Interesting: Drug War Fueling Police Corruption Cases

A growing number of police and private contractors who work with law enforcement are getting nailed for working with drug gangs, says this Reuters report.

TAGS: corruption, police, law enforcement, investigations, drugs

The Biz: SnagFilms Offers Free Streaming Docs

A new venture called SnagFilms is offering a nice library of free streaming documentary films, without any need to download anything. See a MarketWatch story on it here. Traditional media can say what they want about this kind of thing, but the consensus among industry analysts is we'll probably get most of our media content like this within about 10 years. Yeah, there are greater challenges for getting money out of it for us content providers, but I also see it as democratization. Even a TV with a few hundred channels can't compete with the interactivity of the web.

TAGS: future of journalism, tech, the biz

Awards: Latin American Journos Win International Prizes for Probes

Congrats to Mabel Rehnfeldt of Paraguayan daily ABC Color and Américo Zambrano, from Peruvian newsmagazine Caretas for their investigative series on high-level corruption and links between a powerful family and drug trafficking. Their stories are the winners of the 2007 Award for Best Investigative Journalism Report on Corruption, granted yearly by Transparency International for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad. See more on the stories and awards here.

TAGS: drugs, corruption, investigations, investigative journalism, awards

Investigations: Many Vaccines Still Contain Mercury Despite Growing Autism Fears

Many vaccines still contain mercury, despite a long campaign to remove it due to fears of damage to kids, according to this WXYZ TV investigative report, which also says the link between the mercury and autism is becoming more widely acknowledged.

TAGS: vaccine, pharma, investigations, investigative journalism

Interesting: FAA's Cozy Ties With Airlines Under Fire

After reporting inspection and maintenance problems at airlines, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration inspectors found their jobs threatened, according to inspectors who testified before Congress. The U.S. Department of Transportation investigated, and now some lawmakers are pressing for an end to the FAA's cozy ties with airlines, according to this report.

Interesting: Guantánamo "A Graveyard"

Guantánamo "is like a graveyard where you place a dead person in a tomb," said Salim Hamdan, the first detainee at the Cuban prison camp to go on trial there, at his ongoing trial. This, according to this interesting New York Times report on Hamdan's case, which includes rare glimpses inside the infamous facility.

TAGS: 9/11, Mideast

Investigations: "Dark Side" Explores 9/11 Detainee Policies

Nonprofit investigative journalism wunderkinds ProPublica publish (here) chapter one of The Dark Side, Jane Mayer's new book about the post-9/11 system of rendition, detention and torture of security detainees. This follows ProPublica's interview with the author, a New Yorker staffer, here.

TAGS: Iraq, 9/11, investigations, investigative journalism, books, Mideast, ProPublica, torture

The Biz: Why Investigative Journalism Is Dying

This interesting piece from Broadcasting & Cable chronicles the decline in investigative journalism at the big TV networks. Did you know 60 Minutes was once at the top of the Nielsen ratings? Of course, that was back in 1993. Now, the esteemed show is but a shadow of its former self, says the report, which explores how the decline started after Philip Morris sued ABC News in 1994 over a report on how it manipulated nicotine levels in cigarettes to keep smokers hooked. Disney, which was acquiring the network at the time, declined to fight the suit and settled for $17 million, issuing a groveling, much-derided apology.

TAGS: the biz, investigative journalism, future of journalism, 60 Minutes

Investigations: Q&A With Raleigh N&O's Steve Riler on Blackwater Series

This interesting Q&A with Steve Riley of the Raleigh News & Observer shows how a mid-sized paper was able to shine unprecedented light on controversial mercs Blackwater through dogged enterprise reporting.

TAGS: investigations, investigative journalism, Iraq

Investigations: How Banks Stoked Subprime Fiasco

Rating agencies weren't the only institutions to blame for the subprime credit crisis, according to this Financial Week report on a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into the ever-worsening mess. Banks did their part, too, often in situations of clear conflict-of-interest - arranging the deals, then hiring the rating firms to.

TAGS: investigations, investigative journalism, bank, subprime, housing

Investigations: Banks Illegally Garnishing Protected Accounts

As the housing crisis worsens, financial institutions are illegally garnishing protected accounts of people falling into arrears in their bank loans, according to this Washington Post column on a report of the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General.

TAGS: investigations, investigative journalism, housing, bank