Known as a man who asks a million questions by his colleagues, Michael
Grabell certainly worked hard to gain a reputation in the world of journalism.
He developed an interest in this field during his college years. He applied for
multiple internships and continuously called local newspapers until one eventually
allowed him to write obituaries on the weekends. While he gained some knowledge
from writing the eulogies, he continued to look for more work.
Things began to look good when he landed an internship in New Orleans. By
this time, he believes, he had made a lot of connections with the press. From there
he did some freelance work, until he began interning at a Dallas newspaper. The
internship slowly evolved into a full-time job, which he kept for five years, before he
moved onto an investigating job at the Dallas Morning News.
His resume had become so impressive by this point that ProPublica, an
independent non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism, hired
him as a reporter.
The reason behind his success, he believes, is that he asks many questions.
He thinks the best way to learn is to ask as many questions as you can.
At ProPublica, he has the liberty to pick which issues he covers. After he has
chosen a topic, he begins researching. He almost always starts with a round of
phone calls with experts, who have an array of knowledge on the topic, and then
looks at data.
Depending on the issue, he looks for resources such as lawsuits. Once he has
enough background knowledge, he begins interviewing people to gain further
insight. One question that he asks people during interviews is “walk me on a day of
your life.” He believes that is a good way to get information about a person.
However, he says, interviewing people is becoming problematic as people
begin to rely more on social media. How does he deal with this growing trend? He
mentioned that he heavily relies on social media websites to approach people and
manages to use it to his advantage. By embracing this trend, he is able to connect
and gain information on people quickly and effectively.