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FINS: Communicating the Emerging Philosophy of The Information Age
FEDERAL INFORMATION NEWS SYNDICATE
Vol IV, Issue No. 7                                April 1, 1996 (no joke!)


CLOSING THE "VALUES-GAP":
Computer Supported Investigative Journalism
By Vigdor Schreibman

     My sensory beacon is constantly on the lookout for those committed
citizens, who often seem to be nowhere yet potentially everywhere, who
possess the courage and will to violate with impunity the established norms
of materialism, and instead, turn the intellectual wasteland that scars much
of American society into a promising sanctuary.  So let me tell you a little
about Susan B. Long and David Burnham, who are in the process of introducing
over the Internet the notion of Computer Supported Investigative Journalism.

     Susan has a Ph.D in sociology (quantitative methods and criminology),
and is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Quantitative
Methods of the School of Management, at Syracuse University.  David graduated
from Harvard College with a BA in American History, then worked as a writer
and reporter for a number of national news organizations including The New
York Times Washington Bureau.  He is author of "A Law Unto Itself" (Random
House, 1990), which was honored as the "Best Investigative Book of 1990" by
Investigative Reporters and Editors.  He also wrote "Above the Law"
(Scribner/Lisa Drew Books, 1996), which was just released with deserving
applause by The Nation, and other reviewers.

     I first met David Burnham at a "Privacy Summit" meeting this past Jan
12, sponsored by the Electronic Privacy Information Clearinghouse on Capitol
Hill. Burnham described his plans to establish, with his partner Susan Long,
an intensive program to teach reporters and editors how they can become
aggressive investigative reporters to improve the functioning of what they
describe as "the lens of democracy." They hope to encourage through this
initiative the sophisticated use of government enforcement data by the
leading media organizations such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York
Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, etc.  This initiative is part of the
mission being carried out by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse
(TRAC), a data research organization connected with Syracuse University, co-
directed by Burnham and Long.

     "The Problem" described by Burnham and Long in their own words, is this:
     American news organizations, much more than is understood by the
     public, tend to be passive and unreflective.  Although aggressive
     investigative reporting frequently is celebrated by journalists, it is
     in fact a rare phenomenon.  Despite the self-congratulatory bombast, the
     basically acquiescent nature of daily journalism is a problem long
     recognized by a handful of astute observers.  More than three quarters
     of a century ago, for example, the Commentator Walter Lippmann described
     the media scene in an unflattering way in his famous collection of
     essays, Public Opinion.  News and truth, he wrote in 1922, "are not the
     same thing and must be carefully distinguished.  The function of news is
     to signalize an event, the function of truth is to bring to light hidden
     facts, to set them in relation to each other, and [to] make a picture of
     reality on which men can act.

     Now Susan and David have also put their heads together to marshall the
power of computers and the Internet as a tool for all investigative
journalists, presumably including those that are emerging through the many-
to-many citizen-based electronic penny press on the Internet.  Their first
subject is: the Internal Revenue Service and the incoherent criminal
enforcement that this powerful agency practices.  Taxpayers in some American
communities are at least ten times more likely to face criminal charges from
the Internal Revenue Service than those living in others, according to a new
analysis of internal government records prepared by TRAC.  On the other hand,
TRAC also shows that "the chances the IRS will recommend criminal charges
against anyone are extraordinarily remote: only 17 per million.  (The FBI
says you're five times more likely to be murdered.)"

     The district-to-district variations in IRS criminal enforcement efforts,
are surprising.  Among the most active areas in the country were two federal
judicial districts in Oklahoma (Tulsa and Oklahoma City), one district in
Kentucky (Louisville), the two in West Virginia (Wheeling and Charleston),
and the New York district covering Manhattan and Bronx and the northern
suburbs.  Among the least active were Vermont and New Hampshire, one district
in Wisconsin (Madison), one district in Alabama (Montgomery) and Kansas
(Topeka).  Also among the less active were one district in Michigan
(Detroit), Massachusetts (Boston), Wisconsin (Milwaukee), and a district in
Missouri (St. Louis).

     The TRAC analysis also discloses that IRS staffing was erratic, with
some districts enjoying ten times more revenue agents and criminal
investigators than others in relation to their population.   Moreover,
despite the IRSs core mission -- to collect taxes in an effective and fair
manner -- the tax agency focuses 54 percent of its criminal investigations on
other kinds of matters.  This includes a hugh range of subjects such as
drugs, official corruption, money laundering, etc.

     The whole IRS data base and all the pertinent facts are available at
     TRAC's IRS Site on the World Wide Web: http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/

     Available at the site -- for viewing, printing, or downloading -- is a
wide range of additional (and revealing) kinds of information.  At the
national level there are summary graphs, tables and maps, analyzing
enforcement patterns for the United States.  Similar analysis are available
regarding individual districts and how they compare with other areas and the
nation as a whole.  Finally, information about each individual referral --
when it was made, whether it was prosecuted, the reason given when the U.S.
Attorney declined to prosecute, etc. -- can be downloaded. (The names of
those involved in each IRS referral have been deleted by the government for
privacy reasons.)

     TRACs IRS Web Site will be opened to the public at 6:30 PM, Saturday,
April 13.  Members of the media, however, can gain immediate access to the
IRS Web Site with a password that can be obtained by following the
instructions included at the Site at present.  This will give news
organizations the lead time required to prepare their individual reports.


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**THE PENNY PRESS AND CITIZEN-BASED JOURNALISM IS RETURNING WITH AVENGENCE**
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Federal Information News Syndicate, Vigdor Schreibman, Editor & Publisher,
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