Hannah Giles, the young woman who dressed up and posed as a whore in the BigGovernment.com ACORN child prostitution sting videos, is an aspiring investigative reporter and National Journalism Center intern. You can read her Townhall.com bio here. Not familiar with NJC? Go here.
Actually, I shouldn’t say “aspiring,” as she’s already accomplished something nobody from 60 Minutes, The New York Times, or any other mainstrream media thought to do, and that is find a way to expose the dirty truth behind the closed doors of ACORN. She was able to do that because she asked the right question, unemcumbered by the liberal conventional wisdom that blinds so many Mainstream Media journalists.
Reminds me of the undercover video stories done by Diane Sawyer years ago. Remember the green meat stories?
I hope Giles and her partner in this daring enterprise, James O’Keefe, spark a mass movement of young conservatives who decide to become investigative journalists. As I’ve been telling such folks for years now, there is a target-rich environment out there just waiting to be exposed.
And a good place to start learning how to do that is the Database 101 Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting program that I started in 2000 at The Heritage Foundation and which continues today. Most of the one-day seminars are held at the National Press Club and are always free of charge for attendees.
Earlier this summer, we took the program on the road to Pittsburgh for the Right Online conference in conjunction with the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, that is building a nationwide corps of investigative types. Among the independent groups with which Franklin works is the State Policy Network of conservative and libertarian-oriented state-focused think tanks. My apologies to both for previously inaccurately linking them with The Heritage Foundation.
Why is all this important? As Patrick Henry said: “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”
