As tomorrow’s historic Presidential election looms, GalleyCat caught up with an investigative reporter to find out what stories the press missed over the course of this seemingly endless election season. His responses could float a few books for long-form journalists.
Russ Baker is founder of the non-profit reporting outfit, The Real News Project, and author of the upcoming Bush family expose, Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. Baker also co-founded the networking events that helped create MediaBistro.
For John McCain, Baker thought journalists should pay attention to overlooked issue: “Sydney Schanberg, who won a Pulitzer many years ago for his coverage of Cambodia, has struggled (with limited success) to focus attention on Senator McCain’s insensitivity and even animosity toward families of Vietnam War POWs and MIAs who were following up on government evidence that some of their relatives remained alive. Whatever the validity of those claims, McCain’s odd behavior deserves further scrutiny.”
He had other questions for the Democratic candidate: “As for Obama, the central question is whether he is the reformer so many of his supporters believe him to be. He has been studiously vague throughout his political career, and we do not fully understand the likely influences that will shape key policies in an Obama White House.”
In general, he advised investigative reports to do the legwork and ignore the pundits: “[W]hen doing your research, forget the pop psychology and the platitudes of the talking heads, and hit the road. Find the people who really know first-hand what was transpiring, and figure out a way to get them to talk.”