Teammates

Over the past 50 years one of the most notable changes in journalism was that reporters started to work in teams.

In school in the 60s, we were taught that the way it worked historically was that a series of great men -- and a few great women -- achieved journalistic success individually. Partnerships were rarely mentioned.

The big names were John Peter Zenger (1697-1746), Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1912), Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), Walter Cronkite (1916-2009) ... and more recently Barbara Walters (1929-2022) and Tom Wolfe (1931-2018).

There were investigative reporters too, mainly lone wolves like Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Jacob Riis in the early 20th century and then Jessica Mitford, Seymour Hersh, Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein in our time. (These are the famous ones, there were many others.) They too mostly worked alone.

Some modern scholars credit the Center for Investigative Reporting and Mother Jones for establishing the non-profit model of investigative journalism. (Note: Investigative Reporters and Editors deserves major credit as well.)

But concentrating on those two organizations, CIR and MoJo, which encapsulated so much of the first half of my own career, what’s true is that we produced our muckraking reports in teams(*) much more than as individuals. Maybe this was a Baby Boomer thing; after all, we were such a huge generation numerically that we rarely did anything in life completely alone.

(*) In 2024, CIR and Mother Jones have merged into a single team.

Woodward & Bernstein are a tad older than our generation, but they are the most famous co-authors in American journalism history. But they didn’t work together very long, given the length of their careers.

I’ve worked with many partners. Some of us specialize in interviews, some in documents, some as investigators, some as writers or story-tellers. But what can be most valuable in a team is the ability to collectively arrive at an unusual perspective on the facts.

It’s not the kind of working style that suits every temperament. People who get too easily frustrated and who give up easily tend to drop off teams. People who worry more about process than results rarely work out in these kinds of projects. Egos can all too easily rear their ugly heads; competing egos are poisonous.

But for those of us who do stick it out, team stories yield a large percentage of the best journalism out there today.

(NOTE: I published the earliest version of this essay five years ago.)

HEADLINES:

• Trump Personally Intervenes to Block Release of January 6 Documents (TNR)

• Trump’s speech on combating inflation turns to grievances about immigrants (NPR)

• The Enfeebling of the President (Atlantic)

• DOJ attacks judges for criticizing Halligan appointment (Axios)

• Supreme Court probes campaign finance limits challenged by JD Vance (NBC)

• Takeover bid of parent company means limbo for CNN and some fellow cable networks (AP)

• Sacked agents sue FBI, saying they were punished for taking the knee (BBC)

• With immigration paused, Afghans in the US and abroad urgently seek options after the National Guard attack (CNN)

• Illinois Governor Signs Bill Imposing New Limits on Immigration Enforcement (NYT)

• NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani spells out immigrants’ rights when facing ICE agents (CBS)

• Noem claims Mamdani could be violating Constitution with advice to migrants (The Hill)

• What to know about the massive defense bill that seeks release of boat strike videos and more (AP)

• Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is running for the U.S. Senate, shaking up the Democratic primary in a red state the party has sought to flip for several cycles. Prior to her announcement, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) dropped out of that race to run for a newly drawn House district. [HuffPost]

• Millions of Australian teens lose access to social media accounts as ban takes effect (BBC)

• Honduras Issues Arrest Warrant for Ex-President Pardoned by Trump (NYT)

• The EPA is wiping mention of human-caused climate change from its website (WP)

• They Killed My Source (Atlantic)

• Fighting between Thailand and Cambodia spreads along their contested border (Reuters)

• How China Wins the Future (Foreign Affairs)

• The War Room newsletter: A truly radical document (Economist)

• The Only War the White House Is Ready for Is Culture War (Foreign Policy)

• This musician taught an octopus to play the piano (WP)

• Here’s what Canadian provinces are doing with all the US liquor they pulled off shelves (BBC)

• Adolescence lasts into your 30s, and other surprises about the brain (WP)

• OpenAI, Anthropic, and Block Are Teaming Up to Make AI Agents Play Nice (Wired)

• Google’s first AI glasses expected next year (TechCrunch)

• U.S. military to use Google Gemini for new AI platform (Axios)

• Have you seen this (AI-generated) man? Police swap suspect sketches for AI. (WP)

• A.I. Videos Have Flooded Social Media. No One Was Ready. (NYT)

• Terry Gross Conducts ‘Fresh Air’ Interview On Bluetooth During Uber Shift (Onion)

MUSIC VIDEO: 

Deana Carter - Strawberry Wine (Official Music Video)