Selected Publications
SCHOLARLY RESEARCH
Into the State: How American Reporters Came to Work for the U.S. Government, American Journalism
Crime and Reform: An Underworld of Journalism, Journalism History
Book Review of “City of Newsman: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington,” American Journalism
JOURNALISM
Why Did the DoD Abandon a Report Tracking 139 Military Mental Health Programs? Truthout. While the military grappled with the psychological consequences of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the DoD was spending about $1 billion annually on mental health programs of questionable effectiveness with scant accountability, the unreleased DoD records, which include individual program evaluations, show.
Inscrutable Schools: How bureaucratic dysfunction prevents a reckoning with physical student restraint in Boston Public Schools, BINJ. On Jan 24, 2017, at David Ellis School in Roxbury, a teacher physically restrained an emotionally impaired and distraught 9-year-old boy. There is no consensus or complete account of what happened. Was the boy alone with the teacher, or in class? How was his neck bruised, or was it scratched? “Choke-slammed,” claimed the mother. But the teacher told another story.
“The Unknown Legacy of Military Mental Health Programs,” The WarHorse. In 2013, the Department of Defense began an approximately six-year review of 159 mental health programs, many of which were launched after the U.S. invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. According to preliminary DoD records obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the DoD found “a large proportion” of these programs did not track spending and were “unable to document evidence of program outcomes.”
Harrowing Cables Detail How the CIA Tortured Accused 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Jeopardizing the Case Against Him, The Intercept. In March 2003, in a secret CIA prison cell in Poland, a small frog jumped out of a drain and an interrogator caught it. “No, no,” said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused architect of the 9/11 attacks. “Let it stay.” He asked that the frog be returned to the drain.
Lawyers for Accused 9/11 Plotters Say Government Withheld Public Information, (My FOIA lawsuit cited). The sanitized summaries of CIA cables provided by the prosecution leave out vital details that journalists and others have obtained using FOIA.
A Prisoner in Gina Haspel's Black Site, ProPublica, While most of her career as a CIA operative remains secret, newly available documents shed light on a pivotal moment in the career of President Donald Trump’s choice to head the nation’s spy agency.
Scenes From a Black Site, ProPublica. Recently declassified CIA documents provide the first detailed look at the interrogation in Thailand of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the al-Qaeda prisoner whose detention, officials say, was overseen by Gina Haspel.
Caught on CAM-Share, BINJ. The Boston Police Department seeks access to private security cameras, and experiments with a new surveillance network.
Watching Boston: An investigation into the Hub’s Neighborhood Watch, Dig Boston. Eight days after 16-year-old Norman Hawkesworth shot and killed Stephen Lanigan, John Winston found the murder weapon—a .22 caliber long pistol—while jogging in West Roxbury and contacted the police.
The Luckiest Unlucky Woman in Wartime Sarajevo, Narratively. After years of wartime horror and uncanny escapes, Dijana Voljevica dreamed of bringing her incredible journey to Hollywood. A seizure claimed her life before she had a chance.
Journalists in Mexico and Pakistan Cope with Everyday Threats, Attacks on the Press. The Pakistani journalist knew the risk, but he wrote the story about the militants anyway. Years earlier he had been shot, after reporting on another taboo subject, but for him the freelance work was thrilling, even after he had to marry his girlfriend in secret and flee Pakistan without her--and still now, since the nightmares began.
"How Federal Agencies and Congress Pass Laws to Deny Individual FOIA Requests, The Sunlight Foundation. There’s a hidden process of lawmaking that is sabotaging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Here’s how it works: Someone requests documents that a government agency does not want to release. Under current law, a judge may force an agency to comply. But, while the FOIA is pending, the agency asks Congress to pass a law allowing it to withhold the requested information.
'Power Players' donated $20m to fuel campaigns, Boston University News Service. Since 2011, a staggering $20 million has been dumped into the campaign war chests of a slew of Massachusetts candidates and political action committees or super PACs, by an elite set of corporate and cultural Bay State power brokers, a new analysis of campaign finance data by Boston University journalism students has found.
Workforce Programs help People Find Jobs, Not Careers, Gotham Gazette. If you called, you live in New York City and are one of an estimated 600,000 city residents who need a job.
Resisting the Rainbow: Right-Wing Responses to LGBT Gains, Political Research Associates (Profiles mine). The old guard anti-gay leadership that blossomed from 1980-2000 has been partially replaced. Voices the likes of Gary Bauer, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, James Kennedy, Phyllis Schlafly, and Lou Sheldon are gone or dimin- ished. In their place are spokespersons with varying agendas who are united in their recognition that the Christian Right and the Tea Party can mobilize enough public opinion and voters to sway elections at every level.
Syrian Journalists Strive to Report, Despite Shifting Dangers, Attacks on the Press. (contributed reporting). Syria is the most dangerous country in the world for reporters and yet, every day, hundreds of its citizens risk their lives to shoot photos, record video, and file reports on the civil conflict.
Manhunt for Boston bombers Homes in on Cambridge, GlobalPost. The mood is one of calm expectation. People are drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, checking their phones, walking their dogs and waiting to see what happens next.
Politics and Oil Prices Put Choke Hold on Fuel Assistance Programs, Allston-Brighton Tab. In a recent press release, ABCD President/CEO John J. Drew called “Washington’s inaction on fuel aid, rising energy prices, a ruthless economy and the predicted severe winter” a “perfect storm of conditions that will leave seniors and low-income working families in grave danger as bitter winter temperatures descend on the nation’s northern tier.”
A Group of Syrians Satirize the War…And Those Who Watch It, GlobalPost. After more than 100,000 killed and countless atrocities committed by both a disparate rebellion and the government of President Bashar al-Assad, there's still a group in Syria that has held on to the revolt's nonviolent roots.
Iran Nuclear Showdown: A Primer For Mortals, GlobalPost. The West’s confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program is heating up — yet again.
Russia Election: Putin to Win and Lose, GlobalPost. “Who is Vladimir Putin?” was one of the first significant geo-political questions of the new millennium. Back then, few knew the man who had been picked out of obscurity and placed on Russia’s throne.
The Manchester-Arsenal dialectic, GlobalPost. To watch the English Premier League, or EPL, is to witness a televised existential crisis. There’s a soul-searching tug-of-war going on, and nowhere is that best reflected than in the difference between the teams Arsenal and Manchester City. What’s happening now is the logical result of two antithetical managerial styles that matured in the 1990s and set the stage for today’s "buy it" or "build it" wars.