Exposé: America's Investigative Reports

The Withering Watchdog, Part Two

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:23:40 -0500

That woman is Laura Frank, an investigative reporter until recently employed by Denver's Rocky Mountain News. The Rocky went under on February 27, 2009, after having published newspapers in Colorado since 1859. Laura Frank's investigation for the Rocky, DEADLY DENIAL, became the basis for our show. Now we have commissioned her to do an Exposé original report, and it is a timely one indeed: an investigation into what some are concerned is the imminent demise of investigative journalism itself. It's a three-parter, and we're proud to present it exclusively on our site. She calls it The Withering Watchdog.

Tom Casciato
Executive Producer
Exposé: America's Investigative Reports

The Withering Watchdog, Part Two
Untold Stories
by Laura Frank

   Up to 35 million American homes contain a toxic substance that could harm the families who live there − even kill them.
   The U.S. government recently had a prime opportunity to warn Americans about the danger. But it didn't.
   Andrew Schneider − a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter − has the story. But Schneider's newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, shut down in March, leaving Schneider out of a job. The website that still bears the Post-Intelligencer name does no in-depth, investigative reporting.
   Now Schneider is not sure how he will get the story out to the public.
   "All I want is for the public to know there's a danger," Schneider said.
   An Exposé original investigation found that across America, important stories are going untold. The sheer number and urgency of the untold stories alone constitutes a crisis in American journalism. But the crisis goes deeper than that.
   As Exposé reported in Part 1 of The Withering Watchdog, the journalism industry's own behavior has left many news outlets so weak they might not be able to recover.
   The crisis is leaving Americans in the dark about issues that could affect how they protect their health, care for their families, govern themselves and maintain their livelihoods.
   One of every five journalists working in America at the start of the decade has since been laid off or taken a buyout. The work investigative reporters do is often the first to be cut. That's because it's expensive, controversial and time-consuming.
   But it also is keenly important.
   Look at what investigative reporting has done for America, says Pulitzer Prize-winner Manny Garcia, Executive Editor of the Miami Herald's Spanish-language daily, El Nuevo Herald. He oversees investigative reporting at both publications.

Manny Garcia

Across the nation, from uncovering safety problems on 737 jetliners, to revealing the dangerous chemicals in baby bottles and other plastics, to rooting out voter fraud, exposing housing scandals, and much more, America depends on investigative reporting to shine the light on what needs fixing, Garcia said.
   And more than just shining a light, the investigative reporting has brought changes − including some that have likely saved lives. Garcia noted that in the examples he gave, investigative reporting − and the public's reaction to it − forced the company that made faulty 737 jetliner rudders to fix them, pressured companies to remove chemicals from baby bottles, helped change voters' rights laws and forced out politicians doing real-estate favors for friends and family.
   In Garcia's own case, his work helped uncover a massive housing scandal in Miami in which government officials and business leaders were taking money meant for the poor.
   "I was born in Cuba," Garcia said. "There's no free speech or free press there. Here, you can change things."
   But, Garcia points out, the survival of investigative reporting is not guaranteed − even in America:
   "It's like breathing. You take it for granted until you don't have it − until there is shortness of breath."
   Sometimes the shortness of breath is literal. It was one of the first symptoms to strike residents in the tiny Montana mining town of Libby. For more than 80 years, the nearby mines on Zonolite Mountain spewed out deadly dust laced with tiny asbestos fibers.
   More than 200 residents have died of asbestos-related disease and a thousand more are sick in the valley of 12,000 residents below the mountain.
   And that brings us back to Andrew Schneider. If you've heard the story of Libby, Montana, then you're familiar with Schneider's reporting. Schneider was the first journalist to bring national attention to the ghastly situation there, starting a decade ago as a reporter for the Post-Intelligencer.
   Schneider wrote a series of stories that caused

Reporter Andrew Schneider collects samples to be tested for asbestos from the rim of the old vermiculite mine on Zonolite Mountain, six miles upwind from Libby, Mont. Up to 35 million American homes now contain the contaminated insulation made from vermiculite that came from the mines. Photo provided by Andrew Schneider

lawmakers and the public to bring pressure on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which finally declared the entire town a Superfund site in 2002, meaning the government planned to clean up the toxic contamination there to protect pubic health. At the same time, EPA officials had decided internally that a public health emergency should be declared in the town to free up millions of dollars to provide health care to sick residents.
   But it took seven more years − and scores more stories by Schneider − before that happened.
   On June 17, 2009, the EPA made an unprecedented announcement. It was the first time in the agency's history that pollution at a Superfund site had been declared a public health emergency.
   As a result, the federal government is speeding up cleanup and sending $6 million to pay for medical treatment of residents. More money is likely on the way.
   Keven McDermott was an EPA regional investigator and later manager in Seattle. She said Schneider's reporting was the key to getting help for the residents of the valley.
   "I don't think you would have seen the kind of response you did at Libby had it not been for Andy's reporting," said McDermott, who retired in July from the EPA.
   But Schneider says what most Americans don't know about Libby is that they themselves may have a similar danger in their own homes. And the government had planned to warn its citizens, but didn't.
   EPA investigators have found that up to 35 million homes contain insulation made with the mineral vermiculite from the W.R. Grace Company mines near Libby.
   "Vermiculite from Libby is far more toxic than any other," Schneider says, referring to expert testimony in a recent lawsuit against the company that owned the mines near Libby. "It takes less to sicken, and kills more quickly."
   According to documents Schneider obtained, the federal government's declaration of a public health emergency in Libby was only one part of what officials said needed to be done.
   The other part was a massive plan to warn the American people about the dangers in their own homes.
   The EPA put a warning on its website. But EPA officials wanted to do much more. They wanted to have experts give interviews on the networks' evening news programs to warn people that their attics might be full of dangerous asbestos-laced insulation.
   They wanted those experts to make appearances on Good Morning America, the Today Show and other morning talk shows to tell families how they could protect themselves if they did find the contaminated insulation in their homes.
   They wanted to put fliers and brochures in Home Depot and ACE Hardware locations around the country, and air months' worth of public service announcements warning homeowners, cable television installers and remodeling contractors to beware.
   They wanted to make sure parents didn't let their children play amidst the potentially deadly material.

Keven McDermott, an investigator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, inspects the attic of a house near Seattle, looking for asbestos-contaminated insulation. Photo by Paul Kitagaki Jr

   Asbestos causes irreparable damage to the lungs. Needle-like fibers pierce the lungs, causing scar tissue to build over the years − even after the exposures stop. Eventually, those who are exposed can develop cancer or become unable to breathe.
   "The idea was to let people know about the hazard so they could make their own decisions on whether to seal off their attics, or go to the expense of cleaning them up, but at least so they could keep their kids out of it," Schneider said.
   But seven years after it was developed, the plan to warn the public has never been launched.
   Why?
   "I don't know yet," Schneider says. But he's working to find out. He is driven by the haunting notion that children across America are being put at risk of something from which their parents − and their government − could help protect them.
   But if and when he finds out, how will the laid off Pulitzer Prize-winner inform the public?

   The notion of children at risk is tormenting Roberta Baskin, too.
   The longtime investigative reporter for both local and network TV was laid off in 2009 from WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. She got her pink slip the day after she won what is perhaps broadcast journalism's highest honor, a prestigious duPont-Columbia Award, for her investigation of a pediatric dentistry chain that boosted profits by performing painful and unnecessary treatment on children.
   But Baskin has another story about children in danger − and now, nowhere to tell it.
   "Children are losing their lives or having surgery because they're swallowing a household item − and nobody has connected the dots," Baskin said. Thousands of children across the nation have swallowed button batteries, Baskin said. The dime-sized batteries are found in games and toys, often within childproof compartments. But they're also found in storybooks and greeting cards, with virtually no protection.

Roberta Baskin

   The batteries can lodge in the esophagus and cause severe burns − even death. But the problem is often misdiagnosed, leading to worse injury, Baskin said.
   Baskin has found families willing to share their stories as a warning to others. But since being laid off, she has not yet found a way to get their story to the public.
   "I haven't given up," she said. "I have my sleeves rolled up."
   Another reporter, David Gulliver, worries about the vulnerable at the other end of the age spectrum. Before he was laid off in February from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, he had nearly completed a story on how poorly the elderly were being treated in Florida's assisted living facilities.
   "A third of our population in Florida is over 65; assisted living is going to factor into a lot of lives at some point," Gulliver said. "People think assisted living is better, cleaner and safer than nursing homes. We found that wasn't the case − even at some places with sterling reputations."
   But after Gulliver was laid off, his story was never finished − quashing any impetus for reform his story might have caused. For the elderly in Florida's central Gulf coast − and their families − that means they've missed the chance to get information that could help protect their health and well-being.
"I don't know if the story will ever see the light of day," Gulliver said.

These examples of untold stories are only those stories that some journalist somewhere knows about. What's harder to quantify is the untold stories no journalist knows about.
But there is plenty of evidence those stories exist.
The Columbia Journalism Review, which bills itself as the nation's foremost media monitor, wrote in September 2006 about the media's coverage of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In that article, it singled out for praise the investigative reporting of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"The media has done a thorough job of covering the CDC's response to the recent E. coli scare and concerns about shortages in flu vaccine," the journal wrote. "But only the AJC went the extra mile on this agency that is so central to our system of public health."

   Alison Young was the investigative reporter at Journal-Constitution covering the CDC. She revealed systemic agency problems that ranged from haphazard work, such as sealing the infectious disease lab with duct tape, to the exodus of key leaders and scientists.
   She quoted a senior advisor talking about problems at the agency that protects Americans' health: "The American people need to be concerned."
   The Columbia Journalism Review article commented: "If the American people need to be concerned, the AJC is the only media outlet warning them."
   But not any more.

Alison Young

The newspaper recently made Young a consumer-affairs reporter. That kind of reporting is clearly important, Young said.
   But now only one journalist in the entire country − an Associated Press reporter − is covering the CDC regularly. And not a single one is doing full-time investigative reporting about this key agency.
   "Given the reductions in staff in newsrooms across the country, the reality is that stories will go uncovered," Young said. "And as beats are combined or eliminated, it becomes more difficult to know what stories we're missing."
   Young, who is currently president of the national Investigative Reporters and Editors organization, arrived at the Atlanta newsroom three years ago. Then the staff numbered 500. Today it is half that.
   "I think newsroom leaders everywhere are really grappling with tough choices and trying to focus on covering areas they believe have the greatest local impact," Young said. "There's no way to cover everything we used to cover."
   NBC News correspondent Kerry Sanders worries about a slippery slope. If news media companies aren't willing to − or can't − spend the money it takes to cover important public issues, the public may be left to rely on information from places that don't adhere to journalistic standards of accuracy and fairness.
   "The number of news resources you can fully trust is fading," Sanders said.
   Therein lies the irony. In an information age where more news could be delivered to more people in more ways than ever before, there is a crisis of coverage. Who will report the news?
   Schneider, in Seattle, has tried to use the internet to get his stories out to the public. He set up his own webpage and blog, and tried to keep right on reporting.
   On May 28, Schneider published a story following up on an earlier investigation he had done at the Post-Intelligencer about diacetyl, the lung-damaging chemical that once gave butter flavoring to microwave popcorn and other foods. The food industry had abandoned diacetyl after Schneider's investigation.
   But in May, Schneider reported on his blog, ColdTruth.com, that the food industry wouldn't reveal what it uses instead of diacetyl. However, Schneider found that research by government scientists suggested the replacement might be as dangerous as the original.
   Three months after he published the story on his website, only one person had commented on it.
   Schneider said his viewership is doubling every month. But he compares the numbers − "maybe 6,000 hits on a good day" − with the hundreds of thousands who saw his earlier diacetyl stories in the Post-Intelligencer. The Associated Press had carried that story to scores of other publications, and public outcry led Congress to hold hearings on the dangers. The popcorn companies had reacted almost immediately by pulling diacetyl out of their recipes.
   But when Schneider wrote in May that the replacement chemicals appear to be just as dangerous?
   "It fell with resounding silence," Schneider said. "Had I done this at the Post-Intelligencer, there's no doubt it would have gotten enormous attention.
   "The worst part of all of this is how do you ensure the story gets out?"
   For Schneider and many other investigative reporters, the answer for now is: You can't.

The Withering Watchdog

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:20:04 -0500

Our Exposé episode called As Likely As Not is one of our strongest, not least because of how it evolved as we were working on it. It began as a story about sick U.S. nuclear workers being denied benefits they deserved. In the course of shooting it became a tragic story about one of those workers passing away before he and his family were fully compensated for his illness. Then, just as we were finishing the edit, without our ever having planned or imagined it, the story also became about a woman losing her job. That woman is Laura Frank, an investigative reporter until recently employed by Denver's Rocky Mountain News. The Rocky went under on February 27, 2009, after having published newspapers in Colorado since 1859. Laura Frank's investigation for the Rocky, DEADLY DENIAL, became the basis for our show. Now we have commissioned her to do an Exposé original report, and it is a timely one indeed: an investigation into what some are concerned is the imminent demise of investigative journalism itself. It's a three-parter, and we're proud to present it exclusively on our site. She calls it The Withering Watchdog. Tom Casciato Executive Producer Exposé: America's Investigative Reports The Withering Watchdog, Part One by Laura Frank On a long, tortuous day in May, Mc Nelly Torres waited for some word. "I knew it was coming," said the 41-year-old reporter. It was layoff day at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of eight major daily newspapers owned by the bankrupt Tribune Company Torres had watched as the phones began to ring at some colleagues' desks. Before the day was over, 30 journalists would be laid off — one of every five in the newsroom. As the day wore on, Torres had trouble concentrating on work. She took a walk around the block. She drank coffee. She read her Bible in the bathroom. As she approached her desk around 4 p.m., a colleague stopped her. "She said 'Congratulations,'" Torres recalled. "'You're a finalist for the Green Eyeshade.'"

Mc Nelly Torres' reporting has sent crooks to jail and changed laws. She lost her job at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in May when one of every five journalists there was laid off.

Torres' reporting had been recognized before with the prestigious Southeastern journalism award, and other awards, too. Over the years, her work at five different newspapers had sent crooks to jail and changed laws. She'd uncovered bribery on a Texas school board, deception among South Carolina environmental regulators, and failure in Oklahoma homicide investigations. This time, the judges had selected Torres' work revealing how high temperatures, high taxes and lack of infrastructure left Floridians paying some of the highest gas prices in the nation. But the satisfaction Torres felt from the recognition was short-lived. Half an hour after learning she was a finalist for the award, Torres' phone rang. It was the Sun-Sentinel's human resources manager. Torres' job was gone. "I was able to make a difference in my career," Torres says now. "I'm proud of that." Similar scenarios played out at almost every one of the nation's top 100 newspapers in the past two years. So far this year, three major daily newspapers — the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, and the Tuscon Citizen — have closed and five news companies face default on suffocating debt. Radio and TV news operations have been gutted, as well. Researchers are trying to quantify exactly how many investigative reporters have been lost, but clearly the numbers are large. They include those who, like Torres, might not have carried the title on their business cards, but did the complex, time-consuming work to unravel information for the public good. In all, more than 25,000 journalists were cut from newsrooms where they were, as Torres put it, making a difference.

Employment at U.S. Daily Newspapers, 1978-2008
Employment at daily newspapers in the U.S. plummeted last year to 46,700, the lowest number since 1981.

But why? The story line has been repeated time after time: The internet is killing mainstream media, sending the Fourth Estate into record-breaking revenue declines. Online ads garner only a fraction of the dropping print revenue. When faced with cuts, investigative reporting is often the first target. Investigative journalism takes more time and more experienced journalists to produce, and it often involves legal battles. It's generally the most expensive work the news media undertakes. But an Exposé original investigation has found there's more to the story. The decline in investigative reporting — the in-depth stories that hold the powerful accountable in a democracy — began long before the current economic collapse. The crisis that has pundits worried about the survival of serious journalism in America began with what the journalism industry did to itself. Brant Houston led the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization for more than a decade. His work put him in the newsrooms of almost every major media outlet in the nation. Houston says he saw the problems starting years ago. "I was seeing first-hand that places weren't putting their resources in in-depth reporting, or training, or actually doing the things that would have ensured efficiency and quality," said Houston, now Knight Chair in investigative reporting at the University of Illinois. "Corporations came and harvested the profits."

Top Five U.S. Newspaper Companies: Average Operating Income, 1988-2008 (adjusted for inflation)
Twenty years of profit data show that even during last year's economic collapse, the top five media companies still made more profits, when adjusted for inflation, than they'd averaged over the past two decades. Operating income is defined as revenue from business operations after operating expenses are deducted from gross income.

Exposé analyzed the financial records of the five most profitable publicly-traded newspaper companies in America. Not only was each profitable during last year's apocalyptic financial collapse — averaging nearly $294 million in profits each — but when adjusted for inflation, the profits these media giants made in 2008 were higher than their 20-year average profits. In other words, even in the worst economy since the Great Depression, these top media companies made more profit than they had on average for the past two decades. But they're paying a price for profit, Houston said. "They're killing themselves." Media companies have been siphoning money from their newsroom budgets to pad profits, which many then leveraged to buy more properties in recent years. In the current recession, some are finding their financial positions may be too weak to weather the storm. Investigative stories — with their relatively high costs and potential to turn out to be dead ends — are often among the first things to get the axe. Much of the concern about investigative reporting has focused on newspapers, whose staff size and format have been traditionally home to the most local, in-depth reporting. They are the bread and butter of investigative reporting, staffing the daily beat coverage that allows the public to keep an eye on public affairs, and marshaling forces when wrongdoing requires a closer look. But there are some aspects of investigative reporting the public might not fully realize.

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As Likely As Not

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:51:04 -0500

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Wednesday, April 1, 2009:

Tens of thousands of nuclear workers are seriously ill or dying from their exposure to radioactive and hazardous materials -- and they are not being compensated for their illnesses despite promises from the federal government. Investigative reporter Laura Frank of Denver's Rocky Mountain News spent more than ten years following the plight of these workers, and has revealed: a U.S. Department of Labor program with a "no pay list" outlining illnesses to be denied compensation despite the government's own studies linking exposure to illness; that "one in 17 sick workers or survivors with valid claims - more than 1,200 people nationwide - died before they received their benefits"; and despite the frustration of the workers themselves, top labor department officials directing the program have collected tens of thousands of dollars each in bonus money.

Read the original "Deadly Denial" series and updates from the Rocky Mountain News. Hear more from journalist Laura Frank and photographer Javier Manzano about what it was like to cover this story. Learn what happened to the "no pay" list, see what kind of impact Charlie's story is having on Capitol Hill, and find out about the fate of the Rocky.

The People's Sheriff

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:56:56 -0500

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Friday, March 27, 2009:

This week on Exposé: Maricopa County, Arizona -- including Phoenix and beyond, it is one of the largest counties in America. It's known for its good living, warm desert climate, and media-savvy sheriff. For over 16 years, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been known for his tough approach to crime. But it is only recently that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has made a huge effort to combat illegal immigration, partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under a law that grants local sheriff's deputies authority to enforce federal immigration law. And when reporters Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribune took a closer look at the immigration efforts of the Sheriff's Office, they discovered that other services were suffering as a result.

Watch an extended interview with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Follow Tribune reporter Paul Giblin and Sheriff's Office deputies on a roving patrol on a two-lane road that's frequently used by smugglers to shuttle illegal immigrants to California and Nevada. Listen to Betty Mar's account of a robbery at her Guadalupe store. Or visit the East Valley Tribune's Web site to read the original reporting from their "Reasonable Doubt" series, find more multimedia features, and learn more how the paper is faring after layoffs cut their staff by over 40% and they were forced to move to a 4-day a-week print schedule.

Chemistry War Zone, Updated

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:56:05 -0500

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Tuesday, February 10, 2009:

This week on Expos�?©: a new web-exclusive update. In November 2007, reporters from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a series entitled "Chemical Fallout," which took a hard look at the debate over the safety of Bisphenol A (BPA) -- a chemical found in many everyday products that has been shown to cause health problems in lab animals. The investigation would reveal that the federal government's assurances that BPA is safe were "based on outdated, incomplete government studies and research heavily funded by the chemical industry." But the scrutiny didn't end there. In 2008, debate over the chemical intensified, as did the Journal Sentinel's coverage. Concerns over BPA's use and its effects on human development led the Canadian government to take steps to ban it from polycarbonate baby bottles. Yet, the Food and Drug Administration still maintains the chemical is safe at current levels. The Journal Sentinel's ongoing investigation looks into what's keeping the FDA from acting despite the findings of its own advisory board. Watch the full program above to get the whole story, or skip ahead to the "Epilogue" for the latest.

Read the original "Chemical Fallout" series and the ongoing coverage from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Find out about the very latest developments. And learn about how you can limit your exposure to BPA.

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Friday, October 31, 2008: The Latest BPA News from the Journal Sentinel

FDA advisory board accepts critical report on agency's handling of BPA

By Meg Kissinger of the Journal Sentinel
Oct. 31, 2008 2:21 p.m. | A Food and Drug Administration advisory board voted Friday to accept a report that sharply criticized the agency's decision that bisphenol A is safe in baby bottles and food containers.
The report found that FDA scientists ignored dozens of legitimate studies and its conclusions that bisphenol A is safe were inadequate.

Larry Sassich, the consumer representative to the board, said he would encourage the FDA to immediately consider a ban for infant products.

Martin Philbert, who chaired the subcommittee and serves on the board did not vote. Philbert, a professor at the University of Michigan, is founder and co-director of a center that received a $5 million donation last summer from an anti-regulation advocate.

You can find the complete story in tomorrow's Journal Sentinel.

In the lead up to this week's meeting, the FDA faced increasing criticism from scientists and advocacy groups and scrutiny from Congress. The Journal Sentinel reported last week that there was new evidence that the plastics industry was behind the initial FDA draft report.

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Monday, October 20, 2008:
In the News: On Saturday, Canada became the first country to formally declare Bisphenol A (BPA) hazardous to human health. The federal government added the chemical to its list of toxic substances, opening the door for regulatory action, and has already signaled its desire to ban plastic baby bottles made from the chemical. In the United States, attorneys general from three states have preempted regulation by the Food & Drug Administration by asking companies that make baby bottles and baby formula containers to no longer use the chemical in their manufacturing.

Last week, questions were raised about the impartiality of Dr. Martin Philbert, the chairman of the FDA panel charged with evaluating the safety of BPA. Charles Gelman - a retired medical supply manufacturer and an outspoken critic of government regulation who believes the chemical is "perfectly safe" - made a $5 million donation to a research center directed by Philbert. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the matter last weekend. On Tuesday, The New York Times published an editorial calling for the FDA to investigate Dr. Martin Philbert's failure to report this potential conflict of interest and determine if Philbert should be asked to step down, and Thursday The Washington Post editorial page also weighed in, admonishing the FDA to "make every effort to ensure that not only are its opinions based in fact but also that they are free of undue influence or even the appearance of such."

Read the latest BPA developments from the Journal Sentinel. And watch Expos�?©'s "Chemistry War Zone" to learn more about the controversy surrounding this chemical.

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008:
In the News: The first large human study of Bisphenol A (BPA) exposures finds adults exposed to higher amounts of BPA were more likely to report having heart disease and diabetes. In a meeting of its science advisory board yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration maintained that BPA is safe. Read about the latest research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and updates on the controversy over BPA from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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Monday, August 18, 2008:
In the News: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighs in on the safety of Bisphenol A (BPA). Read the latest from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the FDA's draft report.

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Monday, July 14, 2008: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the EPA's registry of common chemicals gives preferential treatment to the chemical industry. The most recent example: a widely used flame retardant. Read the lastest from the "Chemical Fallout" team.

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Thursday, June 19, 2008:
Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's latest coverage here:
Panel minimizes some concerns over bisphenol A

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Friday, June 6, 2008:
On the Moyer's Blog, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters answer your questions about what the European Union is doing about Bisphenol A, where the $80 million spent so far on the EPA's endocrine disruptors program has gone, and what plastics contain Bisphenol A. Read more here about limiting your exposure to BPA.

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Friday, May 23, 2008:
This week on Expos�?©: a new episode online and on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings). Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters examine the lack of progress in the Environmental Protection Agency's Endocrine Disruptors Screening Program and do their own analysis of the science at the center of the battle over Bisphenol A (BPA). The commonly used chemical is known as an endocrine disruptor, and has been shown to cause health problems in lab animals. BPA, which is found in household plastics and the linings of metal cans, leaches from those products into our food and drink; a recent Center for Disease Control study found the chemical in 93% of the people it tested. Read the original 2-part series, "Chemical Fallout," which has won reporters Susanne Rust, Meg Kissinger and Cary Spivak awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Society of American Business Writers. You can ask the reporters about their investigation by submitting questions to the Blog on the Bill Moyers Journal site.

Follow the new developments as Congress considers banning BPA in children's products and overhauling the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). And you might want to learn about a recent decision in California. The state -- bypassing the federal government altogether -- has banned certain endocrine disruptors known as phthalates from use in children's toys. Watch NOW's "Toxic Toys?" for more on this story.

Since the Journal Sentinel came out with its story in late 2007, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has decided to do some investigating of its own. After making initial inquiries to manufacturers about their use of Bisphenol A in baby products, the committee has widened its investigation into "the industry's use of consulting firms . . . to manipulate public opinion related to certain chemicals." Consultants attempt to influence the public by using so-called "product defense" strategies. For more on this, watch Expos�?©'s "Science Fiction."

A Private War

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:04:47 -0500

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Friday, December 19, 2008: This week on Exposé: a new episode online and on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings). A private company hired to build military family homes never finishes the job. An employee tries to do something about it but his bosses - and the U.S. Navy - don't seem to be listening. Enter Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eric Nalder from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer whose investigation reveals the high cost of privatization and a whistleblower in search of vindication.

Find out from the reporter known for his ability to get people to open up how you can "loosen lips" during your next interview. Ask him about his techniques and his investigation by submitting questions to the Blog on the Bill Moyers Journal website. Are you thinking about blowing the whistle yourself? Read "The Whistleblower's Tightrope" by James Sandler of the Center for Investigative Reporting, and see if you are ready to pay the price. Or go back to Eric Nalder's original reporting, read his recent follow-up, as well as the most recent reporting from Arkansas Leader journalist John Hofheimer, also featured in our documentary.

Plus, on the Moyer's Blog: Denver Post reporter Mike Riley from Exposé's "No Justice Out Here" answers your questions and talks about how to fix the failed justice system on Indian reservations.

Video Extra: Dateline: Dallas, November 1963

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:46:36 -0500

When reporting is a family tradition.

Beneath the North Texas Dirt

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:10:09 -0500

Friday, December 5, 2008:
For WFAA investigative reporter Brett Shipp, reporting is in his DNA. Watch the web-exclusive video.

November 21, 2008:
This week on Expos�?©: a new episode online and on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings). A series of fatal house explosions strike neighborhoods in North Texas. An investigative reporter looks for answers and asks if regulators ignored repeated warnings going back decades that put thousands of lives at risk. Brett Shipp, television reporter from Dallas-Fort Worth's WFAA, traces the trouble to a piece of aging equipment that connects homeowners' gaslines to their gas meters. But he also finds evidence suggesting that state regulators and local power companies ignored this fatal problem - one that potentially lurks underneath hundreds of thousands of homes. This report is part of Blueprint America, a PBS-wide series examining the fragile state of the nation's infrastructure.

Watch Brett Shipp's Peabody Award-winning original reporting. Read responses from the gas company at the center of the inquiry into the explosions as well as from the state regulator charged with ensuring the safety of the public. For more stories from Blueprint America - including web-exclusive video from another local Texas television reporter on the trail of a natural gas pipeline explosion - visit their Web site.

No Justice Out Here

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:06:34 -0500

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Friday, November 14, 2008:
This week on Expos�?©: a new episode online and on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings). Justice for all? Not throughout many of the nation's Indian reservations. Because of a strange tangle of laws, the Justice Department is responsible for investigating and prosecuting major crimes on most reservations. Mike Riley from The Denver Post found a "dangerously dysfunctional" system where terrible crimes are committed, investigations bungled, and prosecutions rare. The result: Indian reservations -- already some of the poorest and most crime-plagued communities in America -- have become what one Navajo official calls "lawless lands."

Meet RJ Sangosti, the photographer who went to several reservations and chronicled the lives of people directly affected by this broken system. Learn about the obstacles law enforcement faces on the reservation. Hear from the producers about the difficulties of filming on the reservation. On the Bill Moyers Journal site: Ask the reporter about his investigation by submitting questions to the Blog. Navigate the history and the ongoing legislative back and forth between Washington and Indian Country.

Amistades Influyentes (Friends in High Places)

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:05:16 -0500

This video is no longer available online.

En este episodio: Vanity Fair devela la verdad sobre SAIC, el contratista m�?¡s grande del gobierno, pero del que usted probablemente nunca ha o�?do hablar.

In this episode: Vanity Fair pulls back the curtain on SAIC, the largest government contractor you've never heard of.

Monday, November 3, 2008:
For the first time, full episodes of Exposé: America's Investigative Reports, the award-winning PBS documentary series that spotlights investigative journalism - will be available online in Spanish at www.pbs.org/wnet/expose and at www.vmetv.com, the website for V-me, America's fastest growing Hispanic TV network.

"We are committed to bringing these important stories to as many audiences on as many platforms as possible said Exposé Executive Producer Tom Casciato, "And we are glad to be working with V-me to present them to our new Latino viewers - online as well as on-air."

The Spanish episodes have aired on V-me after a full language customization that includes reversioned graphics and multiple character voices.

V-me reaches more than 6 million Hispanic homes and is presented locally by public TV stations and carried on basic digital cable and digital broadcast in many cities and nationally on DIRECTV Ch. 440, DISH Network Ch. 9414 and DISHLatino Ch. 846. To find specific channel information for your market, visit www.VmeTV.com

About V-me
V-me entertains and informs Latino families in Spanish with primetime drama, music, sports, current affairs and Latin cinema, along with world class kids, food, lifestyle and nature. The 24-hour network, partnered with public television, is America's largest Spanish digital channel. V-me is the first venture of the media production and distribution company, V-me Media Inc. To find out more visit VmeTV.com

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Lunes, 3 de noviembre de 2008
Por primera vez, la galardonada serie documental de PBS sobre periodismo investigativo Exposé: Reportajes de Investigación, estará disponible por internet en espanol, por www.pbs.org/wnet/expose y por www.vmetv.com, el sitio Web de V-me, la red de televisión en espanol de mayor crecimiento en los Estados Unidos.

"Estamos comprometidos a presentar estas importantes historias a la mayor cantidad de audiencias, en la mayor cantidad de plataformas posibles," dijo Tom Casciato, Productor Ejecutivo de Expos�?©: Reportajes de Investigaci�?³n. "Nos complace trabajar con V-me para presentar nuestro programa a la audiencia hispana, tanto por televisi�?³n como en el internet."

Los episodios en espa�?±ol han transmitido al aire en V-me despu�?©s de una adaptaci�?³n completa del lenguaje que incluye nuevas versiones de gr�?¡ficas y m�?ºltiples voces de los personajes.

V-me es presentada localmente a trav�?©s de estaciones de televisi�?³n p�?ºblica y transmitida en cable digital b�?¡sico y trasmisi�?³n digital en muchas ciudades, y nacionalmente en DIRECTV Canal 440, DISH Network Canal 9414 y DISHLatino Canal 846. Para obtener informaci�?³n local, visite www.VmeTV.com

Acerca de V-me
V-me entretiene e informa a las familias latinas de los Estados Unidos en espa�?±ol con programaci�?³n dram�?¡tica en horario estelar, musical, deportiva, de temas de la actualidad y de cine latino, conjuntamente con programaci�?³n infantil, gastron�?³mica, de estilos de vida y naturaleza. La red que transmite las 24 horas del d�?a, asociada con la televisi�?³n p�?ºblica, es el canal digital m�?¡s grande de los Estados Unidos en espa�?±ol. V-me es la primera empresa de la compa�?±�?a de producci�?³n y distribuci�?³n, V-me Media Inc. Para obtener m�?¡s informaci�?³n, visite www.VmeTV.com

Poverty, Inc.

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:45:39 -0500

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Friday, October 31, 2008: The Latest BPA News from the Journal Sentinel

FDA advisory board accepts critical report on agency's handling of BPA

By Meg Kissinger of the Journal Sentinel
Oct. 31, 2008 2:21 p.m. | A Food and Drug Administration advisory board voted Friday to accept a report that sharply criticized the agency's decision that bisphenol A is safe in baby bottles and food containers.
The report found that FDA scientists ignored dozens of legitimate studies and its conclusions that bisphenol A is safe were inadequate.

Larry Sassich, the consumer representative to the board, said he would encourage the FDA to immediately consider a ban for infant products.

Martin Philbert, who chaired the subcommittee and serves on the board did not vote. Philbert, a professor at the University of Michigan, is founder and co-director of a center that received a $5 million donation last summer from an anti-regulation advocate.

You can find the complete story in tomorrow's Journal Sentinel.

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Monday, October 20, 2008:
In the News: On Saturday, Canada became the first country to formally declare Bisphenol A (BPA) hazardous to human health. The federal government added the chemical to its list of toxic substances, opening the door for regulatory action, and has already signaled its desire to ban plastic baby bottles made from the chemical. In the United States, attorneys general from three states have preempted regulation by the Food & Drug Administration by asking companies that make baby bottles and baby formula containers to no longer use the chemical in their manufacturing.

Last week, questions were raised about the impartiality of Dr. Martin Philbert, the chairman of the FDA panel charged with evaluating the safety of BPA. Charles Gelman - a retired medical supply manufacturer and an outspoken critic of government regulation who believes the chemical is "perfectly safe" - made a $5 million donation to a research center directed by Philbert. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the matter last weekend. On Tuesday, The New York Times published an editorial calling for the FDA to investigate Dr. Martin Philbert's failure to report this potential conflict of interest and determine if Philbert should be asked to step down, and Thursday The Washington Post editorial page also weighed in, admonishing the FDA to "make every effort to ensure that not only are its opinions based in fact but also that they are free of undue influence or even the appearance of such."

Read the latest BPA developments from the Journal Sentinel. And watch Expos�?©'s "Chemistry War Zone" to learn more about the controversy surrounding this chemical.

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Tuesday, October 7, 2008:
In the News: After months of investigation by federal immigration authorities, agents today raided a House of Raeford Farms chicken processing plant in Greenville, South Carolina, detaining more than 300 workers. Watch Expos�?©'s "20,000 Cuts a Day" for the story of The Charlotte Observer's extraordinary investigation into working conditions at House of Raeford and throughout the industry, and read the paper's ongoing coverage.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008:
In the News: The first large human study of Bisphenol A (BPA) exposures finds adults exposed to higher amounts of BPA were more likely to report having heart disease and diabetes. In a meeting of its science advisory board yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration maintained that BPA is safe. Read about the latest research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and updates on the controversy over BPA from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Plus, on the Moyers Blog: BusinessWeek reporters answer your questions about the maximum interest rate companies can charge, financial literacy tests for borrowers, and whether the working poor are being "exploited" by current business practices.

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Monday, August 18, 2008:
In the News: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighs in on the safety of Bisphenol A (BPA). Read the latest from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the FDA's draft report. Watch Expos�?©'s "Chemistry War Zone" to learn about the controversy surrounding this chemical, which is found not only in household plastics and the linings of metal cans, but also in 93% of the people tested by the Centers for Disease Control.

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Friday, August 8, 2008: This week on Expos�?©: a new episode online and on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings). Is the cost of being poor on the rise? Lower-income families have long paid more for food, housing and other basic necessities. But corner bodegas, pawn shops, and rent-to-own furniture stores, often staples of poor neighborhoods, have been joined by some newer, bigger competition in recent years. The finance industry that brought the nation subprime mortgages has now come to town seeking riches in the form of high-interest, high-fee loans. Holding out the promise of credit for everything from cars to computers to medical bills, these new businesses - backed by some well-known financial industry players - have moved in, leading low-income consumers into a potentially unending cycle of debt.

Read all the original reporting and listen to a podcast with BusinessWeek's John Byrne, Brian Grow and Keith Epstein on the story behind "The Poverty Business." Crunch the numbers on the new economics of the poverty business. Ask the reporters about their investigation by submitting questions to the Blog on the Bill Moyers Journal site.

2008 Emmy Award Nominee: "In a Small Town"

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Friday, July 18, 2008: A big story from a small town. Whispers in the courthouse about "missing cases" and a clandestine meeting at midnight started rookie reporter Peter Zuckerman of the Idaho Falls Post Register on an investigation that would lead him to expose the extraordinary story of a pedophile working within the local Boy Scouts, and a brave young scout who had the courage to speak up and stop him. What was hidden from the public -- concealed within those court records -- was the story of a Boy Scout leader named Brad Stowell, convicted in 1997 of molesting two children, who had admitted under oath in a court deposition in 1999 to molesting about two dozen children beginning as far back as 1988. Zuckerman, along with executive editor Dean Miller, fought successfully to unseal court records and then tracked down victims of abuse to reveal that Boy Scout leadership and at least one official in the Mormon Church -- which sponsors most of the Boy Scout Troops in eastern Idaho -- missed opportunities to stop Stowell from working in close proximity to children.

The Post Register published the "Scouts' Honor" series in early 2005, and the paper immediately came under fire from some in the community. The fallout of the stories ended up being far more dramatic than anyone had anticipated. A prominent local company took out full-page ads in the paper challenging the reporting and claiming, "the Post Register's real intent was to smear the Scout's good name and take away what the Scouts value most, their honor." Additional victims came forward to tell their stories of abuse. And one father, motivated by his sons' accounts of abuse, dedicated himself full-time to changing Idaho's statue of limitations in cases involving the sexual abuse of minors.

Read the original 6-part "Scouts' Honor" series published in late February/early March 2005 and subsequent reporting in the Idaho Falls Post Register.

See the complete list of the News & Documentary Emmy nominees.

20,000 Cuts a Day

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:16:31 -0500

This video is no longer available.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008:
In the News: After months of investigation by federal immigration authorities, agents today raided a House of Raeford Farms chicken processing plant in Greenville, South Carolina, detaining more than 300 workers. Watch Expos�?©'s "20,000 Cuts a Day" for the story of The Charlotte Observer's extraordinary investigation into working conditions at House of Raeford and throughout the industry, and read the paper's ongoing coverage.
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008: On the Moyers Blog, Charlotte Observer reporters answer your questions about ergonomic standards, the role doctors and nurses play in reporting workplace injuries, and undocumented poultry workers.

Also, watch "In a Small Town," the Expos�?© episode that was recently nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy�?®.

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Thursday, July 10, 2008: The ethnic background of the workers from America's poultry plants has changed over the last twenty years. The reporters at The Charlotte Observer saw an example of this at House of Raeford, where they found a work force that went from largely African American in the early 1990s, to between 80 to 90 percent Latino at some plants today. This shift is reflected in other places across the country, including Mississippi, where filmmaker John Fiege brought his camera in 2004. Fiege's documentary, Mississippi Chicken, follows workers' rights advocate Anita Grabowski as she sets up a center for poultry workers to strengthen their ability to address problems at plants and in their communities. Watch an excerpt from Mississippi Chicken.

Today, Grabowski works for a national advocacy group, Center for Community Change, and supports poultry workers organizing throughout the South. She is currently involved in a North Carolina campaign with the Western North Carolina Workers' Center to combat workplace injuries.

Plus, more in the news: As part of the ongoing immigration probe, a federal grand jury indicts a top manager at House of Raeford Farms. Read the latest from The Charlotte Observer.

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Monday, July 7, 2008: In the news: Last week, 2 supervisors from an Iowa meatpacking plant were arrested on criminal immigration charges. The arrests followed a May raid at Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacker, where fraudulent documents were seized and hundreds of workers arrested. The raid is the latest in stepped up efforts at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where worksite enforcement arrests have shown a tenfold increase in the past 5 years.

In February 2008, as part of its series on poultry workers, The Charlotte Observer revealed that 42 out of 52 House of Raeford workers who spoke to the paper about their legal status admitted to being in the country illegally. It also found supervisors who said that managers were aware that the company was hiring undocumented workers - and at least one plant preferred them in order to have a workforce less likely to complain about working conditions. In the wake of the Observer's investigative series, federal immigration agents questioned supervisors from House of Raeford Farms. Their inquiries led to the arrest of 5 supervisors from the company's Greenville plant in June.

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Wednesday, July 3, 2008: Charlotte Observer reporter Franco Ordo�?±ez is in Mexico talking to people about why they come to the United States to work in poultry plants. Watch the web-exclusive video.

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Friday, June 27, 2008:

This week on Expos�?©: a new episode online and on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings). The numbers coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics say the poultry industry's safety record has improved over the last decade. But are those numbers right? Reporters from The Charlotte Observer asked labor attorneys, experts in workplace safety, regulators, doctors, and over 200 poultry workers. They analyzed thousands of pages of documents, including Occupational Safety & Health Administration records, company injury logs, and academic studies. The result? Their investigative series, "The Cruelest Cuts," shows why the poultry industry is not as safe as it claims to be. Congress took note, with the Senate holding two hearings in April. And just last week, the House Committee on Education and Labor started asking some questions of its own.

Read The Observer's original 6-part series and follow the ongoing coverage. Watch last week's House hearing on the "hidden tragedy" of workplace injuries. . Ask the reporters about their investigation by submitting questions to the Blog on the Bill Moyers Journal site. And learn about musculoskeletal disorders -- the most common work-related injuries among poultry workers.

Limiting Your Exposure to BPA

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:25:17 -0500

"BPA leaches from 'safe' products: Tests find chemical after normal heating of 'microwave safe' plastics," By Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger, 11/15/2008. Photo Courtesy of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is the chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic, the hard, clear plastic used in baby bottles and reusable water bottles. BPA is also in the epoxy resin lining of nearly all metal cans made in the United States - beer cans, soda cans, food cans. Other polycarbonate plastic items may be identified by the letters "PC" or the recycling label #7. (Not all #7 labeled products are polycarbonate, but consumers may want to use this as a guideline and avoid this category of plastics.) BPA may also be found in #3 PVC plastics. Recent tests by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel even found detectable levels of BPA leached from products marketed for infants or billed as "microwave safe"when heated. Yet, while it may not be possible to entirely eliminate BPA in daily life, steps can be taken to limit exposure, particularly by focusing on what you eat or put in your mouth.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences includes the following information on its "Since You Asked - Bisphenol A: Questions and Answers about the Draft National Toxicology Program Brief on Bisphenol A" web page:

If I am concerned, what can I do to prevent exposure to bisphenol A?
Some animal studies suggest that infants and children may be the most vulnerable to the effects of BPA. Parents and caregivers, can make the personal choice to reduce exposures of their infants and children to BPA:

* Don't microwave polycarbonate plastic food containers. Polycarbonate is strong and durable, but over time it may break down from over use at high temperatures.

* Polycarbonate containers that contain BPA usually have a #7 on the bottom.

* Reduce your use of canned foods.

* When possible, opt for glass, porcelain or stainless steel containers, particularly for hot food or liquids.

* Use baby bottles that are BPA free.

Source: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - National Institutes of Health

For general guidelines on how to reduce your exposure to endocrine disruptors, see also the following article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Chemical Fallout" series:

"Minimize Your Chemical Exposure," Cary Spivak, 12/2/07

Video Extra: "Farm Subsidies: The Myth of the Small Farmer"

Thu, 01 May 2008 14:26:37 -0500

"The cornerstone of the multibillion-dollar system of federal farm subsidies is an iconic image of the struggling family farmer: small, powerless against Mother Nature, tied to the land by blood . . . This imagery secures billions annually in what one grower called 'empathy payments' for farmers. But it is misleading."

-- The Washington Post, "Federal Subsidies Turn Farms Into Big Business," 12/21/06

In this video, Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI), Texas farmer Ed Gangl, and the investigative team at The Washington Post discuss the image versus the reality. (7 minutes)

Photo credit: An idealized image of small family farming, used in a World War II-era poster. (Image no. ww0870-06, Northwestern University Library)