INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING I:Thalidomide Scandal, Watergate Scandal

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LESSON 21

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING I

To investigate means to probe into any matter, to dig out facts which are tried to be kept hidden.

Investigative journalism is a kind of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest,

often involving crime, political corruption, or some other scandal.

"There is no more important contribution that we can make to society than strong, publicly-

spirited investigative journalism."--------------------------Tony Barman, Editor-in-chief CBC News

Black like Me

In 1959, John Howard Griffin, a Caucasian (white person), changed the color of his skin and traveled in the

U.S.'s Deep South as an African-American, got the first hand knowledge of the problems of negroes and

later wrote a series of articles for Sepia magazine.

Thalidomide Scandal

Thalidomide is a sedative, hypnotic, and anti-inflammatory medication. It was sold from 1957 to 1961 in

almost fifty countries under at least forty names, including Distaval, Talimol, Nibrol, Sedimide, Quietoplex,

Contergan, Neurosedyn, and Softenon. Thalidomide was chiefly sold and prescribed during the late 1950s

and 1960s to pregnant women, as an antiemetic to combat morning sickness and as an aid to help them

sleep. Unfortunately, inadequate tests were performed to assess the drug's safety, with catastrophic results

for the children of women who had taken thalidomide during their pregnancies.

From 1956 to 1962, approximately 10,000 children were born with severe malformities because their

mothers had taken thalidomide during pregnancy.

Unusual side effects had been reported by patients taking thalidomide in the UK, including peripheral

neuropathy. Worse, pregnant women who had taken the drug were giving birth to babies with a condition

called phocomelia abnormally short limbs with toes sprouting from the hips and flipper-like arms. Other

infants had eye and ear defects or malformed internal organs such as un-segmented small or large intestines.

The company denied that thalidomide was responsible for any of these problems.

Investigative Reporting Of the Medicine

On November 18, 1961 the German paper Welt am Sonntag published a letter by German pediatrician

Widukind Lenz. Lenz described more than 150 infants with malformations, and associated them with

Thalidomide given to their mothers.

In December, The Lancet published a letter by William McBride, an Australian physician, who noted large

numbers of birth defects in the children of women who had taken thalidomide. Other countries quickly

pulled the drug from their stores and pharmacies. However, the pharmaceutical company continued to

dispute the claims that Thalidomide was responsible for the defects, saying that their action was "merely a

response to the sensationalism."

Finally, the 'Insight' team of The Sunday Times got into the affair of investigation and probed into many

doctors, patients and the company's pharmacists. They got the samples of the disputed medicine examined

from the laboratories and proved that the responsible factor for the birth of deformed children is nothing

else than Thalidomide.

The 'Insight' team of The Sunday Times achieved great renown in the 1960s for its exposure of public health

scandals, most notably Thalidomide.

Radio News, Reporting and Production MCM515

Watergate Scandal

The term "Watergate" refers to a series of events, spanning from 1972 to 1975, that got its name from

burglaries of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel Complex in

Washington, D.C. Though then President Nixon had endured two years of mounting political

embarrassments. In August 1974 the scandal brought with it the prospect of certain impeachment for

Nixon, and he resigned only four days later on August 9. He is the only U.S. president to have resigned

from the office.

Background of the Scandal

On June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard working at the office building of the Watergate complex of

office space, residential buildings and a hotel, noticed a piece of tape on the door between the basement

stairwell and the parking garage. It was holding the door unlocked, so Wills removed it, assuming the

cleaning crew had put it there. Later, he returned and discovered that the tape had been replaced.

Suspicious, Wills then contacted the D.C. police. By coincidence, an unmarked police car was the first to

arrive on the scene, so the lookout didn't alarm the burglary team. There was also confusion within the team

over who had taped what doors, so it couldn't be concluded that someone else had removed the tape.

After the police came, five men -- Bernard Barker, Virgilio González, Eugenio Martínez, James W.

McCord, Jr. and Frank Sturgis were discovered and arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the

Democratic National Committee. The men supposedly had broken into the same office three weeks earlier

as well, and had returned intending to fix wiretaps that were not working and, according to some, to

photograph documents.

The need to break into the office for a second time was just the highlight of a number of mistakes made by

the burglars.

Hunt had previously worked for the White House, while McCord was officially employed as Chief of

Security at the Committee to Re-elect the President CRP. This quickly suggested that there was a link

between the burglars and someone close to the President. However, Nixon's press secretary Ron Ziegler

dismissed the affair as a "third-rate burglary". Though the burglary occurred at a sensitive time, with a

looming presidential campaign, most Americans initially believed that no President with Nixon's advantage

in the polls would be so foolhardy or unethical as to risk association with such an affair.

As a matter of fact the scandal was investigated and denuded by two investigative reporters Bob Woodward

and Carl Bernstein who worked for The Washington Post and finally their investigation led to the resignation

of U.S. President Richard Nixon.

Woodward had an informer whose code name was "Deep Throat". The True identity of the informer was

kept secret. The Deep Throat informed that White House Officials had hired 50 agents to sabotage

the Democrats' chances of victory in the 1972 Election. The grand jury also secretly named Nixon

as a co-conspirator.

"Deep Throat" unmasked himself on May 31, 2005: he was actually W. Mark Felt, the No. 2 official at the

FBI in the early 1970s. Later it was confirmed by Woodward as well.

Qualities of a Good Investigative Reporter

Besides those which are prerequisites for a person who aspires to be a journalist, the following qualities

must also be an integral part of his/her personality:

Sharpness

Intelligence

Nosy

Inquisitiveness

Familiarity with the area of his investigation

Well versed in law

Tricky interviewer

Strong contacts

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