Arlington National Cemetery’s Whistleblower

First, we interview Gina Gray, who took over as the public affairs director at Arlington National Cemetery in April 2008, when she discovered that cemetery officials were attempting to impose new limits on media coverage of funerals of the Iraq war dead - even after the fallen warriors’ families granted permission for the coverage. After stating that the new restrictions were uncalled for and wrong, she was demoted six weeks after the media reported her views. A few weeks after this, she was fired.

Trends in Investigative Reporting

Then, our panel discussion looks at the future of investigative reporting. In the Age of Infotainment, news organizations have notoriously shifted resources from serious, investigative journalism to soft, lifestyle, “news-you-can-use” reporting. Nonetheless, practitioners of long-form journalism continue to ply their craft, and often are the only reporters who take an interest in the disclosures of whistleblowers, insiders with direct knowledge of wrongdoing. How has the landscape of investigative reporting changed and what are future ramifications? Guests include:

Jane Mayer, The New Yorker
Deborah Nelson, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland