Seattle P-I chief investigative reporter Eric Nalder takes a call on his cell phone from a tipster. Photo by Phyllis Fletcher. View more Seattle P–I photos.

Stop the Presses!

03/12/2009

The Seattle Post–Intelligencer has been known for its investigative reporting. Over the decades, stories have uncovered wrongdoing and changed policy. KUOW's Phyllis Fletcher sits down with one prominent investigative reporter from the P–I.

The Seattle P–I exposed poor conditions at state hospitals in the 1940s. Corruption in the Seattle Police Department in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s, the P–I hired Eric Nalder. He started as a general assignment reporter, then he covered desegregation in Seattle Public Schools.

Nalder: "I was always a reporter who was unsatisfied with the information that was sitting there before me."

The P–I soon reassigned Nalder to investigations.

Nalder: "I was always digging into stuff. And in fact, I was quite nuts, because everything seemed like it was a deeper story to me. And editors and even fellow reporters noticed that."

It was never about the "gotcha" moment with Nalder. It had to be bigger than that.

Nalder: "Something happening under the surface that the public didn't know about. The most important thing a reporter can do is to bring people information that they don't already know about, that's meaningful and significant in their lives."

Nalder has worked for the P–I, the Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News. He won two Pulitzers at the Times — one with colleagues, and one alone. He has exposed safety problems at the Hanford nuclear plant and lax regulation of oil tankers that led to accidents and spills. Nalder has covered misappropriation of public money for private use and regulators who looked the other way. He has exposed abuses of power, cover–ups, sex scandals, and government lies. His reports have ended careers and vindicated whistleblowers. New regulations and blue ribbon panels have formed in the wake of his stories. And he's had a lot of help at the P–I.

Nalder: "I have a fellow like Daniel Lathrop who's an expert in using databases. People in our library, researchers in our library — other experts in our newspaper who have expertise in business, expertise in finance, expertise in government operations — all of these elements, that's what a newspaper does that is special to a newspaper."

Imagine if you had all that at your disposal when something bad happened to you.

Brown: "Eric Nalder had so many resources and, you know, he's a reporter."

Krystal Brown lives in Shoreline. She's 21. When she was 18, a guy driving another car sideswiped her.

Brown: "I was stopped at the stop sign and he took a right onto my street and hit me."

Nobody was seriously hurt and it was clear to Krystal that it wasn't her fault. But later, she got a copy of the police report.

Brown: "That's when I, you know, found out that what he was saying was a total lie."

The guy telling the "total lie" was a King County Sheriff's Deputy. He's also the one who hit her. The deputy blamed the accident on Krystal. She even got a ticket.

Eric Nalder happened to be working on a series about cover–ups, intimidation and possible criminal behavior among King County deputies. He and his staff had a lot of information about the deputy who hit Krystal's car.

Brown: "It was nice to know that it wasn't just me who was angry about the situation and wanted to shed some light on what was happening within the police force."

The P–I exposed the deputy's disciplinary record, and interviewed other women who said they were unfairly intimidated by the same deputy.

For Eric Nalder, Krystal's car accident was part of a pattern of cover–ups and deception.

Nalder: "I went and independently interviewed witnesses who had not been interviewed by the police, by the way, and put together what I think was a very, very credible case that it was the police officer who probably should have been cited. Not the teenager."

A judge decided the deputy was not credible. Krystal sued, and the County settled. She got $10,000.

Brown: "It's nice when, when a reporter wants to bring everything into light and let people know what really happened."

King County Sheriff Sue Rahr complained about the series of reports that Krystal's story was part of, but the series prompted Rahr to convene a panel. The panel looked into problems revealed in the series and recommended independent oversight of sheriff's deputies.

Krystal has a feeling that if the P–I hadn't been there, nobody would have been interested in her story. That it's "small potatoes." She knows she still has the Seattle Times, but her mom, Vicki, says the likely disappearance of the P–I is a loss for the Seattle area.

Vicki Brown: "I think that the public will not be as well–informed. It's kinda like having a debate. Who are you gonna have the debate with? It's a debate with yourself, you know?"

Nalder: "First you have two voices, which is very important in your community. But you also have the two staffs working a little bit harder to outdo the other."

Nalder says people in power who are doing illegal or questionable things might be glad to see his job go away. But maybe not for long. Because when he investigates someone, and he's about to put them in the paper, and they're all mad and yelling at him and stuff, he tells them this:

Nalder: "You know, I'll bet you someday that you'll think of me when something happens that you want the press to look into. And you'll call me. I'll bet you you're gonna do that."

And he says they have.

Phyllis Fletcher, KUOW News.

© Copyright 2009, KUOW