Don't stress but DO STRETCH

This is wonderful advice for would-be journalists. And others too. Enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/business/04unbox.html?em&ex=1210219200&en=df42aea0a77e7ad3&ei=5087%OA

Public Records are your friends!!

(Material from The Baltimore Sun's Guide to Public Records is used liberally in this post.)

USE PUBLIC RECORDS

   They will make a difference in your reporting because too many writers don't use them. Spend a little time looking at forms, both ones you fill out in your daily life and some you can just ask for in various offices. They will give you ideas of the kind of information that is available.

Remember we are a "paper" or computer society and so are obsessed with record keeping. Comedian Mitch Heldberg (check it out on youtube) has a hilarious joke about getting a receipt when he buys a donut. He cannot imagine a scenario, he says, in which he would be pressed to prove he'd bought a donut! Still, you get a paper record of your transactions in Dunkin' Donuts.

Computerization has made collecting and seeing paper records easier. That is a good development for journalists, but the fear and paranoia over loss of privacy that has accompanied this is not. Be sensitive to the fact that people worry about their secret information becoming known, even while they support the idea of finding out secret information about other people. Yes, it's contradictory.

Records are good but they can be wrong. Talk to people, the people who created the reports are good, and ask them to explain the records. Also talk to the people whose lives are being described in the records you use to give them a chance to make corrections or full explanations.

And records can be public or PRIVATE and still obtainable and useful. Diaries, letters, a canceled check, a resume submitted to get a job, lists, these are all potentially important to your story telling.

KINDS OF RECORDS:

The Basics:

1. Births and deaths

2. Marriages and divorce

3. Wills

4. Voter registration

5. Police records

6. Criminal court case files

7. Civil court case files

8. Lawyers' files (depositions are public and lawyers sometimes share)

9. Liens

10. Bankruptcy court case files

11. U.S. Tax Court case files

Real Estate

1. Land records

2. Assessments

Regulatory agencies

1. Federal agencies that oversee the environment and worker safety, as two examples

2. State and local agencies that oversee such things a restaurant conditions, housing, building code and fie safety inspections. Construction generates lots of local-government records from planning and zoning approvals, site plans to occupancy permits. 

3. State licenses for professionals such as attorneys and doctors

4. Environmental protection agencies

5. Hospitals -- owners records are kept by state health departments usually and annual reports on profits, costs, average stays and daily room rates are filed with a state health agencies.

6. Charities keep and must provide 990 forms that show where their money goes and what top officials earn

State Government

1. Guides to how state government work are invaluable in helping you figure out who you need to talk to and how things work.

2. Motor vehicles -- usually a small fee to get info on an individual's record

3. Boat licenses

4. Ethics-financial disclosure forms required for elected state officials and others.

5. Campaign finance information (start with county Board of Elections)

6. Road and bridge inspections

7. Gun permit records (start with county clerk or sheriff)

8. State comptroller keeps info on alcohol and tobacco taxes and on state contracts

10. State archives

Business records --There is a whole separate set of financial, banking and public corporation records that were outside the scope of this course but which you should explore in your future. Beside this class of paper, investigate businesses by thinking of them as if they were a person. They are "born" or incorporated, buy and sell property, are regulated, trade and sign contracts sometimes with the government and generate news. Just as for a person each of these events generates records you can secure.

Internet sources on public records:

1. www.brbpub.com BRB is a company that charges companies and people to dig through public records for information. But on its website you'll find "free resources" that will give you ideas about finding records.

2. www.idiganswers.com  This is the web site of Joe Adams, a terrific Florida editorial writer who has been a life's study and published books and guides on the use of public records in that state, where unlike NY, many records are accessible. On his site he posts newspaper and other articles based on public records and shows how they were done.

Happy hunting.

Model Meeting Story

For those of you who covered the Albany Common Council meeting April 21, here is the Albany Times-Union story against which you can compare your work.

Please note that first names are used, possessives and plurals are correct, questions about background are filled in. My one criticism is that the article does not explain what the Department of General Services actually does, as the name does not make it clear.

COUNCIL APPROVES JENNINGS NOMINEE

By Tim O'Brien

ALBANY -- The Common Council approved Mayor Jerry Jennings' pick to lead the Department of General Services Monday despite concerns over some employees trading trash for cash.

Nick D'Antonio won appointment to the $94,448-a-year job by a vote of 31-1. D'Antonio has been second in command at the department for about five years.

Some departmental employees and council members lauded the nominee for improving service and responding quickly to concerns. Others raised concerns about allegations in 2006 that D'Antonio cursed at former employee Roy Charland after he revealed workers were selling scrap metal for cash.

"In the last five years that Nick D'Antonio has come down to the department, new ideas he brought with him have energized the department," said Roy Bargallo, deputy chief supervisor.

Earl Filkins, president of AFSCME Local 1961, agreed.

"He did straighten out a lot of problems we had down there," he said. "He's done a great job."

Resident Elise Van Allen cited 2006 stories in the Times Union about the sale of discarded appliances for cash revealed by City Comptroller Tom Nitido. At the time, Charland said D'Antonio reminded him that his brother and son still worked for the department.

"Under the eyes of Nick D'Antonio, the citizens of Albany were defrauded," she said.

Council member Michael O'Brien said Nitido's report found no illegality. D'Antonio has said the funds were used for office parties.

"Commissioner Nitido said in his report use of the funds would have been permitted if carried out under the city's purchasing system" O'Brien said. "He also said he round no evidence of systemic fraud."

The report was referred to the district attorney's office. Councilman Corey Ellis said the district attorney's office would not say if the case is resolved so he was not comfortable voting for or against D'Antonio.

Councilman Dominick Calsolaro, the sole "no" vote, praised the 14-year city employee as responsive but said he was concerned he did not have an engineering degree or other more advanced degree.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

I hope many of you caught what Lucy had to say Tuesday night about the use of anonymous sources, a topic we have visited in class.

She said she would never say we don't use too many. Anonymity is always an easy fallback way to get someone to talk to us about uncomfortable issue and blame.

But, she is clearly not among those editors who have outright banned used of unnamed sources. Without them, she said, the public is not going to hear the truth about such matters as intelligence mistakes, back-room budgeting and military matters. There is a place for this journalistic tool.

The difficult part is to determine if there really is no other way to get information from other sources, multiple sources or documents than to put it in the mouth of a person with a hidden identity.

Lucy Dalglish on anonymous sources

I hope many of you captured what the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press had to say about use of anonymous sources Tuesday night. We have debated this a bit in class. She would not ever stand up and try to say we don't use too many anonymous sources, she said, first.

Indeed, it's too easy to grant annonymity to people to get them to loosen up and talk.

Modern day IF Stone?

Check out this article -- with video -- about a producer on Jon Stewart's Comedy Central show whose stock in trade is comparing what officials and pundits are saying now with what they have said in the past.

The Post has dubbed this investigative humor because it involves digging up stuff out of the past and because it's frequently funny to see the twists and hypocritical turns officials take.

Stewart uses all this to excellent comedic effect but it's not an insignificant past time. Legendary investigative reporter IF Stone was a rigorous watchdog of government through much the same technique. He read government reports. He looked at minutes of meetings, He compared what officials said through a multitude of speeches and they he charted the changes and discrepancies. This is all on-the-record stuff, no anonymous sources, no leaks. He just paid attention and read widely.

Get the lesson in that?

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article2008/04/29/AR2008042902827/html

A photographer's interviewing trick

Philippe Halsman was a great portrait photographer for Life magazine (Remember Bruce Squiers' speech?) who shot many celebrities and stars in his day from Marilyn Monroe to Richard Nixon.

There is a link between photographing and interviewing people. Fashion photographer Richard Avedon spoke about how he was given permission to bore into people when they let him shoot them. Nothing is out of bounds. That's a good way to think about questioning people. The trick for photographer and for reporter is to get your subject to let down barriers and fear so that you can really "see" more.

Halsman's technique for doing this was to get his subjects to jump.

Just jump.

And oddly enough they did, including society dames and royalty. It was so unexpected and silly, and seemingly non-threatening that his subjects did as he asked. There is a book of Halsman's jumping picture but that was not the point. What he did in shooting those jumps was loosen up his subjects and get closer to them.