Deception for Journalism's Sake: A Database

Deception for Journalism's Sake: A Database

Exposing Predators

Across the world, journalists have used undercover techniques to expose individual predators and as well as major sex crime rings.

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

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

The Presidents Club Scandal and Other Such Undercover Exposes

 An undercover investigation by the Financial Times of behavior toward hostesses at The Presidents Club's annual men-only charity event in London and reaction to the story. 

employed as, Financial Times, groping, hired as, hostesses, London, Presidents Club, sexual harassment

Homelessness, Down-and-Out, Broke

Among the most common of poses: journalists who elect to live as tramps, the homeless, or the abject poor.

hoboes, homelessness, lived among, lived among, posed as, posed as, tramps

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

Journalistic Acts of Race, Class, Ethnic and Gender Impersonation

Journalism that required costuming or even physical transformation by reporters reporting on racial, ethnic, gender or social groups not their own.

became, Black Like Me, Hispanic, Native American, posed as, posed as black, race

Working with Migrants; Shadowing the Undocumented

Reporters have worked as migrant laborers and shadowed undocumented workers crossing the border into the United States.

migrant workers, posed as, shadowed, undocumented workers, worked as