Deception for Journalism's Sake: A Database

Infiltrating the Far Extremes

Journalists who infiltrated U.S.-based Nazi bunds, the Ku Klux Klan, the Gomorrah, and other secret societies and closed groups.

joined, Ku Klux Klan, lived as, Nazis, posed as, White Socialists, White Supremacists

Undercover in U.S. Political Campaigns

Going undercover as volunteers or invited guests has gotten reporters an inside look at some U.S. political campaigns. So has shadowing the candidates in their off-hours.

Barack Obama, campaign, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, presidential, U.S. political campaigns, worked as

Quacks, Thieves, Scam Artists and Hucksters

These are stings to expose scam artists, quacks and hucksters who prey on the needs or naivete of their customers, clients, or patients.

black arts, charletons, fortune tellers, hidden cameras, hucksters, mesmerists, posed as client, posed as patient, quackery, quacks, scam artists, stem cells, thieves, witches

Medicare and Medicaid Fraud

Medicare and Medicaid fraud have been perennial reporting topics since the 1960s, often requiring undercover techniques to amass specific details.

fraud, medicaid, medicare, posed as patient, presented as patient, scam, undercover

Asylums Undercover

Since the 1870s, journalists have been posing as patients or attendants to expose horrid conditions and treatment inside mental hospitals. Nellie Bly, incidentally, was not the first.

asylums, insane asylum, posed as, worked as