, a blue and white Pennsylvania State Police helicopter hovered over a heavily fortified…

Photo courtesy of SBS“First, I just fainted and vomited, but later it became worse and my whole body was shaking.” That’s what one conscripted policeman told us about the constant…

Photo by Kristyna Wentz-Graff/Milwaukee Journal SentinelEarly one recent morning I fired off an e-mail to my managing editor, enraged that a story on the front page of our paper reported…

“Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze,” a project of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), involved about 86 journalists in 46 countries. The investigation started with…

I’m too young to be nostalgic (says the man who just got his AARP invitation), but here’s a story from the good old days—meaning, seven years ago.I was working with…

Once upon a time I was feeling rather smug having produced a series of reports that won a few trophies. Me? I’ll crawl across cut glass for a plastic trophy…

Despite budget cuts and shrinking newsrooms, watchdog reporters are finding new ways to fulfill an old mission—holding those in power to account

There is a thirst for investigative journalism in the great American traditions of the late I.F. Stone and Murrey Marder, but around the news industry the question asked is always…

Last year I attended a fascinating conference at Heidelberg University’s Center for American Studies entitled “From Pentagon Papers to WikiLeaks: A Transatlantic Conversation on the Public Right to Know.” Several…

Photo by Todd Wiseman“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” These words, from the…