COM to open jo. center

Bernard Baran had served 19 years of three back-to-back life sentences for sexually abusing the children he worked with at a daycare center when in 2004 he again made headlines. This time, however, a newspaper charged his accusers with possibly imprisoning an innocent man.
For years, Baran had insisted he was innocent, and now, an in-depth, investigative report of his conviction ran in the Boston Phoenix, calling into question the fairness of his trial and the credibility of his accusers. The article was entirely investigated, reported and written by four Boston University students.’
The College of Communication is working to make this sort of investigative journalism more prevalent in Massachusetts through a non-profit investigative journalism center that will provide investigative reporting services that are ‘in real danger of disappearing,’ COM Dean Tom Fiedler said.
‘The problem now is the business pressures that the mainstream news organizations have been facing have forced many of them to cut sharply back on investigative reporting or cut back on it all together,’ he said. ‘It’s become an important duty for an organization like ours that has the capability to step in to do so.’
The school will serve as the center’s headquarters, with an office located on the second floor and will provide services to media outlets without the resources to spend months investigating, Fiedler said. Work on the center began six weeks ago when two Boston-area broadcast journalists, who asked to remain anonymous so as not to jeopardize other contractual commitments, brought the proposal to COM, Fiedler said.
‘I think Boston University can become to investigative journalism what university medical schools are to community health,’ he said. ‘Students who hope to be doctors can deliver real health services to the community. Students who are studying investigative journalism can provide quality journalism to the community as well.’
The center is still in the works while organizers focus on fundraising, but Fiedler said he hopes it will open by next semester.
‘ ‘We’re hoping it will have a real positive impact on this community,’ he said. ‘We can be a model for other journalism programs around the country.’
Students from journalism professors Mitch Zuckoff and Dick Lehr’s Investigative Journalism Project course will be some of the trainee reporters investigating the stories for the center, Zuckoff said. The course requires an application process, and only eight to 14 students are accepted.
‘We don’t promise publication, but we promise an intense, in-depth investigative journalism experience,’ Zuckoff said. ‘There are some classes that should take more out of you. You will find that 25th hour in the day.’
Through Zuckoff’s existing course, his students have run front page stories in The Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix and Boston Magazine. On average, his students spend 20 hours a week investigating stories.
Lehr said with the center, he and Zuckoff will have the resources to expand their efforts to teach students in their courses.
‘There will be that basic, shoe-grinding journalism that is the opposite of any Hollywood thing,’ he said. ‘You have to be motivated. You have to have that spirit. You have to think things through, get information from places that are unwilling to give you that information.’
The center will provide more than training, Lehr said.
‘It’s about students getting practical experience, but just as important is that BU takes part in the community,’ he said. ‘If that team of students hadn’t done that story, then the community never would have known about it.’