The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "whistleblowers" ...
-
Watchdog Reporting
This tipsheet covers all the basics of watchdog journalism. It includes a job description for watchdog reporters and a list of questions that can often lead watchdog reporters to stories. Walth explains several indicators that reporters can use to monitor the organization they're reporting on, and includes a very detailed list of different ways for watchdogs to research the organization. Finally, the tipsheet ends with two whole pages about following the money and using the money trail to report on an organization.
Tags: watchdog journalism; public service journalism. paper trail; financial reporting; whistleblowers; corporate documents
-
How POGO works with the media
This tipsheet covers how the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) can help reporters in covering abuses of power. The handout also contains examples of POGO's work with various news organizations.
Tags: POGO; whistleblowers; government insiders; freedom of information; defense; contract oversight; energy; environment; government
-
Cultivating Whistleblowers
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) provides this tipsheet on how to handle a whistleblower, from first contact to the run up to publication.
Tags: POGO; whistleblowers; wrongdoing; documents; government; corporate; anonymous sources
-
Covering Government Corruption
One of the main functions of journalism is serving as a watchdog to public officials and the government. No matter how hard officials try to keep information from the public, they are bound to slip up somewhere. This tipsheet can help you find the slip ups and take advantage of them. It offers a series of good places to look for corruption and questions to ask yourself as your project progresses.
Tags: contracts; bidding; bidders; land deals; real estate; whistleblowers; voting; ordinances; law; process; corruption; government
-
Cultivating Whistleblowers: Attkisson Tip Sheet
This tipsheet provides resources for finding and working with whistleblowers. Contact information for a variety of whistleblower groups is included, as well as lengthy advice from Attkisson on how to deal with whistleblowers and "disgruntled" employees. Tips on getting the information you want, as well as warnings about what to avoid, are included. Attkisson goes over strategies for what do to if the whistleblower is reluctant (or refuses) to appear on camera. The tipsheet includes the scripts from six different stories to illustrate these challenges and how to deal with them.
Tags: broadcast; whistleblower; watchdog; insider; transcript; employee; reluctance; accountability; qui tam; federal civil false claims act
-
Loosening Lips: The Art of the Interview, Second Edition
Nalder gives five pages of advice for conducting successful interviews with reluctant sources, public officials and whistleblowers. He offers specific strategies for getting around the roadblocks that sources put up, and getting all the information you can from them. Questions of anonymity, off-the-record interviews, and background interviews are also covered.
Tags: whistle-blowers; off-the-record; off the record; on the record; anonymity
-
Sourcing: From Bureaucrats to Cops
A tipsheet about "..Sourcing your way into a bureaucracy, or any institution -- public or private -- is a lot like door-to-door sales. You've got to get your foot in the door. Once there, you just widen the circle..." A listing of agencies and documents to pursue to figure out sources to pursue, especially at tightly woven companies or government offices.
-
Covering Local Government
The tipsheet lists "Some Humble (and Personal) Rules of Thumb," from "If It Ain't Broke...Why Are They Fixing It?" to "Recycling in the Truest Sense," to "Committees."
Tags: Bureaucracy; budgets; politicians; whistleblowers
-
Tipsheet No: 394
This one-page handout gives helpful tips for the care and feeding of whistleblowers. Although the tips are very basic and logical, it is important to keep these things in mind when dealing with these types of sources.
Tags: Interviews 1 page
-
Tipsheet No: 371
A recent ruling in a libel suit by a Virginia state judge may dry up sources, silence whistleblowers and invade the privacy of all journalists. This two-page handout explains what journalists should expect and how to take action.