The Dallas Morning News is a champion for the vulnerable. Now its workers must champion themselves.
A strong news organization punches through walls of secrecy to get to the truth. Holds the powerful accountable. Champions the vulnerable.
Reporters at The Dallas Morning News have repeatedly delivered on these goals over the last year despite serious obstacles.
They have overcome governmental failures to turn over public records during the pandemic. They have found ways around political and business leaders’ efforts to stonewall, conceal and intimidate.
Reporters also have persevered despite The News’ shrinking resources and an exodus of colleagues over the last two years that left gaping holes in coverage areas. The News, for example, has hired no reporters to focus strictly on health care, a staple in the best newsrooms. That gap left our newsroom flat-footed when the pandemic struck.
Nevertheless, our journalists have pushed hard to produce original, edgy work on the greatest health threat of our time, as well as on other fronts.
Just this month, Austin politics reporter Allie Morris and investigative reporter Holly Hacker sourced their way to exposing a dubious City Hall deal to set up a COVID-19 testing site that bypassed competitive bidding processes. The story prompted an internal probe.
Other reporters have teamed with investigative reporter Sue Ambrose to keep vetting government approaches to stemming COVID-19. Ambrose and others were the first to delve deeply into refusals by Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders to wear masks during their interactions with the public. Abbott later started donning masks.
The News’ Watchdog columnist, Dave Lieber, published a piercing report showing how televangelist Kenneth Copeland packed thousands of his parishioners into a convention center for church services, shunning COVID-19 safety precautions.
As the pandemic has upended social life, food reporter Sarah Blaskovich and other staff writers quickly adapted to give readers advice on safely visiting restaurants and supporting local businesses.
Sports columnists such as Brad Townsend and Kevin Sherrington consistently deliver sharp insights on how the pandemic affects the world of athletics.
The News’ award-winning Spanish-language sister publication, Al Día Dallas, has intensified its focus on pandemic issues. Reporter Imelda García has documented how the coronavirus has affected the Latino community. She also helped Dianne Solis report on a COVID-19 outbreak in a meat processing plant that employed hundreds of immigrants unaware of the flareup.
Despite a shrinking staff of criminal-justice journalists, investigative reporters Lauren McGaughy and David Boucher, who has since left for another newspaper, finished a powerful series raising questions about whether the state’s robust forensic hypnosis program is merely junk science.
Dallas police reporter Cassandra Jaramillo’s reporting on hundreds of protesters detained on the Margaret Hunt-Hill Bridge following the death of George Floyd was cited in a court order as a factor in police officials’ decision to drop the charges.
Investigative reporter Miles Moffeit and immigration reporter Dianne Solis worked to uncover the questionable jailing of peaceful protesters. Soon after, dozens of criminal cases were dropped. These reporters also teamed with Jaramillo to publish an investigation into police violence against demonstrators, despite the city’s delays in answering open-record requests citing a “catastrophe hold’’ due to the pandemic. That report led to official inquiries.
The News boasts a rich legacy of producing journalism with impact. It has received the Pulitzer Prize on nine separate occasions. It has also been nominated in recent years, despite drastic cuts to the newsroom. Our most recent Pulitzer finalist, photographer Tom Fox, was recognized last year for taking images “at great personal risk’’ of a gunman opening fire outside a Dallas courthouse.
But several other award-winning journalists have walked out the door, by no fault of their own.
Last year, investigative reporter Cary Aspinwall and business reporter Dom DiFurio broke a national story delving into complaints about the Boeing 737 leading up to the aircraft’s Ethiopian crash. Aspinwall has since taken a job with another media outlet and has not been replaced.
Reporters David McSwane and Andrew Chavez produced Pain and Profit, a widely heralded investigative report about how Texas’ Medicaid program has failed children. Those reporters also have since left for other news operations and their team has yet to return to the staffing level it used to boast.
To sustain our public-service legacy, most of The News’ journalists feel we need union protections, and a stronger voice in company decisions. We are keenly aware that if our work suffers, the public suffers, too.
“I came to The Dallas Morning News because, despite great cynicism in the business, it showed optimism for a bright future,’’ McSwane said.
“Thoughtful editors inspired me to hold power to account. Now the future rests with the hard-working journalists you've asked to build upon that powerful Rock of Truth. But they, too, need a voice. If the DMN still believes in that bright future, it must listen."
