“You do not have to be a foreign correspondent and go to Africa and China to find these problems and violations. There is plenty to uncover here,” Michael Grabell said describing the aspects of his career.
Michael Grabell currently investigates and reports for ProPublica, a journalistic organization whose primary goal is to serve the public’s interest. His investigative work includes articles about temp agencies and temp workers, President Obama’s economic stimulus package, the Federal Air Marshall Service, the Lance Armstrong doping allegations, chemicals stored near schools and neighborhoods, and the TSA’s body scanning. His work for ProPublica has been published in the New York Times, PBS NewsHour, CBS Evening News, NPR, and USA Today. In January 2012, Grabell, published the book “Money Well Spent? The Truth Behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, the Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History.”
On July 8 2014, Grabell shared some of his most influential experiences as a journalist writer with Baruch College Now students. “I start with a phone call to experts,” he stated, when asked to describe his working procedures.
In order to first select “the jaw dropping story-to-be”, Grabell creates a mental graph, qualifying the harmfulness of the incident, and quantifying its effect on citizens, such as how many are swept by the phenomenon.
Then Grabell proclaims, it is important to start with the most easily accessible data, look at the public records, lawsuits, social media and so on. Once the basics have been filled, it becomes easier to “be persistent in convincing officials to give up data,” he said.
In having decided on a good topic to research, Grabell explains, the duty of the author becomes to relate the story to the targeted audience. Simultaneously, he maintained that to reason with the intentions of the story is vital, because it forcibly teaches the reporter to be patient, to gain confidence, and to see a good horizon even if the path of uncovering a truth seems impossible to penetrate. Grabell persisted that these are some of the most important characteristics that will enable an investigative journalist to unveil those who attempt to “find a way to put the harm on somebody’s pockets,” the unparalleled way to serve the public’s interests, the people’s interests.
He also encouraged the students to ask as many questions as possible; stating that in fact, this precise fact led to his future success. During his internships Michael Grabell was not afraid to ask questions. “That is how I learned where all the documents were buried in town,” he confessed. Knowing where the information was and how to acquire it, was exactly the reason newspapers hired him – the reason he transformed himself, from a writer of the obituaries to an investigative journalist.
His passion to uncover injustices is apparent in his commitment to make reporting personal, while maintaining professionalism and accuracy. “If I am not interested, why would my reader be?,” he asks.