Deception for Journalism's Sake: A Database

Deception for Journalism's Sake: A Database

Education Undercover

Reporters have presented as teachers or students to get an inside view of what goes on in schools and colleges.

posed as, student, teacher, worked as

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

Uncloaking the Lobbyists

 Reporter efforts to get inside the world of lobbyists, both on Capitol Hill and in the statehouses.

entered surreptitously, Eric Lipton, ken silverstein, Nellie Bly, posed as client, Undercover

Exposing Predators

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

Other People's Work

Reporters encounter or inhabit the lives of very hard-laboring others.

class passing, day laborers, low-wage workers, mercenaries, migrants, posed as, tramps, unemployed, worked as

Undercover Along the Food Chain

Reporters have taken the undercover route from slaughterhouses and chicken- and pork-processing plants to fast-food chains and supermarkets to understand the system.

Food Lion, meatpacking, posed as, poultry processing, slaughterhouses, Smithfield, supermarkets, worked as

Undercover Journalism Debated

Undercover journalism has been the subject of heated discussions, especially since the late 1970s, and whenever an undercover sting causes a stir.

controversy, debate, discussion, food lion. turkmenistan, MIrage Tavern

Lapses

These are examples of undercover reportage that were considered to have crossed ethical lines or that caused major legal wrangles.