Upending a $17 billion project with leaked documents
Feb. 26, 2021, Community Impact Newspaper, Austin, TX
It’s a reporter’s dream to be exclusively leaked documents regarding negotiations for the largest single economic development proposal in Texas history. It takes something else to use the documents in a bombshell story. I pressed my editors, publisher, and CEO to run this story, breaking the company’s policy against unnamed sources. The story was too big to bury. However, what I will remember most about this project was navigating the verification process, solidifying trust with the source (and talking them off the proverbial ledge) and ironing out the legal ramifications of the story/use of confidential city documents with company lawyers.
