Real journalism tells real stories, not YouTube fables to solicit money

YouTube and other internet media sites are loaded with videos in which self-proclaimed truth tellers claim to have uncovered some startling facts that mainstream journalists have either ignored or purposely hidden.

They will, for example, pluck one of the hundreds of bills introduced each year in the state Legislature, portray it as something that’s already been enacted rather than just proposed, and warn viewers about its supposedly devastating effect on their personal finances.

The videos, not unsurprisingly, often end with a plea for donations to support further investigations into nefarious plots.

They are fables posing as journalism, just the sort of propagandistic misinformation that their purveyors pretend to be uncovering.

Meanwhile, real journalists are reporting real stories about real situations that officialdom is really trying to conceal or minimize, as a few recent examples demonstrate.

We’ll begin with nearly a year of reportage by CalMatters.org on the shameful failure of the state Department of Motor Vehicles to lift the licenses of “dangerous drivers with horrifying histories” who have had multiple crashes, some of them fatal, or arrests for drunken driving.

The series is dubbed “Licensed to Kill” and details, case by case, how the DMV routinely allows such menaces to continuing driving. The series has spurred legislative efforts to tighten up an obviously intolerable system. But this week, when DMV Director Steve Gordon appeared at a hearing on the issue, his answers were evasive — mirroring his unwillingness to talk with CalMatters reporters.

Abridged, a newly minted Sacramento website launched by public television station KVIE, had a similar experience with another state agency, the Department of Transportation.

Abridged discovered that Caltrans had kept secret the reason for a two-year delay in the completion of a project to improve Highway 50, one of Saramento’s busiest freeways.

After obtaining and perusing 2,000 pages of reports and emails, plus lawsuit documents, Abridged found that “a concrete mixture used for new HOV lanes and concrete replacement on Highway 50 did not meet Caltrans strength standards, leading to the reconstruction of a section of the highway in East Sacramento and a delay in the construction’s completion.”

Instead of telling the public why the project was delayed, “the transportation agency had blamed the delays on heavy winter rains, crashes on the highway and the discovery that the preexisting concrete on Highway 50 was in worse condition than expected.”

On a local level, school districts and counties have paid billions of dollars to settle claims of child abuse under a state law that allowed supposed victims to cite instances going back decades. But the Los Angeles Times “found a practice of paying for plaintiffs among a nebulous network of vendors, who usher people desperate for cash toward a law firm that could profit significantly from their business.”

In other words, local government officials could have done what the Times reporters did but were hoodwinked, wanted to erase the shame and failed to diligently examine the claims.

Back in Sacramento, as the state budget leaks red ink, the Legislature is spending hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps over $1 billion, to build itself a new annex to the state Capitol and being ultra-secret about the details, even requiring confidentiality agreements to avoid information leaks.

However one television reporter, KCRA’s Ashley Zavala, has pestered officials constantly, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, about what is happening behind the fences, how much is being spent and what is being purchased and has aired a series of reports about her discoveries. Her reportage finally cracked the wall of secrecy and legislative officials issued a sketchy summary about the project.

These are examples of real journalism, not the phony YouTube videos, and the public should understand and value the difference.