According to most of the guest speakers who have spoken during bootcamp, passion for the job is necessary for success in journalism. Chuck Lewis and his determination to “hold the bastards accountable, whoever they are, wherever they are” through investigative reporting provided us with the perfect example of passion for one’s job.
Chuck Lewis explains how technology and the Internet help investigative journalists gain access to documents.
In the run up to the invasion of Iraq, the Center for Public Integrity, which Lewis founded, received the then text of the Patriot II Act (the government had denied the existence of this piece of legislation). When the Justice Department asked the center not to publish the document, or “we would sorry,” Lewis said, “We asked them to spell their name, and we posted it immediately.”
Lewis is the epitome of the fearless journalist who doggedly goes after a story, regardless of the consequences.
Many of the guest speakers during bootcamp expressed pessimissim about the future of journalism. Lewis, on the other hand said that because electronic information makes it much easier to do global stories, the “heyday for investigative reporting is yet to come.”
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