Undercover journalism

Undercover journalism is a form of media reporting in which a journalist poses as someone else to gain access to information. Often, undercover journalists falsify their identity to be accepted by members of a group to determine if allegations are true. For example, a reporter might lie about her identify and employment experience to be hired as an aide in a nursing home to assess the validity of reports of patient neglect and abuse.

Undercover journalism differs from investigative journalism. For the latter, a reporter may spend months or years conducting research on a topic. It is possible, however, for a reporter to be categorized as both an undercover and investigative journalist while working on a story.

The practice of undercover journalism is fraught with controversy. Journalists working undercover must lie about their identity. Such a misrepresentation goes against the basic tenets of journalism, in which being perceived as trustworthy is paramount. Proponents of undercover journalism contend that such deceit is sometimes the only way to expose the truth and protect the public from harm. Opponents feel that the practice casts a shadow on the field and causes the public to view journalists, and the media in general, with suspicion.

Background

Undercover journalism is a controversial practice because it undermines the integrity of the profession. In The Elements of Journalism, veteran journalists Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel list truth as the first, and one of the most important, of the ten elements of journalism:

1. Journalism’s first obligation is to tell the truth.
2. Journalism’s first loyalty is to citizens.
3. Journalism’s essence is a discipline of verification.
4. Journalism’s practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. Journalism must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. Journalism must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
7. Journalism must strive to keep the significant interesting and relevant.
8. Journalism must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Journalism’s practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
10. Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news.

Those who are against the practice feel that journalists should not lie to get a story and should instead seek the truth and report it. They also worry that if undercover stings become commonplace, the public will no longer trust reporters and lose faith in the media as well.

On the other hand, some people feel that it is sometimes necessary to go undercover—and to lie—to expose and end injustices. According to these individuals, reporters must occasionally violate, at least in part, the first element of journalism to uphold the second. They contend that in some cases, deception is the only way to discover the truth.

A forty-some-year-old investigation is often cited as the reason many reporters and editors disapprove of undercover journalism. In 1978, a group of reporters from the Chicago Sun-Times went undercover to expose corrupt city inspectors. The reporters purchased a run-down bar called the Mirage, installed cameras, and worked as bartenders. To avoid entrapment, they did not offer the inspectors bribes but instead waited to see what they asked for to overlook blatant safety hazards such as frayed wires, rats, roaches, and raw sewage. After two months, they reported their findings in a series of twenty-five articles. Their work resulted in the firing or suspension of city and state inspectors. A few inspectors were even convicted of bribery but did not serve jail time.

The journalists were praised for helping to curtail the corruption in Chicago. The Pulitzer Prize committee selected the series for its “local reporting prize.” Then Pulitzer board of directors stepped in and decided not to award the Sun-Timesthe prize because the series was based on deception. Their decision cast a dark shadow on the practice of undercover reporting.

Even reporters who feel that undercover journalism is acceptable contend that it should only be practiced when no other option to discover the truth exists—and only in cases where public safety is at risk. They also believe that undercover journalism should be reserved only for hard-hitting news and should not be used for sensational stories that bolster ratings or sell newspapers.

Reporters should also keep in mind that undercover journalism can destroy careers and ruin lives. It sometimes also puts reporters in danger and requires them to break the law. Undercover journalism should be a tool of last resort.

Overview

Undercover journalism has been practiced by reporters throughout history. While this type of reporting has a negative stigma, it often generates positive results because it results in eliminating injustices. Undercover journalists are often at risk of physical harm, criminal prosecution, and even death but can become famous if they succeed at their task. The following are some famous undercover journalists and cases:

Nellie Bly

Victorian newspaper reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) was one of the first to gain fame from undercover journalism. In 1887, Bly pretended to be insane so she could be admitted to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island and expose the conditions there. To prepare for the “role,” Bly pretended to be a Cuban immigrant named Nellie Moreno. She stopped bathing and brushing her teeth and walked the streets in a daze until she was picked up by police and diagnosed by a doctor as being “delusional and undoubtedly insane.” In the hospital, Bly witnessed the horrific treatment the patients were subjected to, which included having buckets of ice-cold water dumped over their heads, being fed rancid food, and being beaten and threatened with sexual assault. After spending ten days in the asylum, Bly published her findings in a series of articles in the New York World and later in the bestselling book, Ten Days in a Mad-House.

Walter Francis White

Light-skinned with blue eyes, Walter Francis White was born into a Black family, which put him in a unique position to work undercover to help African Americans in the South. A journalist working with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), White went undercover from 1918–1921 and attended race riots and lynchings. White gained the trust of those around him and published his findings in newspapers throughout the United States. He is credited with exposing the terrible violence Black people in the South faced during this time.

Tim Lopes

Tim Lopes was a veteran undercover reporter in Brazil. Lopes used a miniature camera and hidden microphone to expose drug traffickers in his country. Lopes felt that the government had relinquished control of poor areas to drug lords. He routinely went undercover to expose the drug traffickers. He also pretended to be a cocaine addict and spent two months in a drug rehabilitation facility. Lopes was murdered in 2002 by the leader of a drug gang.

Sara Mojtehedzadeh

In 2017, the Toronto Star claimed that it had sent its reporter, Sara Mojtehedzadeh, undercover because there was no other way to get the information it needed. Mojtehedzadeh spent a month on the croissant production line at Fiera Foods, an industrial bakery. Among the many health and safety violations Mojtehedzadeh witnessed were workers wearing dirty gloves, standing in piles of raw, rancid dough, and being pressured to work at a frantic, dangerous pace.

Prior to going undercover, Mojtehedzadeh spent months investigating temp agencies and the places they sent their employees to work. She came across several health and safety violations at Fiera Foods and learned that three deaths had occurred at the company or its affiliates. Among them was twenty-three-year-old Amina Darby, a refugee from Guinea who was killed when her hijab was pulled into a machine on the assembly line where she was working. Darby took the job to try to save money for nursing school.

Because of Mojtehedzadeh’s undercover reporting, Fiera Foods was fined $300,000 for Darby’s death and volunteered to undergo more rigorous health and safety inspections.

Suki Kim

In 2011, Suki Kim became the first writer ever to go undercover in North Korea. She posed as an Evangelical Christian ESL (English as a second language) teacher to learn more about what life was like for the people of the communist nation. For six months, Kim taught 170 young men—the elite of North Korea—while living with them in a military compound. Kim and her students were under constant surveillance by “minders” who lived directly below her dorm room. Every lesson plan Kim used had to be preapproved by censors. Separated from their families, her students were not allowed to own cell phones or access the Internet. Before leaving the country, some of Kim’s students expressed a desire to see her off but were not allowed to leave the facility. Kim published her findings in the book Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea’s Elite.

Peter Warren

A Canadian journalist, Peter Warren spent a week undercover as a prisoner in Stony Mountain Penitentiary in Manitoba. Warren sought to bring media attention to David Milgaard, who was convicted of raping and murdering Gail Miller, a nursing assistant, when he was sixteen. Milgaard was released in 1992 after serving twenty-three years. DNA testing proved his innocence in 1997. Warren also went uncover as a patient in a psychiatric ward to investigate patient care there.

Famous Cases

Undercover journalists have used their deception to uncover and report crimes, lies, cover-ups, and abuse. A journalist in 2020 went undercover to expose the life of a slave in Dubai, posing as a migrant lured to the country under false promises. Another reporter in Ghana went undercover to expose a doctor using his power to sexually assualt people. In the US, awarding winning journalist Shane Bauer went undercover to expose the abuse and mismanagement in the prison system. Undercover journalist can deliver the hidden truth, but such acts can have consequences.

Going undercover may require journalists to break the law. If journalists give false information on an employment application, they are no longer protected by the First Amendment and could be charged with crimes such as trespassing. This was the case in the famous Food Lion case. In 1992, ABC investigated allegations that the grocery store chain was selling spoiled meat. It questioned current and former employees but was unable to obtain definitive proof. Then two ABC producers applied for jobs in Food Lion’s meat department. They lied about their job history on their employment applications. The producers used hidden cameras and microphones to record the deceptive practices they witnessed while on the job. Six months later, during sweeps week, ABC aired the report on its PrimeTime Live series.

Food Lion sued, and a jury believed that ABC had crossed a line of integrity by sending its producers into the grocery store. It awarded Food Lion $5.5 million for fraud and trespassing. However, on appeal, the charges were first reduced and later dropped.

In 2007, an FBI agent impersonated a reporter from the Associated Press to try to reveal the location and identity of a fifteen-year-old who had made bomb threats at a high school near Seattle, Washington. The agent communicated with the boy, whose identity was not known, and asked him to click on a link to read a news article. Once the juvenile did this, the FBI was able to upload software onto his computer, tracking his location and leading to his arrest. The Associated Press was furious and claimed the FBI’s actions belittled journalists everywhere. Former FBI Director James Comey defended the bureau’s actions because they were in the best interest of the public.

Bibliography

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Grieve, Peter. “40 Years Later, Reporters Remember How They Bought a Bar to Expose Corruption.” Chicago Sun-Times, 26 Jan. 2018, chicago.suntimes.com/news/40-years-later-reporters-remember-how-they-bought-a-bar-to-expose-corruption/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

Grygiel, Chris. “FBI Says It Impersonated AP Reporter in 2007 Case.” AP News, 8 Nov. 2014, apnews.com/89470f11697641518c1043aab01773ac. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

Kim, Suki. Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea’s Elite. Broadway Books, 2014.

Kovach, Bill and Tom Rosenstiel. The Elements of Journalism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect. Three Rivers Press, 2014.

Kroeger, Brooke, and Pete Hamill. Undercover Reporting, the Truth about Deception. Northwestern University Press, 2012.

Mojtehedzadeh, Sara, and Brendan Kennedy. “Undercover in Temp Nation.” Toronto Star, 8 Sept. 2017, projects.thestar.com/temp-employment-agencies/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

Platsky, Jeff. “Undercover Reporting Used by the Ethically Challenged.” Press Connects, 20 Oct. 2017, www.pressconnects.com/story/news/connections/from-the-staff/2017/10/20/undercover-reporting-used-ethically-challenged/761124001/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

Schwarz, Jon. “Undercover in North Korea: ‘All Paths Lead to Catastrophe.’” The Intercept, 4 Sept. 2017, theintercept.com/2017/09/04/undercover-in-north-korea-all-paths-lead-to-catastrophe/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.