A.C. Thompson Wins 2011 I.F.

Stone Award for Work on Police Corruption

By Laura Childs for Boston University class Newswriting and Reporting (Fall 2011)

Journalism is moving towards quick and stupid news, said investigative journalist A.C. Thompson on October 11 at Boston University. A.C. Thompson was awarded the 2011 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence for his in-depth work on corruption and criminal justice that uncovered the innocence of two wrongly convicted San Francisco prisoners and the corruption of the New Orleans police force after Hurricane Katrina. The I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence, presented by the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, honors the life of investigative journalist I.F. Stone and each year recognizes a journalist whose work captures the spirit of independence and honesty that I.F. Stone embodied. All governments are liars, I.F. Stone once said. Thompson followed a similar path as Stone as a staff reporter for ProPublica, a non-profit news organization, where he focuses on human rights and criminal justice, taking a special interest in the forgotten victims of abused power. I found myself talking to the people at the bottom, said A.C. Thompson about his reporting. By talking to prisoners in Oakland who had been sent away and forgotten, Thompson uncovered the innocence of two San Francisco men wrongly convicted of murder. Thompsons most recent reporting in New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina took three years to complete. It resulted in prosecutions of police officers for a series of hate crimes and the murder of a local citizen named Henry Glover. His reporting received widespread recognition, culminating in the I.F. Stone Medal. His reporting was dogged, meticulous and led to corners of New Orleans that were either never visited or had long since been abandoned by the army of journalists that flocked to the city for coverage of the storm and then moved on, Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. In the second half of the ceremony, Maggie Mulvihill, co-director and senior investigative producer for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University, moderated the question and answer session. And later, Thompson answered questions from the audience, which consisted mainly of journalism students and aspiring reporters. Thompson offered a different perspective of journalism to the students in the crowd. I consider my work to be a form of archaeology, Thompson said. I seek to excavate the facts that others have buried. The best stories are a synthesis of good interviews and good digging, he said. Thompson maintains that investigative reporting is the most crucial form of journalism. Figure out what you want journalism to be, and make it that, said Thompson in an interview after the ceremony. There are a million stories out there. You have to be dedicated. Thompsons reporting was not simple, he said. He spent three years on his story on the corruption in New Orleans, travelling back and forth between San Francisco and New Orleans. He struggled with many setbacks, from sources afraid of divulging information to local officials refusing to talk to an outsider. And he occasionally

questioned himself, wondering if he was representing the victims stories well enough. In the end, Thompsons search for the truth prevailed. Theres a hard balance to strike, understanding the bigger picture and being emotional, said Thompson. I became the non-sentimental watchdog for the underdog.