'NYT' Reporter Reveals How He Got 'Blackwater' Scoop

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Editor&Publisher

By Joe Strupp
Published: October 06, 2007

NEW YORK This week’s detailed account by The New York Times of the controversial Blackwater security shooting in Baghdad was not the result of some in-depth investigative effort using leaked documents or high-ranking anonymous sources. It was, in reality, good old fashioned police reporting, say its authors.

James Glanz, who penned the acclaimed report in last Wednesday’s paper along with Alissa J. Rubin, said the duo did nothing more than their fellow reporters in midtown Manhattan might have done with a city shooting – reach officials, find witnesses, and keep asking questions.

“It was a regular old cop story,” Glanz, an eight year Times veteran told E&P via cell phone. “If you forget about official sources and look at it like a shooting at 34th and Broadway, you have the story.”

And quite a story they got. The detailed piece revealed a string of previously unreported details, using 12 witnesses and numerous officials, about the controversial Sept. 16 incident that has drawn new interest in the private security firms used in Baghdad....

***

He added that there are numerous local stories that could be uncovered if reporters were able to stick with them more. “There is a tendency here because of the exhaustive nature to get the day story and move on,” he explained. “You have to have a gut sense as to what you can make progress on.” The reporters also credited the Iraqi officials with cooperating, often more than Americans. “We often criticize Iraqi officials,” he said. “Here is one case where they led the way and did everything they were supposed to.”

Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003654921

[soothsayer]

1. too bad all reporters don't do this with every story

[Mrs. Overall]

2. Democracy Now has been reporting on various questionable Blackwater activities for at least

the last two years.
I can't believe the mainstream media is under the illusion that they are now uncovering some big story, when a segment of the population has known about it for years.
I also remembering hearing about the Plame incident on Democracy Now two years before mainstream media picked up the story, again, as though they were the first to report it.

[PerceptionManagement]

3. you mean he didn't just watch the uTube vid of the shootings?