Deception for Journalism's Sake: A Database

"Blackbirding" - The Slave System's Just-as-Evil Twin?

Journalists from the United States and Australia get inside the post-Civil War practice of recruiting Pacific Islanders to work the world's non-U.S. plantations on extended contracts of indenture.

colonialism, George Morrison, indenture, J.D. Melvin, missionaries, San Francisco Chronicle, slave ships, slavery, The Age, The Argus, the south, Undercover, W.H. Brommage

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

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