Sometimes, getting the scoop on a story means doing more than simple research and interviews. Sometimes it requires a bigger and riskier sacrifice, like going undercover. Although the ethics and credibility of undercover tactics have been called into question, in some cases, the only way to unearth the truth is to go incognito.
Fabricated identities, hidden cameras, and gruesome and terrifying
revelations are just a few of the aspects involved in this insider
method of getting the story. And it’s hard not to admire these gutsy
journalists’ passion and dedication to their careers, as they infiltrate
everything from psychiatric hospitals and federal penitentiaries to
jihadist terrorist groups and soccer hooligan gangs. This is definitely a
career path for those seeking thrills, excitement, and danger.
10. Elizabeth Jane Cochrane "Nellie Bly"
Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, also known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was one
of the first female reporters in the US. However, when she was pressed
into writing about what were deemed appropriate topics for women
reporters, such as gardening and fashion, Cochrane moved from Pittsburgh
to New York in 1887. There, an editor at the New York World
dubiously offered her an undercover assignment that required both
courage and daring. Cochrane was to act insane, get committed to a
lunatic asylum, and report on the conditions inside.
Few women of the day would have dreamed of doing such a thing, but
Cochrane did, despite her editor’s admission that he didn’t know exactly
how he would get her out again. Cochrane feigned madness and amnesia,
and she was soon admitted to the Blackwell Island Lunatic Asylum. She
spent 10 days enduring abusive mistreatment from nurses, disgusting
rat-infected conditions, dirty drinking water, and spoiled food.
Released upon request of The World, Cochrane wrote an exposé
about her experiences that led to more thorough examinations in insanity
cases and an $850,000 increase in budget for the Department of
Charities and Collections.
9. Chris Terrill
In 1992, Terrill disguised himself as a wildlife smuggler in order to
investigate the major gangs involved in the illegal orangutan trade. He
has also gone undercover posing as a trader of women to expose human
trafficking gangs operating in Denmark, Belgium, and the Dominican
Republic. The work of infiltrating and exposing the activities of such
groups makes Terrill’s career choice seem a noble and courageous
calling.
8. Peter Warren
Born in London, Peter Warren has worked as a journalist and private
investigator in Canada for over 50 years. He was a talk-show host for 35
of those years and has taken a special interest in cold cases and
wrongful convictions. His undercover work has ranged from spending four
days locked up as a patient in a psychiatric ward, to pretending to be a
would-be investor.
His most gutsy stint, however, may well have been spending an entire
week as a convict in Stony Mountain Penitentiary in Manitoba. Warren
wanted to bring more attention to the case of David Milgaard, a man
wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering a nursing assistant named
Gail Miller. Warren interviewed Milgaard many times about his plight.
Finally, in 1997, Milgaard’s innocence was proven and he was released.
He’d already spent 23 years in prison.
7. Anas Aremeyaw Anas
Ghanaian investigative reporter
Anas Aremeyaw Anas – who does not show his face in public and uses his
anonymity to his advantage – has gone undercover dozens of times in his
native city of Accra. From the beginning, Anas, who started out with a
clear career path as a student reporter, wanted to begin exposing
corruption. And he was soon in charge of investigative journalism at
Ghanaian newspaper The Crusading Guide, which he now co-owns as The New Crusading Guide. Way to climb the career ladder.
Anas has posed as a janitor in a brothel to expose child prostitution,
pretended to be an assembly-line worker at a cookie factory (where
maggot-infested flour was being used), and even checked into a
psychiatric ward as a patient. While there, he caught one of the
orderlies selling drugs (and recorded himself buying them), saw unfed
patients eating from dumpsters, and documented how a corpse was left for
days in a ditch until it was taken away in a van used to transport
food.
Anas’s goal is to make sure his government does something about corruption and crimes by providing it with evidence.
6. John Howard Griffin
In 1959, white novelist John Howard Griffin began taking the drug
Oxsoralen, which, in combination with sunlamp exposure, turned his skin
black. No other alteration to his appearance was necessary, apart from
shaving his head. He had become, to all eyes, a black man. Essentially,
he had changed race for his career.
Griffin traveled through the Deep South of the United States with the
aim of discovering what it was like to be black. A Texan by birth, he
had been taught by society that black people were different and
inferior. A variety of experiences – ranging from smuggling Jews to
safety with the French Resistance, to suffering from years of blindness
after being struck by shrapnel in WWII – had a profound effect on him.
What’s more, Griffin began to question whether racism was merely a
“Southern problem,” or if it was, as he had come to believe, a “human
problem.”
For a month, Griffin got a close-up look at how black people were treated. He called it “a dirty bath” of hatred. His book, Black Like Me, documented his journey and saw him receive death threats from some of his fellow white men. He was even hanged in effigy.
5. Stuart Goldman
Stuart Goldman is an American reporter who became known as “the journalistic hitman” for an acid-tongued column he wrote for the Los Angeles Times.
His undercover work includes investigating TV evangelist Terry
Cole-Whittaker and even infiltrating a UFO cult. In the ‘90s, Goldman
went undercover to expose tabloid media, both print and television, as a
criminal organization. For three years, he used the alias Will Runyon
and gathered information as a “mole.” At the end of his investigation,
he claimed that the tabloids had an extensive spy-network, including
doctors and bodyguards, who would report on celebrity movements.
Reporters would sift through celebrity trash looking for “prescriptions,
early pregnancy tests, [and] letters.”
The tabloids, Goldman reported, even hired private investigators to
find unlisted phone numbers. They would call the number, pretending to
be someone else, and glean information that way. In 1998, he published
his findings in a book, titled Snitch: Confessions of a Tabloid Spy.
There must be plenty of people in Goldman’s profession who don’t like
him very much. That sort of dedication to your work takes guts.
4. Donal MacIntyre
Commenting on his 20-year career, Irish investigative journalist Donal
MacIntyre says, “I’ve been shot at, beaten, abused on the streets in
front of my children and forced to move house more than 50 times because
of death threats.”
During his career, MacIntyre has gone incognito repeatedly and in
various different situations. He has assumed roles in environments
ranging from the adventure sports industry to care homes for vulnerable
people – where he exposed conditions that led to one institution closing
and two individuals being cautioned for assault.
However, one of MacIntyre’s best-known and bravest undercover exploits
happened in 1999, when he posed as a prospective member of the Chelsea
Headhunters, a notorious gang of football hooligans. During his time
undercover, MacIntyre confirmed that the Headhunters had ties to the
neo-Nazi organization Combat 18. Several gang members were arrested and
convicted as a result of the investigation, and one member, Jason
Marriner, was handed a six-year jail sentence for organizing a clash
with rival fans. MacIntyre was placed under police protection during the
trial.
3. Günter Wallraff
Later, in 1974, he headed to Greece, then under control of the
Ioannides military dictatorship, for perhaps his most dangerous exploit.
Wallraff protested in Athens’s Syntagma Square, chaining himself to a
post to protest human rights violations. And, because he intentionally
didn’t carry any form of ID, he was arrested, beaten and tortured. Even
when his identity was disclosed, Wallraff was imprisoned – and only
released later that year when the dictatorship collapsed.
Incredibly, in 2007, aged 64, Wallraff went undercover in a German call
center. And in 2009, like John Howard Griffin before him (see entry 6),
he posed as a black man to expose racial prejudice, a move that drew
controversy.
In Wallraff’s honor, Swedish dictionary Svenska Akademiens Ordlista has included the word ‘walraffa,’ which means, “to expose misconduct from the inside by assuming a role.”
2. Tim Lopes
Brazilian journalist Tim Lopes grew up in a Rio de Janeiro favela
(slum), and it was most likely this background that furnished him with
his “old-school” technique of working the streets for stories. Lopes
proceeded to go undercover in the favelas to film illegal activities
with a hidden camera. These were dangerous and often neglected areas
where the city government had no control. Instead, criminal gangs and
drug lords ruled.
In 2001, Lopes helped collect undercover footage showing drug dealers
and traffickers openly patrolling the streets with AK-47s. The report
resulted in the police taking action and, ultimately, a decrease in
revenue for the drug lords. Lopes gained a reputation for this kind of
work, and on June 2, 2002, drug traffickers kidnapped him. Lopes was
beaten, brutally tortured, set on fire, and murdered. In the end, he
gave his life for his career.
1. Antonio Salas
Antonio
Salas, an investigative journalist known only by his pseudonym, has
made undercover work a way of life. In his own words, he has lived for
“a year as a Nazi skinhead, a year and half as a dealer of women, [and]
six years as an international terrorist.” Yet while this dangerous
career has required incredible bravery and sacrifice, it has also
scarred the man. Salas says that the terrible things he has seen
undercover give him nightmares.
Showing his dedication, to prepare for his infiltration of a jihadist
terror group, Salas fabricated an elaborate cover story, handwrote a
personal copy of the Quran, and even got circumcised when he was invited
to a bathhouse.
Incredibly, Salas also worked closely with infamous Venezuelan
terrorist Carlos the Jackal, running a website for him. Salas dedicates
himself to his work in order to tell the public what’s really happening.
And one encouraging result has been the letters he’s received from
people who have seen the error of their ways and chosen to change.
“From a very early age I thought that doctor or teacher are the two
best professions you can have,” says Salas, describing his chosen
career. “But I am very rebel and undisciplined for both works. So I
ended up choosing the third option: journalist. Investigate what the
power is trying to hide, and tell the world is also a good way of
feeling useful.”
by Yvonne McArthur
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