Bound to get worse

Mark Schleifstein was talking about something he calls the "dead zone".
The zone is an area of water in the Gulf of Mexico in which nitrogen from fertilizer is flowing down the Mississippi and emptying into the gulf. The nitrogen feeds algae, creating huge blooms. The algae then dies and sinks to the bottom of the water, where it decomposes, consuming all of the oxygen. This poses a huge problem for sea life on the bottom of the gulf, because they don't have enough oxygen to live.
Schleifstein has uncovered many problems such as the dead zone in his decades as a reporter. As a winner of three Pulitzer prizes, Schleifstein has traveled all around the world, including a journalism class on the UAF campus.
He spoke to our class about environmental issues he has uncovered and reported about, including problems with fisheries and overfishing; not just around the United States, but around the world in places such as Thailand.
Listening to his speech, I started understanding the power of a journalist. This man has done many stories so far in his lifetime and I was amazed at the impact that they had.
He reported on a little village in Virginia and the problems they were having with their sewage systems. The outhouses in their backyards weren't adequate. Sewage was draining into a nearby lake another town used as a water supply.
He reported on power plants pumping an enormous amount of hazardous chemicals into the air and water. The chemicals would have drained into the river above New Orleans, where local officials weren’t even informed that the company was doing this.
Before hurricane Katrina, he reported on the inadequacy of the levies and required improvements. Sure enough, when the hurricane came, Schleifstein was correct.
Another story he reported: how the wetlands were disappearing and its impact on fishing around the Gulf of Mexico. He covered the "dead zone" as part of that story.
It took over a year for Schleifstein and his co-reporters to uncover the information about fishing problems around the world. The "dead zone" appears not only appear in the Gulf of Mexico, it also appears in various other places around the world. So does the problem with extreme overfishing.
Renewed interest in bio-fuels, which are promoted as means of reducing U.S. oil imports, will likely make matters worse. Schleifstein said. More corn is being planted in areas feeding the Mississippi’s watershed. That means more nitrogen will be flowing out the gulf. Unless hurricanes churn gulf waters sufficiently, or public pressure leads to government regulation of the fertilizers now in use, he doesn't see a clean resolution for this story anytime soon.
Without reporters like Mark Schleifstein this and other situations damaging the environment aren’t likely to command attention and corrective actions in time to avoid even larger dead zones.

--Jessie Huffaker

Drawing parallels with the stage

I often wonder about what the connections are between a Stage Actor and a Journalist. To my surprise, the similarities was clear after listening to environmental reporter Mark Schleifstein today in my journalism class. Mark said that it was his curiousity that led him to became a reporter. I understand this very well because curiousity was my only reason for stepping onto the stage for the first time as an Actor. At the time I didn’t know anything about acting and I wasn’t even familiar with famous plays and playwrights except for Shakespeare. According to Mark “environmental stories meant something to the people they are about.” What does that mean in terms of acting? Well, to become an effective Actor. the story being played out on stage must have an effect (negative or positive) on the emotions of the Actor, other Actors in the play and most importantly, the audience.

But in order to get something concrete out of the situation the Actor or Journalist must always “ask specific questions about the subject” says Mark. Questions beginning with Who, What, Where, When, and Why or as Actor’s call it “The 5 W’s.” Questions in this format ensures that everything about a certain subject matter will be answered. And the Actor or Journalist gain “experience by doing and by asking what he/she don’t know” says Mark.

Mark also added that when all is said and done the Journalist should ask “what questions should I ask that I haven’t already ask.” This is a good way of discovering information that wasn’t answered based on the questions ask. This is very important to me because I often ask myself tons of other questions about my character besides “The 5 W’s.” And most importantly, I choose Stage Acting because it is fun and I enjoy touching people everytime I step on the stage.

--Kerry Simmons

What it takes

What makes a good reporter? According to Mark Schleifstein,
environmental journalist and winner of 3 Pulitzer Prizes, there are two
key things. The first one is the ability to write. “To be a good reporter,”
Schleifstein says, “you have to know how to write.”

The second thing is curiosity. He says that wherever you are you have to look around. Here in Fairbanks alone, he thinks, there are about 1000 story ideas for an environmental journalist like him.

Schleifstein also recommends to learn as much as you can about everything because you will always have to write on many different things as a
journalist, depending on what community you live in or what newspaper you
are writing for.

During the story he tells about a young journalist who asked the wrong
questions, it turns out that there are more than just two key things for
being a good reporter. It seems that it is also an important thing,
maybe the most important thing, to ask the right questions. How else
could you possibly find out what to write about, or if the thing you’re
writing is true or relevant. I think it wouldn’t help to just be a good
and curious writer. “You have to get the information out of someone,” he
says, “You have to ask what you don’t know.”

Concluding from his story about the young journalist, I would say the main
point he made about asking questions, is that you can’t only ask “What is
its name?” but you also have to ask “What is it?”, “Why is it there?”,
“Where does it come from?” “What is positive or negative about it?” and
“Is there a problem with it?”

The most important question, Schleifstein asks at the end of every
interview is “What haven’t I asked what I have ought to ask?” I will
certainly remember this one.

This all sounds very plausible and I think these are all important
qualities of a good journalist. But there is one more thing.
Schleifstein only mentions it at the end, but it seems to be the most
important to me.

It is experience.

It is the reason why the young reporter he told about, made all these mistakes. Mark Schleifstein’s experience has brought him far. In 1975, after
graduating from George Washington University, he started working as a
reporter. Twenty-two years later, he won his first Pulitzer Prize. Since
1984 he has worked at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. For his stories
about Hurricane Katrina in 2006 he won two more Pulitzer Prizes.

He describes himself as a bad student, which is rather astonishing.

Mark Schleifstein has come a long way and had to collect many questions,
answers and a lot of experience to be where he is today.

That is what makes him a good reporter.

--Tina Dossegger

Expectations, accuracy and personal involvement

“I am a reporter who covers the environment.”


Mark Schliefstein, an environmental reporter for the New Orleans
Times-Picayune, made clear the distinction between his job and an
environmentalist during class discussions with UAF students this week.


As a Snedden chair guest, the Pulitzer Prize winning reporter offered his
insight on journalistic topics, including a presentation entitled
“Journalism as a Public Career.” Schliefstein, 57, was able to offer
valuable advice to students he has obtained since he began reporting in
1975.


The most current reports Schliefstein has been involved in at the
Times-Picayune concerns Hurricane Katrina. He commented on the difficulty
in reporting stories about the events since he was personally involved.
“It is a much tougher job then before Katrina. I have to acknowledge my
bias.” Everyone was affected by the events, so a bias could not be
avoided in some circumstances.


Regardless of his personal opinion, Schliefstein believes, “My role as a
reporter is to be as accurate as possible.” He can report on the issues
he feels important but it is about “staying within the bounds of
journalism to do it.” Schliefstein feels even in covering Katrina he has
not crossed this ethical line.


However, he has crossed some lines. In the environmental issues
Schliefstein has covered, he has received threats from companies because
of the harmful truth it makes public. Schliefstein is continues reporting
on controversial issues because he feels it is important to the city of
New Orleans.


News stories Schliefstein has worked on has helped inspire public change.
A recent example being more effective evacuation plans for the city.
Schliefstein stated a series he developed on the harmful consequences of
failed levies resulted in the mayor realizing the immediate steps he
needed to take when the storm hit New Orleans.


Schliefstein’s curiosity for environmental issues lead him to stories
that “meant something to the people you were writing about.” Schliefstein
says he covers an area of news that is fun and always interesting.
--Cassandra Johnson

'Greased pig' inspires

A three time Pulitzer prize winning journalist spoke to the news reporting and writing class at UAF March 26, and when asked what makes a good journalist, he replied, “Curiosity, first and foremost, and then the ability to write.”
Mark Schleifstein, the “alleged environment reporter” for the Time Picayune visited Fairbanks as a part of the Snedden lecture series that brings major players of the journalism industry to UAF to speak of their experiences for the betterment of budding UAF journalists.
Schleifstein has worked as a paid reporter since 1975, and during that time won several recognitions for his outstanding work. Perhaps the stand out is the Pulitzer prize he won for a story he’d written accurately predicting the failure of New Orleans’s levee system, before hurricane Katrina came about and fulfilled his prophesy.
But that’s not what he came to talk with us about that day.

Schleifstein touched on a variety of subjects including previous stories he had written all of which were very interesting, but what stuck out to me was the sheer amount of effort that went into the monstrously huge stories Schleifstein had thought of himself, and what it must have took to build enough trust with his editors to commit the paper to such an undertaking.
An example: For a series Schleifstein had thought of himself, a story involving wetland erosion and the effects it had on the Gulf of Mexico’s fishing industry, Schleifstein was taken off his beat, and assigned a staff that included reporters, photographers, and graphic artists, just for this one story. It became apparent that wetland erosion was not only Louisiana’s problem, and so paper send reporters and photographers to the everglades, Thailand, and Japan to chase down leads there.

One year and two months later, The Times Picayune ran the eight day series.

Schleifstein shared with students some of the secrets, He used to become the journalist he is today. He dispensed knowledge from his experiences like miracle grow to the budding young journalists. Here are some highlights: “You need to learn as much about anything you can in a community.” He went on to elaborate that a good reporter should pick up the nuances of a community, as well as the hard facts about the institutions the community cares about.
Another good tidbit of advice he gave was the interviewing strategy of always at the end of an interview asking one last question. “What haven’t I ask that I ought to ?”
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ll be sure to use that one for my next interview.

As incredulous as it may sound, Schleifstein was not an exceptional student. When asked which college he went to, he paused for a minute, and rattled of a list of several different colleges he went to before attaining his degree. “I was not the best student.” He said with a smile. Three Pulitzer Prizes later: “Hey, even a greased pig.”
--Ben Hawkins

Fishing for the global facts

Mark Schleifstein looks at every aspect of his upcoming stories. While
talking about his story on Louisiana fisheries and land erosion
Schleifstein did tons of research on the problem and potential problems
so that he knew what he was talking about in interviews.

 Research also helps when people don’t exactly tell you the truth.

Schleifstein mentioned he did some research in Japan. I know you might be
thinking what could Japan possibly have to do with the fisheries in
Louisiana. He went to Japan because of the demand for tuna to be used in
sushi that comes from Louisiana.

Research was also done on how places like Alaska had individual quotas
that helped prevent over harvesting and how people in New England had to
stop fishing because of over harvesting.
Thailand was another stop made to look at how shrimp farms were created in
order to protect the shrimp population and how some of the land had been
polluted to make the farms. Holes were made and had water and shrimp
dumped into them. After time the shrimp would pollute the water with feces
and then the farmers would move on to the next hole leaving the previous
one almost unusable.

On a different story Schleifstein found out that some labs were dumping
toxic chemicals that contained small amounts of uranium and radon into a
river. The next day he called the water treatment plant to see if they
could detect the chemicals and it turned out the treatment plant had no
knowledge of this. While the last example may be more obvious than the
others it is not something you might think of automatically.

He tied all of this seemingly unrelated data into very relevant
information that he was able to use to strengthen the quality of the
story. This is one of the abilities that can make a good reporter great.
It is this ability that I think is a main reason he has won three Pulitzer
Prizes.
--Kyle Evans

The power of curiosity

 “Learn as much as you can about everything” was Mark Schleifsteins advice to young budding journalists on Wednesday night. Schleifstein, a 3-time Pulitzer prize winner, talked about his experience in the mass communication industry and the topics of fisheries and hurricane Katrina that won him one of the most prestigious awards.
What does it take to be a good reporter? A question that haunts most amateur journalists. According to Schleifstein it is curiosity and the ability to write. It is through curiosity that journalists learn to pick up different skills that will help them in their reporting career. The difference between a veteran reporter and an amateur is the ability to know which questions to ask and to whom. Schleifsteins question he always asks at the end of an interview is, “What haven’t I asked that I ought to have asked?” Sometimes there isn’t anything, while other times sources bring up important points that he may have missed. As reporters become more experienced they are collecting questions as well as answers.
One aspect of Schleifsteins lecture that I found interesting was on the “Dead Zone,” an ominous name for a severe environmental problem. The “Dead Zone” essentially is an area of low oxygen. This happens in spring when huge blooms of algae are created. The algae blooms and then dies, sinking to the bottom of the body of water. When the algae reaches the bottom it uses up all of the oxygen. Small animals, such as, sea stars, sea urchins, and any other type of life form residing on the sea floor that can not relocate are then smothered and die. The Gulf of New Mexico is not the only place with a dead zone, there are many others located in the U.S. and around the world.
Schleifstein predicts that the Gulf of New Mexico’s “dead zone” is going to become a big problem over the next two years, if we don’t have a lot of hurricanes to turn over the water and bring oxygen to the sea floor.
Also the series Schleifstein did on hurricane Katrina had a big impact on the community of New Orleans. Due to his stories, all sites of the interstate highway system were opened up to move everyone out in a quick and orderly fashion. It was also because of the series that the mayor got behind the movement to get everyone out and relocated to safer areas. Schleifstein calls the evacuation, “The most successful evacuation in U.S. history.” This evacuation saved over 1.2 million lives, roughly 80 – 90 percent of the  New Orleans population.
--Erin Widby

Retraining the editor

What is a environmental reporter? Well Mark Schelifstein who has won the Pulitzer Prize three times once for a story that he did on fisheries in the gulf of Mexico and the problems that they are facing and the other two were about the New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. He has been a reporter for 37 years and works for The Times-Picayune. He went to three colleges, which one of them was University of Florida and as he put “I was a bad student”. He has been threaten by people who didn’t like what he wrote but has had his publisher back him up on some of these.
What he is probably most famous for is his work on Hurricane Katrina. It was insetting because he didn’t start out saying that this was a “if it bleeds it leads story” but more of a I started working on this before the hurricane came in and reported on what could happen, so it was a “I told you so” type of story. He talked about how he became a environmental report and how he got his start in the Gulf of Mexico reporting on the problems with the fisheries. Mark first did his research and looked at how the levies and ducts were supposed to be build and found records that said that the way people have been using to measure the height abroad sea level was being fudged. So in some of the levies and the ducts were about 2ft shooter then what they should have been. Then he talked about how the earth levies were supposed to be armored which is to prevent it from eroding faster then just regular dirt. The person he asked the question to said that congress won’t let them armor them. So congress wants them to be armored but won’t let you armored them. Anyone see a problem here? Mark wrote a book about this very same subject along with John McQuaid and won a Pulitzer Prize for it as well.
He first report that he won the prize for was the one that he did on the fisheries. What I found really inserting about this one was that it took him a year and two months to do it. You always hear that journalist have a deadline to meant and this story which was a series took over a year to do. What was also inserted is that he and other members of his team went around the world to Japan and Thailand to see how their country was dealing with aqua farms. The quote I loved was when he was trying to get his editor to let him do the story. “ I put in everything in it that I know editors loved”. Which I love because he basically just tricked his editor to let him do this story. When he finished the story and showed it to his editor his editor said that now he understood why it took so long to do, but Mark has to retrain him every time again.
--Bradley Weintraub

Spreading the good word

Mark Schleifstein has certainly made a name for himself as a reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He has earned himself three Pulitzer Prizes, two of which were for his coverage on the Hurricane Katrina disaster in southern Louisiana.

His presentation to our Journalism 202 class, in written form, could be considered a “journalism bible”, second only to the Associated Press Stylebook, of course. He was a gold mine of advice because he has taken the necessary steps to become a great journalist, and he explained the characteristics an aspiring journalist must have.

First of all, a journalist must be a very curious individual. Without a natural desire to seek the truth, there is no motivation to utilize all-important writing skills. According to Schleifstein, writing in a news-style format must become second nature, just as excellent verbal skills must become second nature to a broadcast reporter.

Although it may be tempting for a young journalist to jump into a specialized area of the news, it is vital that they “learn as much about everything as possible”. Beginning positions often require a broad range of knowledge, as the reporter will often be asked to cover many different topics. With more experience comes greater possibility of covering topics of personal interest.

Schleifstein went on to illustrate how a good story comes to be, using his Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of Louisiana fisheries as an example. He began by identifying a possible story idea, in this case a over-fishing issue in the Gulf of Mexico. He then sold his superiors on the concept by explaining (in flowery detail) why this story would appeal to the public audience.

The next step was organizing how the project would be divided. In this case, Schleifstein took the “habitat” angle of the story, and his partner was responsible for the “over-fishing” angle. From there, they both developed different aspects of their angles, which allowed them to produce enough material to fill a section of the Times-Pucayune for eight straight days.

What followed was the dirty work. Identifying who needed to be interviewed, conducting the interviews, and researching their topics was a task that took over a year to accomplish. This investigation was crucial, allowing them to pinpoint the variables contributing to the problem and to produce suggested solutions.

Schleifstein made it clear that conflict will most certainly arise from hard-hitting news stories that will affect large companies and associations. He also made it clear that disgruntled business entities should not have the power to erase the truth from your investigations. As a journalist, you are a public servant, and should act as such.
--Howard Hardee

Fishing for solutions

Environmental reporter Mark Schleifstein entered our Journalism class in 1st floor Bunnell building March 28, wearing festive purple Mardi Gras beads, and a smile that seemed to cheer up the room. A the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Schleifstein radiated confidence and thorough enjoyment about his work.

In Schleifstein’s eyes, journalistic writing has to come second nature for you to be a good reporter. “You have to do everything” says Schleifstein. You have to learn as much as you can about everything so that when the time comes you know what questions to ask to get the answers you want. That comes with practice and experience Schleifstein says. A reporter should try to find the answers first so you know what you are looking for. As he did with the story that he presented us.

Schleifstein lived for many years around the Louisiana area and convinced his publisher to give him a team so they could write about the fisheries. The publisher gave in, and what was going to be about a month beat became a year-and-a-half project.

Schleifstein presented the students of the class with a slide show of his reporting with fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi river and about the environmental problems they were having. There had been a large decrease in the wetlands of Louisiana, before Hurricane Katrina, that was greatly affecting the fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi river.

Much like Alaska has been experiencing over the past few years, Louisiana has been experiencing with over-fishing. Schleifstein said he went to a restaurant here in Alaska and ordered shrimp. He asked where they were from, and he was surprised to hear that the prawns he ordered were all the way from India.

The comparison between the two is quite similar, and the local fisherman noticed this and said that they would be fine. But when Schleifstein contributed the thought of the wetlands disappearing, they predicted no fish if that were to happen. Their fishing regulations were tightened down, much like Alaska’s, which seemed help, but also anger the fisherman as strict rules usually do. The shrimp fisherman were set with new regulations which made them fix their shrimp pots to let the trapped turtles get free. As if this wasn’t enough of a big inconvenience for the fishermen, once they realized that they were catching a ridiculous amount of premature fish, they were instructed to put in byfish holes as well.

Schleifstein and his crew reported on this for a year and a half, and it ended up being an amazing story.

“Every story is interesting” he says of his environmental reporting. “It is fun to do and it meant something to the people.
--Becca Wilson

Good tools and an open mind

Since 1975, Mark Schleifsten has been working as a journalist, and has
learned many vital attributes that any good journalist should have. When
he met with a college journalism class, he was more then gracious to share
these tools to the future journalists of the world.

 I was fortunate enough to be in that class.

The three time Pulitzer Prize winner from the New Orleans Times-Picayune
came in to do a talk to my Journalism 202 class here at the University of
Alaska Fairbanks, and expressed two major keys of reporting skills that
every good journalist needs to have in order to keep a job.
One of which, was ability to write.

“I am a good writer, I am a good reporter” said Schleifsten, of the mind
set that young reporters need to have.

I couldn’t agree more.

The ability of a reporter has to be more then just good writing, as
journalistic writing differs from other types of writing in many
different ways. 

The George Washington graduate stressed that writers should have a
certain ability to immediately transform thoughts and imagination into
solid, journalistic material, and that it should just come second nature
to them. 

Other reporting skills must include an ability to learn everything about
the story: the places, the people, the event, and so on, so that nothing
could come as a surprise to the writer. 

Schleifsten also said that a good journalist need to be able to
understand the surroundings, not just of the story, but of the writer as
well, kind of a think outside the box kind of attitude.
The other big idea that Schleifsten suggested to the class was that a
good journalist must be curious.

Out of everything, the awards, the stories, the hints, this little idea
stuck out to me the most. 

But what does it mean to be curious, especially for a journalist?
It ties in with his understanding the whole idea concept; Schleifsten
said that when he arrived in Fairbanks, as a natural environmental
journalist, that hundreds of possible story ideas pooped into his head.
That took me by a shock. Quite literally, why haven’t I thought of any of
these?

I’ve lived in Fairbanks for almost 18 years now, and I’ve never even once
thought of this.

The environmental conditions in Fairbanks are horrible. All of us leaving
our cars on for long periods of time during the winter, the fact that we
live in a bowl, so any streak of rain could cause a flood, like in the
late 60’s, and any fire could cause a smoke buildup, like in the past few
summers. The warmer winters we’ve been having, the hotter summers, all of
this has been right in front of me.

But now, thanks to Mr. Schleifsten, I know that being curious is a huge
tool in Journalism. Asking “why” can help a story in so many different
ways. 

Being able to just look at things, asking question after question, isn’t
being nosey or pushy. It’s helping the Journalist. 

Schleifsten said that he always ends an interview with the question “Is
there anything else I didn’t ask that I should have?” 

So in this case, curiosity didn’t kill the journalist. It won him three
Pulitzer Prizes.
--Matt Anderson

Keeping your Morals as a Journalist

The movie “The Way of the Gun” has a quote by James Caan where he says, “$15 million is not money…it’s a motive with a universal adapter on it.” Then how does a journalist deal with a story that is going to cost somebody tens of millions of dollars?

Mark Schleifstein, a three-time Pulitzer prize winning reporter from the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Louisiana visited our class today and told us of his experiences writing stories that ended up costing companies as much as $70 million. Mark is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and reports on environmental issues in the News Orleans area and throughout the world. Mark was drawn to environmental reporting for several reasons.

“Environmental stories are usually fun to investigate, and they are always out there,” said Mark. “Plus some of the stories you report on can really end up helping people.”

When Mark was first hired by the Times-Picayune, he was invited out to a dinner by the Louisiana Chemical Association. Knowing what Mark would be reporting on, they made an attempt to get on his good side. Mark told us of his moral stance and told how he refused to take any gifts or payment from people. Following his dinner with the L.C.A., he refused to let them pay for his meal and ended up having to leave his dinner’s worth on the table as a tip. This moral fortitude and honesty is crucial to being a successful journalist. By not accepting gifts and bribes, you are truly able to report with a clean conscience and even truth.

His stubbornness to pay for his meal paid off as years later Mark had to write stories about L.C.A. employees assaulting Greenpeace activists. He reported on the nationwide “Toxic Release Inventory” which stated that 6 of the nations top 10 chemical releasers where in Louisiana.

At one point in his career, Mark did a story on the Freeport McMoRan company regarding their dumping of toxic waste into public waters. The story opened the floodgates and ended up costing the company over $70 million in clean-up. Mark was later threatened by the company, as they were not to happy with his stories results.

This truth in journalism is what all reporters should strive for. Mark told us all to “collect information objectively”, which is impossible to do when taking gifts and bribes. He also told us to not be afraid to report on the truth, as a good publisher will usually favor a true, possibly chaffing story over a sugar-coated, shady version. As Mark told us, he is not an environmentalist…he is an environmental journalist who simply tries his best to find the truth in stories, collecting info from all sides involved.

So next time you are preparing a story and a bunch of well-suited guys take you out for a dinner or night on the town, pick up your own check. Because the story you write the next morning will suffer if you do not.

--Michael Ives