| "It became a really controversial topic.
I mean, dozens of the lawsuits were being filed against the
hospital where this guy worked," said Davis. "I
wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on."
| And so he did, by picking up the surgeon’s
trash every day and going through it. It was in the trash
that Davis was able to uncover information needed to prove
the Love Doctor’s guilt and eventually get his medical
license revoked. But it also landed Davis’ job in
hot water. "What I was doing was legal, but it still
became a controversy that the paper didn’t want
to face," said Davis. |
 |
"That’s when the Plain Dealer called me up and
told me, they may not like that you did it down there, but
we’d love to have you do it up here."
Seventeen years later, Davis is a special projects editor
who helps fellow reporters research and write investigative
pieces. But his trash digging days are over, thanks to computer-assisted
reporting.
First wave of CAR reporters
"I was among the first wave of journalists doing CAR
on PC’s," said Davis. "It’s amazing
how much computers have taken over the newsroom and how much
information you can get on people by just knowing where to
look."
Davis has written numerous CAR stories, including two that
became finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. But it’s not
just in-depth pieces that require knowledge of basic CAR skills,
said Davis. Any piece can benefit from additional computer-assisted
research.
"I can’t think of a beat where you don’t
need it [CAR skills] or a story that doesn’t require
it," said Davis. "It’s absolutely essential
for a young reporter starting out.”
Davis said the Plain Dealer values the importance of good
CAR skills and hires based upon whether an applicant has them.
"Journalism is becoming very competitive and is changing
and getting better everyday," said Davis. "Everyone
has to learn these skills and keep up."
Davis remembers the emergence of computer-assisted reporting
in the late 1980s, when he was a young reporter doing in-depth
pieces for the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia and the
Dayton Daily News.
"There was a reporter at the Providence Journal [in
Rhode Island] named Elliot Jaspen who was doing all these
great undercover stories, but wasn’t really being appreciated
by the newspaper he worked for," said Davis. "I
saw the stuff that he was doing and decided to call him and
ask him about CAR. I wanted to bring this to Dayton and do
some training in the newsrooms to help other journalists learn
this technique."
Gotta have the bucks
Davis was so impressed with this new type of investigative
journalism that he asked his editor at the Dayton Daily News
for $30,000 to buy equipment and train journalists in computer-assisted
reporting. He received the money.
"They didn’t even have to think about it long
before we were off and running," said Davis. "They
knew it would be beneficial.”
Davis trained journalists in CAR for three years before
moving to Cleveland to work for the Plain Dealer. It was there
that Davis’ two investigative articles, one about radiation
mishaps at the Cleveland Clinic and the other about premature
babies, landed him as a finalist twice for the Pulitzer Prize.
Davis said both stories depended greatly on computer-assisted
research and reporting.
“In the case with the Cleveland Clinic story, we had
a whistleblower who gave us a lot of information, but I also
had to look at a lot of figures regarding radiation accidents
and file requests for public records to go through,”
said Davis. “For the story on premature babies, I had
to look at birth records and hospital files.”
Today, Davis no longer writes investigative pieces, but
helps other journalists gather the information necessary for
their own stories.
“I spent so much time working with others on their
stories that I became the special projects editor specializing
in CAR,” said Davis. “I miss doing the reporting
myself, but I really love helping others with their stories
and seeing them get excited about the piece they are working
on.”
Spreading the gospel
Davis also spends his time lecturing the importance of CAR
skills to college students throughout the country. He said
he would like to see more colleges offer or require CAR classes
in their journalism programs.
“A lot of these schools…they will offer a CAR
class once a semester and they’ll have only about 21
seats,” said Davis. “These schools are good journalism
schools, but they are lacking in that element.”
However, Davis is happy that more and more journalists are
coming into the field with basic CAR skills.
“It’s a hard topic to teach, but it’s
more than worthwhile,” said Davis. “It opens so
many doors for reporters.”
Return
to JMC Home Page
•
Danielle Cervantes, San Diego Union-Tribune
• Dave
Davis, Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Dan
Keating, Washington Post
• Tom
Merriman, Fox 8 Cleveland
• Doug
Oplinger, Akron Beacon Journal
• Craig
Pittman and Matthew Waite, St. Petersburg Times
• Mark
Schaver, Louisville Courier-Journal
|
