Exposing Stevens: Journalism Happens Here

Any enterprising reporters on the Ted Stevens beat might want to consider double locking the doors at night. Last week, in a one of a series bizarre interviews, the octogenarian Republican senator from Alaska told the editorial board of the Anchorage Daily News that he has some plans for the scribes who have been writing about the criminal investigation into his wheeling and dealing.

"I don't see any reason why we should have had this massive press interest in what's going on," Stevens said. "It's just an investigation of a federal agency. They go on all the time." Nope, no story there, guys.

But just in case that wasn't enough to throw journalists off the scent, Sen. Stevens continued: "Because when it's all over, some people are going to have to account for what they've said and what they've charged us with." He was pressed on whether he meant libel charges, and the senator, sounding a little like Al Pacino/Michael Corleone, explained, "No. I'm just saying there are ways to account for this in the future ... I think the people out there ought to worry about that the way I worry about the investigation. There are myriad things you can do. Just a myriad of things." When pressed, he wouldn't elaborate further: "I've said it," Stevens said.

What prompted the threat was years of damned good journalism of the kind that has been all too rare of late in George W. Bush's Washington, and unfortunately, in much of America. The Stevens scandal shows some promising signs of how local newspapers--seen by many as a dying breed--can still serve an invaluable public function. It also shows how local newspapers are using the Internet and other new media formats, along with good, old-fashioned reporting, to remain relevant.

The Stevens scandal also proves the power of the new net-based reporting that blogosphere pioneers like Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall have been at the forefront of inventing. Marshall's bloggers have taken these local stories, expanded upon them, and made them accessible across the country.

The story began back in 2003, when the Los Angeles Times undertook a series on congressional offspring who became lobbyists. The reporters--Chuck Neubauer, Judy Pasternak, and Richard T. Cooper--applied the old-fashioned "shoe-leather" thing and examined the financial disclosure forms of Ben Stevens, a lobbyist, state senator, and son of Sen. Ted Stevens. They then examined Sen. Ted Stevens' voting record. Lo and behold, the reporters found no fewer than 10 instances where Ted's actions in Congress directly benefited Ben's clients. One of these clients, a company called VECO, was apparently so grateful that they managed a construction project that doubled the size of Stevens' Alaska home, which is currently being investigated by federal authorities for a series of bribery-related scandals.

Reporters attempting to get to the bottom of what actually took place face two obvious obstacles: the sheer complexity of the mind-bending maze of charges and counter-charges and the necessary secrecy of the federal investigation. Even the existence of the investigation was not revealed until two years after it began.

Much to its credit, the Anchorage Daily News has doggedly attacked the story, churning out reams of information about the investigation and keeping it in front of Alaskan audiences. The paper has also used the Internet to its advantage by offering its audience audio clips of interviews with key players, and even video of FBI stings. They set up a separate page exclusively for stories about the ongoing investigations, and also an overview of key figures and events during the course of the multi-year investigation.

In so doing, the paper made sure Alaskans remained well-aware of the possibly criminal shenanigans of arguably the most powerful man in the state, and ensured that Alaskans could access the complicated information easily. It exemplifies why newspapers--particularly local newspapers with a sense of responsibility to their communities--remain so vital to the conduct of democracy. And Marshall's TPM family of blogs have helped by synthesizing the avalanche of information and adding their own independent reporting to move the story along, with video posted as well.

In an environment where so much of the media are obsessed with tabloid trash, the reporting work done by the Anchorage Daily News, TPM, and other local and new media outlets offers a reminder of why journalism continues to inspire so many people to want to join this much beleaguered profession in the first place, as it slowly and fitfully reinvents itself for the 21st century.

Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow of the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College, and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His blog, "Altercation," appears at www.mediamatters.org/altercation, His seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America, will appear early next year.

George Zornick is a New York-based writer.

Originally posted at the Center for American Progress.

Comments

[bigfated]

Well, time marches on.....and millions of us are eagerly waiting for some of these stinking, thieving, bribe-taking, lying filthy scum-sucking neo-con trash to don those orange jumpsuits. (Personally, I think wrinkled old Ted stevens would be kinda cute in his prison garb). But we're still waiting for the hammer to drop on "The Hammer", Tom (THE LYING THIEF) DeLay....who is long overdue for trial.
I wonder. Is it possible that the folks responsible for putting these lying rats on trial are stalling----until after the election---taking away the opportunity for the GREATEST SCUMBAG OF ALL....GEORGE W.(for whiner)BUSH....to pardon his partners in crime. Good idea...if that's what's going on. still....we want to see more than words. Put the scum away...NOW!!!

[mommadona]

Ted Stevens must have the illusion that BUSHCO's "got his back".

Ted Stevens has delusions of grandeur (that little 2-story renovated cabin is just THAT).

Ted Stevens just proves the adage of Big Frog in very Little Pond.

I refer you to that wonderful tale of the delusion of grandeur:

Yertle the Turtle
http://www.chuckwagner.com/yertle.html

"BRING 'EM DOWN!"

[EFC]

Ah, the familiar stench of DelayNeyetc.etc. once again wafts through the air of Washington-note the patented Republican righteous indignation, the magnitude of which tells the severity of the rot. Fortunately, as the seemingly endless procession of corrupt Republican "public servants" continues, small media outlets and internet based journalists provide the scrutiny and the exposure of their illegal behavior-a function long abdicated by the corporate voyeurs of MSM.

[WilliePilgrim]

and let me continue....
I now live for the day when Stevens and his son and their croneys get their just deserts...not the double chocolate whiskey cake at the DoubleMuskey either.
Please don't think that I have forgotten the good he and his ass*ciates have done. I know its Stevens' fondest wish to continue in his public service (he never did any of this for himself, if you can believe him anymore, so as a bit of recognition of that I hope that we never see him go to prison for a couple of three reasons; #1 to recognize his past good deeds, #2 to recognize that not putting him and his ass*citates in prison does not endanger the public (he's not likely to go around collecting much graft and spreading the corrosive by-products of corruption now) and #3 to save the taxpayers some money (Steven's was always big on reducing the burden as long as the cash flow to AK was as big as it could possibly be) by not putting him in prison but instead installing him with an ankle bracelet in a trailer park in Anchorage where he's be expected to be ready for work everyday, wearing his orange jump suit, cleaning toilets at the newly renamed Jay Hammond International Airport (Jay Hammond was the independent governor of AK who shepherded-in the incredilby empowering PermanentFund Endowment which is now at 40 billion and frees Alaskans from the feudal relationship is has with state income tax boards the rest of the country suffers). Let's hope he's not too lonely either.

[WilliePilgrim]

Thanks for this report, Eric. I've been following this for some time and it's oh-so amusing to hear Steven's whine.
I was in living in Alaska, far off of the road system, when 9/11 occurred. I can vividly remember searching the airwaves hoping to hear news as the radio reception where I was faded in and out. Finally we catch Steven's comment to the world in which he cautioned our counter-terrorism forces to not overlook the environmentalist who, he said, were a very dangerous element and capable of that kind of carnage on the level of 9/11, implying that it was part of their agenda.

[unemployedprogressive]

At one time or another, every major elected official from Alaska has been the subject of some sort of investigation for corruption etc. It is a bit of a shock that this isn't big news with the MSM. Just another demonstration of what you get when you have elections financed by the rich and special interest groups instead of via public financing.

[LindaJay]

It is indeed encouraging to hear that real journalism is going on somewhere in the MSM. Having been on this earth for 54 years, I've been able to see firsthand the drastic decline in journalism from the end of the Watergate era until now. It has been one of many worries during the Bush Administration, as the MSM became little more than a propaganda machine. I'm not sure it will ever get back to being one of the pillars of democracy it was meant to be, not when it is owned by only a few corporations. But perhaps that is where the internet and blogs will lead the way.