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
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