Hi fellow dreamers! Today, I would like to share a story that is very fitting for the Daily: a story about a journalist.
David Armstrong is currently a reporter for ProPublica, an independent nonprofit investigative journal. He graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and went on to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2002. Throughout his career, Armstrong has worked at various publications, including The Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal.
Armstrong’s interest in journalism and current events can be traced back to his childhood in the 1970s, specifically during the news coverage of former U.S. President Richard Nixon’s notorious Watergate scandal.
“I was a young child when Watergate was happening, and even though I was young, it had a profound effect on me,” Armstrong said. “I thought it was really amazing that two journalists can have such an impact on the world just by doing their job.”
When college rolled around, he went to the Newhouse School with the “express purpose” of learning how to become a better journalist. He found journalism education to be a truly worthwhile experience.
“I had professors who had worked in the field who were really impactful on me and worked above and beyond to try and make me a better journalist. So it was a great experience going there and majoring in journalism,” Armstrong said.
While at Syracuse, Armstrong had an internship with a Syracuse newspaper, where he ended up working as a part-time employee. Armstrong emphasized that this experience confirmed his desire to be a reporter.
“I worked a lot of hours at that newspaper, and it was just an incredible experience, intoxicating too,” he said. “They threw me into breaking news events. I got to work with a lot of veteran journalists who were very helpful in mentoring me, some of whom I remain in contact with. … If I had any doubt at that time, about what career I wanted, it was erased by that experience.”
After college, Armstrong continued on what he called the “pretty traditional road” to becoming a professional journalist. He worked at smaller newspapers before working his way up to larger publications. One of these smaller papers was in Brockton, Mass., where he covered the Brockton City Hall. Covering city hall was a fruitful experience for Armstrong for multiple reasons, including the fact that he had to face the subjects of his articles in person.
“I had to face the people I wrote about every day, because I would go to City Hall every day. … You’re really [held] accountable when you have to see the mayor every day, or city department heads, or the police chief, or people that you’re writing about oftentimes in a not too flattering way,” he said. “So it taught me to be really careful and accurate in what I report and also to make sure that I gave people genuine opportunities to comment on stories or to be involved from their perspective.”
His next stop was the Boston Herald, where he learned to work quickly in what he described as a fun environment.
“I used to joke that everyone should have to work for a tabloid because you really [learn] how to work fast and to really figure out what was important in a story,” he said. “It was a really fun environment to work in. I mean, just crazy characters, crazy stories. The energy in that place is off the charts.”
Armstrong then honed in on developing his investigative skills at the Boston Globe. At the time, the Globe was in its heyday with around 600,000 papers distributed daily and a couple million readers a week.
“It was kind of the glory days, and you could do pretty much whatever you wanted at the paper,” Armstrong said. “I worked with really great editors and other reporters, and I learned a lot in those years.”
It was at the Wall Street Journal where Armstrong was first introduced to the idea of him writing about the healthcare industry, his current specialization for ProPublica. He admitted that at first he wasn’t wild about the idea but soon discovered it had the elements of great journalism. The overlooked or seemingly less exciting topics in investigative journalism can turn out to be some of the most provocative and relatable.
“I had an editor [who] said, ‘Look, I think healthcare is an undiscovered area in terms of hardcore investigative scrutiny,’” Armstrong said. “It’s a multi-trillion dollar business. It’s about life and death. A lot of the time it has [a political] element to it. It’s really all of these great areas that come together in a compelling way, and people really care about it.”
One of Armstrong’s recent articles, “Doctors With Histories of Big Malpractice Settlements Work for Insurers, Deciding If They’ll Pay for Care,” reveals the politics inside the healthcare industry. The article follows the relationship between doctors who have been found guilty of malpractice and the medical director position in prominent health insurance companies.
“These stories resonated with people, and that’s really rewarding when you get that kind of reaction,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong explained a critically important facet of understanding investigative journalism: It’s not about telling people what to think. That’s up to them. The purpose is to set the foundation for readers to come to their own conclusions and decide if they will act on them.
“We try to find things that need to be fixed, or things that are wrong, and write about them … based on documentary evidence,” he said. “We put the stories out there. We don’t advocate for a particular change or a particular position. We put it out there, and then people have at it. Sometimes that results in some wonderful changes, legislatively, or a company changes a policy … and sometimes nothing happens.”
In an age of increasing technology, the journalism industry has changed dramatically, but Armstrong believes there are some aspects that remain universal, so wannabe reporters, take some notes! Here’s the advice Armstrong gives:
- “Find a job that allows you to do the work — produce stories, produce videos, produce content, whatever it is you’re trying to do — because that’s still the currency of the realm.”
- “It’s really important to find a job that allows you freedom. … I will always take the job at less prestigious places that allow me to do journalism and to write stories over doing other work that no one ever sees.”
- “I think there’s a lot of opportunity out there with digital-only news operations and frankly nonprofits like ProPublica.”
Of course, at the end of the interview I asked him if he was living his dream career. He responded rather positively.
“I feel very fortunate to have made my living doing journalism,” Armstrong said. “I think [it’s] an incredible thing to be able to do the work you want to do and get paid for it.”
Though the industry is changing, Armstrong is positive about the future of journalism.
“It’s hard to watch the deep cuts by Gannett and hedge fund Alden Global at newspaper after newspaper. It’s hard because there’s a lot of good people in those places, and the communities are not well served by any of this. So I get why there’s a lot of pessimism right now. But I think there’s also reasons for optimism. One reason is non-profit news entities have popped up in some of those communities to fill the void. Personally, I’m really happy with the fact that I’ve been able to do this job for so long and it’s been an overwhelmingly good experience,” Armstrong wrote in an email to the Daily.
I thank David Armstrong for sharing his experience with us today. Check out the hyperlinks in the article to read his career journey in the form of articles!
Get writing dreamers!
Wishing you luck in all your dream-catching endeavors…
