First Draft by Tim Porter

Pipe Dream Come True

SF Weekly tells the story behind the New York Times investigation into the deadly factories run by pipe manufacturer McWane Inc., which began with some old-fashioned digging by a UC-Berkeley student who audited an investigative reporting seminar taught by former 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman.

The student, Robin Stein, was auditing the class because Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism had rejected her application.

Weekly writer Matt Smith says Stein's success offers hope for a jaded profession.

"Several years later, while attending journalism graduate school, I was flabbergasted at the imperious portent that my fellow students ascribed to the writing of the news: Was it a craft, a profession, a calling? Blah, blah, blah. Whatever happened, I thought, to this fun thing that almost anyone could do -- but that some people actually got paid for?"

Stein's enthusiasm is evident in her conversation with Smith: "I've never done anything before where I woke up in the morning and was excited to go there. I was talking to people about things that are so important in their eyes." Go read.

Links
 New York Times Dangerous Business
 Frontline Companion program to Dangerous Business

Posted by Tim Porter at February 7, 2003 09:53 AM