The Mechanic & the Muse

Programming an Investigation to catch MySpace sexual predators

Check out a fascinating piece by Wired News senior editor Kevin Poulsen, a former computer hacker known as "Dark Dante," turned journalist. (Thanks to Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow for the story alert.)

In "MySpace Predator Caught by Code, Poulsen details how he wrote a computer script to hunt for registered sex offenders using MySpace, the social networking webisite popular with millions of children, including my three teenage daughters. Kids use  their MySpace to keep in touch with old friends and make new ones  by sharing  photos, musics, videos, personal profiles and , blog posts with their friends.

Poulsen's first step demonstrates how sophisticated programming coupled with public records can produce investigate reporting of the first order, in this case, leading to the arrest of a New York registered sex offender  named Andrew

Lubrano.

In May, I began an automated search of MySpace's membership rolls for 385,932 registered sex offenders in 46 states, mined from the Department of Justice's National Sex Offender Registry website -- a gateway to the state-run Megan's Law websites around the country. I searched on first and last names, limiting results to a five mile radius of the offender's registered ZIP code..."

The automated script searched MySpace's 1 million-plus profiles for registered sex offenders -- and soon found one that was back on the prowl for seriously underage boys."

Poulsen worked for months on his probe, and has written a deft, and enormously creep true crime narrative. But there's reason other news organizations can't quickly piggyback on his work. "Wired News will publish the code under an open-source license later this week," the article reports.

Here's yet another impressive example of the way technology is transforming news-gathering, and, IMHO, a signal that traditional journalists need to follow Poulsen's lead to use such tools to serve the public interest.

(Source of Image of registered sex offender Andrew Lubrano's MySpace profile: Wired News

"Mary Ellen's will:" Combining the Power of Investigative Narrative and Transparency

The Hollywood high-concept pitch might go like this: "Sunset Boulevard," the film classic about an aging starlet's tragic twilight, meets "Dallas," the prime time soap opera about the financial and family intrigues of the Ewing clan.

But a new, four-part Dallas Morning News series,  Mary Ellen's will: The Battle for 4949 Swiss, is journalism, a powerful example of investigative narrative that combines civic clarity and literary grace.

The series focuses on a contemporary social ill-- widespread financial exploitation of the elderly, whose loneliness and infirmities make them easy prey for strangers who swoop into their lives, shower them with attention, alienate them from family and friends, and make off with as much of their wealth as they can get away with.

Investigative reporter Lee Hancock, and the project's editor, Mark Miller, have created a gripping narrative that draws attention to such crimes by setting it against a dramatic and quintessential Texas landscape.

"The Battle for 4949 Swiss" exposes a public problem by focusing on the private tragedy of Mary Ellen Bendtsen, 88, and the fight over the decaying Dallas mansion that was her treasure.  It accomplishes this feat by transforming dogged reporting into a story brought alive by vivid characters, the unrelenting accretion of status details in a society where everything seems Super-sized, and dramatic scenes that  unfold before our eyes.

(A disclaimer: I have led writing and editing workshops for Morning News staffers for several years. In this case, Miller asked me to participate in an early brainstorming session. I also read early drafts, providing "movies of my reading," a running commentary of one reader's reaction. My enthusiasm, however, derives from having watched the series develop in complexity, as Hancock and Miller demonstrated the power of indefatigable revision, and, having now seen most of the completed version; the series' final installment appears tomorrow. A takeout Sunday explores systematic flaws that make the elderly so vulnerable to con artists.)

The paper's website provides an impressive menu of companion multimedia, including photo scrapbooks, character vignettes, and videos, including a poignant hospital scene where a frail Mrs. Bendsten signs over power of attorney to two men who, relatives and investigators believe, were intent on claiming her decaying mansion.

At a time when public distrust of the media overshadows good journalism, "Mary Ellen's will" also takes enormous pains to buttress its narrative, mirroring similar efforts to provide thorough and credible levels of sourcing transparency.

In addition to a source box, footnotes stud the narrative, pointing to documents and other records; some trigger pop-up boxes with links to news articles reaching back six decades. It's yet another example of the innovative ways that news organizations's online capabilities can provide as much information and documentation that a reader could want.

Like any good story, "Mary Ellen's will" is full of twists and turns.

But its greatest strength, and public service, reflects Hancock's relentless reporting and gifted prose, and the entire project team's attention to accuracy and detail.

Their contributions make it difficult to view the "Battle for 4949 Swiss" without thinking of our own aging relatives, and wondering whether vultures circle overhead.   

It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delay-less

Came in from lunch and on our mega-screen in the Poynter lobby, MSNBC had a talking head with this caption running at the bottom of the screen. I know TV folks use the term Chyron for such video text inserts; I vote for a new term: footline.

In any case, it said "Delayed Reaction."

At first, I took it literally and waited for something that would explain what reaction was being delayed.

D'Oh. It was wordplay, a punnish reference to the resignation from Congress of former House majority leader Tom DeLay, Texas exterminator turned Washington power broker.

In print, I think I would have gotten the joke and wondered why I was slow on the uptake when Chyron editors were having fun with language. I couldn't hear the audio, which would have provided the context, just as a lead would in a newspaper, or for that matter, a web site.

But I'm burying the lead. If you want an intimate view of the deposed Delay, at  3:10 p.m. today, tune into newly-launched Washington Post radio to hear Peter Perl, who filleted DeLay in a Post magazine profile that revealed him so nakedly that House colleagues couldn't believe DeLay would let a reporter, especially one from the Post, get that close. Peter, who has had a distinguished career at the Post, just did what he always did, even in 1974-75 when he was my first bureau chief at the Manchester (Conn.) Journal Inquirer: All the stuff that most reporters would regale each other with at the bar, Peter put in the paper. He earned the trust of DeLay and other subjects by immersing himself in their worlds, and then reporting what he saw and heard, without fear or favor.

You can hear him deconstruct DeLay @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/wtwpradio/listen.html

I guarantee it will be worth your time.

Digging deep in San Jose

Many of you, like me, have  read about this already in Romenesko, but I wanted to make sure to bookmark the San Jose Mercury News investigative series, "Tainted Trials, Stolen Justice" (registration required but it works for all Knight Ridder papers) produced by a team led by Rick Tulsky, who shared a 1987 Pulitzer at the Philadelphia Inquirer for a probe disorder in that city's court system. 

Given the exhaustive attention to detail as evident in its online package, and the attention the work is getting, along with the Pulitzer board's acceptance of online content in submissions, I'd expect the package to be in the running next year.

Married to online's tools, such as this Flash presentation of cases, the cross-platform presentation may have its greatest impact online.

In any case, it's the kind of public service journalism (go to the Pulitzer site  and search by category)that Knight Ridder used to be famous for, and the reason I was so proud to work for the chain in its Washington Bureau for 5 years in the early 90s.

A side note: Given the dismaying news coming from KR's business side, it's also heartening to see the valuable work on the Iraq war that's emerged from the Washington Bureau.