Credibility

Ben’s tweet last week about his latest story about the Dozier School for Boys was something I needed to hear.

“This story is based on six years of reporting, the review of thousands of documents and interviews with more than 100 people.”

It seems like all the talk about journalism lately has been the kind that crops up every few years, when someone makes something up, or makes someone up, nobody catches it, and it gets into print. Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, and Michael Finkel come to mind.

Now, there’s Rolling Stone, and the UVA rape story source problems. And that Stuyvesant High School kid who didn’t really make $72 million trading stocks.

So instead of paying attention to that, go read Ben’s story. It’s real, folks, and it hits hard. Share it. Let’s shift the dialogue.

They started with shovels, then trowels. The first hole they’d dug was empty, nothing but Jackson County clay. But, now, on the third day of digging, a graduate student got Kimmerle’s attention. Her eyes were wide.

“Want to come take a look?”

Kimmerle descended into the open grave.

The months to come would bring protests and press conferences, more threats and a massive search for a second cemetery. Kimmerle would come close to breaking. She’d find more bodies than anybody expected. She’d find an empty casket. She’d find a hundred more questions.

Now, though, in early September 2013, at the bottom of the grave, she brushed away the earth.

There in the dirt was a perfect set of baby teeth.