The Idaho Press Club’s annual excellence in journalism contest is now open for entries. Be sure to submit your best work from 2018 — you deserve the recognition!

We have updated and revised our rules, divisions and categories this year, to ensure we’re keeping up with our fast-changing industry. There are quite a few changes! Among them:

We’ll have a new PHOTO division, separate from the various publication divisions, taking in all still photography categories. It also includes a few new ones: Photo package (as opposed to photo essay, which still is available); Food; Portrait; and both light- and serious-topic Feature Photo categories.

We also have a newly renamed AUDIO division, which takes in all radio entries plus podcasts and any other form of audio reporting. This division also features some new categories, including Interview.

In response to demand and changes in technology, we have revamped the parameters for General Excellence in both TV and Audio. Instead of assigned dates, the entry now will consist of a 15-minute compilation of the station’s best work over the course of calendar year 2018.

We also have added, special for this election year, Election Reporting categories in both Publications and Television.

We’ve expanded the opinion writing categories in daily and weekly Publications to include, in addition to Editorials, a separate Opinion category for op-eds or guest opinions.

We’ve made a change in our rules to allow Idaho-based writers who are published in national publications to enter their work.

And in our All-Media Awards division, we have added two new categories: Best Use of Drone, and Media Innovation Award.

Our contest committee worked long and hard on these changes, and I’d like to thank all the committee members and the Idaho Press Club board for all their effort on this. We have judges across the country lined up, preparing to judge our best work.

Our contest is, in many ways, the heartbeat of the Idaho Press Club. It showcases the best work of Idaho journalists, in all media, large and small, all across the state. It bestows well-deserved recognition for fine work, allowing Idaho journalists to distinguish themselves as they build their careers and resumes. It includes categories for student journalists, periodicals and PR professionals. It is the main source of funding for the Idaho Press Club. And it allows all of us to get together at our gala awards banquet in the spring to celebrate our work.

The deadline for entering this year’s contest is Jan. 22. It will arrive sooner than you think, with all that will be happening between now and then. Don’t wait ‘til the last minute! Allow yourself plenty of time, review the rules and categories in advance at idahopressclub.org, and go to bestinmedia.com and submit your entries.

Questions? Complications? Call or email Martha at (208) 389-2879 or email@idahopressclub.org. Don’t miss out — make sure your best work is in the running!

Betsy Russell is the Boise bureau chief for the Idaho Press, and is the president of the Idaho Press Club board.

Run. Hide. Fight.  That should be your mantra if you ever find yourself in an active shooter situation.  That’s the advice from Gary Oster, a retired Boise police officer and now a trainer specializing in business planning for active shooter incidents.  The Idaho State Broadcasters invited Oster to speak to journalists across the state. Oster says most incidents are over before the police can arrive, so it is up to each individual to be prepared. He suggests:

• Practice “situational awareness,” pay attention to your surroundings and report anything unusual.
• Know where your exits are, wherever you are.
• Establish a “safe” or “lockdown” room at your work so you know where to go in an emergency.
• Employers should have policies in place to deal with an active shooter and employees should be familiar with what those policies are. Everyone should rehearse those emergency procedures so they are familiar with them.

The Idaho Statesman staff had a similar discussion earlier this summer, as have other Idaho news organizations this fall.  Columnist Bill Manny described what he took away from that session:

• “Shooters must decide between easy and hard targets.” Message: Make yourself a hard target. Doors need locks. Windows need “shooter shades.” A gunman won’t fight with a locked door if he – they’re almost always guys – can’t tell if targets are inside.
• “Don’t fight fair.” Message: It doesn’t take a gun to fight back. Keep a hammer at your desk. Or grab your scissors. “Do what you gotta do,”
• “Trust your gut. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t right.” Message: The first signs of trouble might not be obvious. You might hear strange sounds. Or no sound, a sudden silence. Or a trick of sound: A gunshot on another side of the building may sound like a builder hammering, not what you expect gunshot to sound like.

Connie Searles, president and CEO of the Idaho State Broadcasters Association, says her board decided to sponsor these training sessions “as the reporting and dissemination of news has become more controversial.” Searles says, “While many of our members and the press have done trainings like this on their own, we felt a concentrated effort for all would be welcomed.  As evidenced by the large turn-out we have had across the state so far, it is training that is welcome, if sometimes difficult to hear.”
Joan Cartan-Hansen is a producer, reporter and writer for Idaho Public Television; a former Idaho Press Club president, she’s also the treasurer of the Idaho Press Club board.

On Friday October 26, Boise State University hosted a public conversation with Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the former publisher of The New York Times. The event was held at the Taco Bell Arena, where he was interviewed on stage by former Boise State University president Bob Kustra. Sulzberger is part of the family that has run the “paper of record” for more than a century. He led the Times for 25 years until he retired in 2016, handing the reins to his son, A.G. Sulzberger.

The public discussion in Boise was breezy and conversational and it walked through many of Sulzberger’s successes, including 61 Pulitzer Prizes and a much-expanded readership. He also spoke about missteps, such as the discredited reporting of journalists Jayson Blair and Judith Miller. He presided over a radical digital transformation for the newspaper, during a turbulent time for the industry.

In conversation with Kustra, Sulzberger shared stories about his interactions with Donald J. Trump, how he handled censorship in China, and short-lived projects, like video obituaries. He also pointed to the number of Times journalists killed during his time at the helm, which he said was in greater numbers than during both World Wars. He called this present moment, “the most dangerous time for journalism I think we’ve ever seen.”

The next morning, members of the local press attended a breakfast with Sulzberger to speak more deeply about media trends. Several members of the Idaho Press Club were in attendance. Sulzberger’s son, the current publisher, is engaged to be married to Molly Messick, a former reporter at Boise State Public Radio.

Tom Michael is the general manager of Boise State Public Radio, and is a member of the Idaho Press Club board.

Audrey with 7-month-old daughter Ruth

Interviewed by Sydney Sallabanks

TWITTER PROFILE: “Investigative reporter for the Idaho Statesman. Data hoarder. Public records addict. Once filed a story while in labor.”

PRESS CLUB POSITION: President, Southwest Chapter; chapter representative to the state board

What got you interested in journalism in the first place?

I came to journalism later than a lot of people did. My first real gig was freelancing after college for an alt-weekly in Minneapolis. My day job at the time was in a sex-related mental health clinic, and some of the clients inspired me to write a cover story on the transgender community. This was 15 years ago, so gender identity was even more misunderstood than it is now. When I saw how much the piece meant to our clients, I was hooked. At the time, I was also dealing with some pretty severe depression, and I found that journalism gave me a feeling of purpose again.

If you were not a reporter, what career would you have and why?

Lawyer. I love minutiae and technical details.

Who or what inspires your journalism?

Some of my journalism idols are Katherine Boo, Joan Didion and A.J. Liebling. I can still remember where I was the first time I read Terry Southern’s “Twirling at Ole Miss,” which remains one of my all-time favorite pieces of creative non-fiction. My 11th grade English teacher, Mrs. Burkhart, in Twin Falls probably has had the single strongest influence on my writing. I often think about her lessons, such as when I consider using “like” in place of “such as.”

How did you end up gaining expertise in data journalism? Was it a natural outcome of the beats you covered, or did you take an interest in telling stories through data public for a particular reason?

I’ve always been a computer nerd. I built my first website in 1996 (RIP GeoCities) and started a blog a couple years later, although I called it a journal and I’m sure it was awful. So it made sense that I would eventually get into computer-y journalism stuff. I got introduced to data journalism at an IRE training in 2011 — one of the hands-on trainings they do with old lottery data. Using data to find stories seemed like wizardry, and it appealed to my desire for empirical evidence in addition to interviews. When I figured out data visualization and mapping, and overlaying and joining different data sets to see how things interact, it opened a door to a whole new world of story ideas. I’ve had some formal training through IRE and NICAR, but most of what I’ve learned is just from messing around.

Before you start mining a certain set of public records, do you already have a hunch about the story, or are you sometimes surprised where the documents lead?

It’s about 50 percent knowing what I’m trying to find, 50 percent fishing expeditions. For example, we got a data set of Idaho Department of Correction inmate convictions. We knew we wanted to see how many were violent offenders. But as I was working with the spreadsheets, I noticed a few seeds for future stories.

What is the draw for you to watchdog journalism?

I like that investigative reporting can affect your community in meaningful ways, and that you have to get creative in your reporting. White-collar crime is one of my favorites, because it often means drawing lines — sometimes literally — between property, financial and business records. Covering public finance and the federal government before moving back to Idaho gave me some unique tools that I love being able to use, too. On the other hand, watchdog journalism can be frustrating. It means chasing a lot of leads that go nowhere. For every 20 tips I get, I’ll do one story.

Describe covering how you navigated the health care system when you became a mom, and also how you covered it. Did you come away with a new appreciation for the complexities of the billing process? What was surprising, how did you approach it, what were the challenges, and anything you can tell us about the experience?

I was so excited to be a patient for nine months. I’ve learned enough from working in a clinic and covering health care that I can navigate the system pretty well, but having a baby kind of throws you in the deep end. We ran into a giant error with one of our bills almost immediately. It was a $2,000 error, and there was no easy way to undo it. That’s when I decided to do a column.

The medical care we got was outstanding. Even better than I’d hoped. We’re so fortunate in the Treasure Valley to have awesome doctors and nurses (and midwives!). The financial side, however, was just a big ol’ garbage fire. I spent 90 minutes on the phone with my health insurance company in October, trying to figure out which of two insurance companies was responsible for paying my hospital bill. Why they couldn’t figure it out themselves, I do not know. And that was five months after having the baby.

The way things are structured in our system, you’re almost guaranteed to have something go wrong due to human or computer error, even if you’re a super diligent patient.

Say you’ve just filed an enterprise story that you put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into and you believe it is an important piece of news. What do you want the reader to come away with?

I’d like the reader to feel something — outrage, compassion, amusement, curiosity, whatever. Or even a physical reaction. When I did a story on bed bug infestations and my own experience with them, people told me they started to feel itchy while reading it. I was so proud, because they’ll probably remember that story.

 What could be done to improve journalism?

I think we need to do a better job of educating people on the business realities of news. People don’t understand what we do, how much time it takes, why it’s irreplaceable and why it can’t be free. You don’t walk into a restaurant and demand a free meal. You don’t yell at the server for wanting to be paid for their work. And you definitely don’t send the owner a furious email, telling him he should be ashamed of himself for charging you. But people do that to newsrooms. I think it’s one of the biggest threats to our industry. Unless every newsroom becomes grant funded or publicly funded, we’re going to need people to pay for what they consume.

BACKGROUND: Audrey is originally from Twin Falls. She went to college in St. Paul, Minn., then earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She then moved Washington, D.C., where she covered government, local news, municipal finance and transportation policy. She also wrote for alt-weeklies and magazines on everything from unsolved murders in New York to bed bugs in D.C. to sick nuclear workers in Idaho Falls. Audrey returned to Idaho in 2011 to work for the Statesman. She also currently is a 2018 Reporting Fellow on Health Care Performance for the Association of Health Care Journalists; her project involves examining barriers to effective mental health treatment in rural Idaho. She and her husband, Josh, live in west downtown Boise with their 7-month-old daughter Ruth.

BABY RUTH’S FAVORITE THINGS RIGHT NOW: “Our cat Penelope, riding in the seat of the shopping cart/baby rollercoaster, and the book “Baby Faces,” which is exactly what it sounds like.”

Sydney Sallabanks is communications manager at the law firm of Perkins Coie LLP, and is an associate representative on the Idaho Press Club state board.

Need money for that professional training? Have a great idea for a story and no funds to get it to print or on the air? The Idaho Press Club can help.

The Don Watkins Mid-Career Scholarship awards $500 for any Idaho Press Club member to use for any training or project that will improve the working press in Idaho. This could include going to a conference you have wanted to attend or funding toward travel on that enterprise story you have been working on for months. The only catch: You must share what you learn with Press Club members through a discussion at a conference or an article in an upcoming edition of the Communicator. Any Press Club member is eligible for this scholarship.

To apply, send your resume and a proposal for how you would spend the money, via e-mail, to email@idahopressclub.org. Applications are due Feb. 15 of each year. The winner is announced at the Press Club’s annual awards banquet in April.

The Idaho Press Club offers scholarships for college students too. Graduates of Idaho high schools who have completed at least one year of college and wish to pursue a career in journalism or communications are eligible for up to $1,500. Full-time students majoring in journalism or working for a college or professional media outlet are also eligible to apply.

If interested, submit a one-page resume; a 500-word essay explaining your interest in a journalism or communications career; samples of your journalistic work, whether published or unpublished; and a copy of your transcripts, including GPA, through the most recent fall term. Applications may be submitted electronically via email to email@idahopressclub.org. If you have video files, please upload them to YouTube or a similar site and send the link.  The deadline is also Feb. 15.

For more information about either scholarship, call IPC Executive Director Martha Borchers at (208) 389-2879, or contact her by e-mail at email@idahopressclub.org.

Joan Cartan-Hansen is a producer, reporter and writer for Idaho Public Television; a former Idaho Press Club president, she’s also the treasurer of the Idaho Press Club board.

Idaho Education News’ multimedia specialist Andrew Reed has accepted a position with EdSource in Oakland, Calif. He will work with EdNews through the first part of January and begin his new position in February.

IDAHO STATESMAN

The position of Executive Editor and Vice President of the Idaho Statesman has been eliminated. Rhonda Prast moves to consulting (and job hunting). The position will be recast as a Local Editor reporting to a Regional Editor in Sacramento.

City government reporter Sven Berg left the Statesman to work at Idaho Power.

Interim editor and former watchdog and politics editor Nate Poppino left the Statesman in December for a position at Micron Technology. Christina Lords has been named interim editor.

Kate Talerico joined the Statesman in October to cover West Ada and Canyon County. She came from the Louisville Courier Journal. Alysha Love joined the Statesman in October as Multiplatform Editor. Previously she worked at CNN and Politico. She also is the Outdoors editor.

Publisher Rebecca Poynter, who joined the Statesman in April, has been promoted to also serve as publisher of the News Tribune in Tacoma, the Olympian, and the Bellingham Herald, in addition to serving as Statesman publisher and vice president of local sales for McClatchy’s West Region. Poynter will succeed longtime Tacoma News Tribune publisher David Zeeck.

IDAHO PRESS

Ashley Miller has joined the Press as digital first editor. Born and raised in Idaho, she was formerly program manager for The Cabin, and recently completed her master’s degree in journalism with an emphasis on media literacy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

KPVI-TV POCATELLO

Matt Davenport, who has been with the station for 15 years and anchors the 5 and 10 p.m. news, has added to his responsibilities with his promotion to news director. Davenport replaces Greg Schiefferstein, who left in March after almost two years as news director.

KIFI TV 8 / KIDK TV 3 IDAHO FALLS

Ariel Schroeder was promoted from a news editor to a multimedia journalist in October.  She is a graduate of BYU-Idaho. Andre Phillips moved from Pocatello and joined the KIFI team as a multimedia journalist. He is originally from Chicago. Andrew Howe was hired as a morning news producer in December. He is a recent graduate of BYU-Idaho in Rexburg.  He originally resided in Paradise, California.

Jeff Roper was hired as a weekend weather forecaster.  He is also currently the morning show host on KUPI radio.  Jeff previously worked in radio in the San Antonio, Texas market and also did morning TV news for several years.

It’s easy to feel like we are all doing more with less these days – but don’t despair! The Southwest Chapter of the Idaho Press Club is here to help.

This year’s Fall Conference will showcase some awesome local and national journalists to talk about some of their best recent reporting and share their tips for how to take your own work to the next level.

Les Zaitz, of the Malheur Enterprise and newly-launched Salem Reporter, and Charlie Ornstein, senior editor at ProPublica, will headline the conference. They will talk about their collaboration on the  “A Sick System” series from this year, and offer tips how to produce outstanding investigative journalism in a small newsroom.

Melissa Davlin and Seth Ogilvie of Idaho Public Television will present on how to successfully fight public record denials, with examples form their own recent work – a critical tool for watchdog journalism.

Nicole Foy of the Idaho Press will present on her recent story about a Nampa man who was detained and repeatedly moved on an immigration hold without his family knowing where he was.

Taylor Munson, who graduated from Boise State this year, will talk about her coverage in the Arbiter about employees’ allegations of workplace sexism and harassment at Aramark, Boise State’s on-campus food services contractor.

Audrey Dutton of the Idaho Statesman will show how she used data and public records to report on worker deaths in construction and agriculture, and how employers who break rules still get government benefits.

The conference is set for Saturday, Oct. 13 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Lookout Room on the third floor of the BSU Student Union Building at 1700 West University Drive in Boise.

Parking is available in the Lincoln Parking Garage across from the Student Union, on the corner of Lincoln Avenue and University Drive. Limited metered spaces are also available on the east side of the Student Union building along Bronco Circle. Register early to get a free parking code!

Refreshments will be provided.

The event is free for students and for Idaho Press Club members who pre-register, and $10 for everyone else.  Register here:  https://idahopressclub.org/events/

We hope to see you all there!

Katie Terhune is a digital producer and reporter at KTVB-TV, and is a member of the Idaho Press Club’s Southwest Chapter board.

By Betsy Russell

It’s really quite heartening that with a significant case pending involving press freedom in Idaho, the Verity case that’s before the Idaho Supreme Court, not only Idaho news media organizations but major news media organizations across the country all signed on to an amicus, or “friend of the court,” brief, arguing against recognizing libel by implication in Idaho. We have all long known that truth is a defense against libel, and we certainly hope our laws in Idaho continue to recognize this.

The three initiating signers for the amicus brief were the Associated Press, the Hearst Corporation, and the Idaho Press Club. Here’s the impressive list of those who signed on:

Adams Publishing Group, Advance Publications, The American Society of News Editors, BuzzFeed, The Center for Investigative Reporting, CNN, Dow Jones & Company, The E.W. Scripps Company, First Look Media, Forbes, Gray Television, The Idaho Statesman, Landmark Media Enterprises, The Medin Institute, Meredith Corporation, The National Association of Broadcasters, The News Media Alliance, The New York Times Company, POLITICO, The Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press, The Radio and Television Di2ital News Association, The Society for Professional Journalists, tronc, and The Washington Post.

In these days of unwarranted media-bashing by those on all sides of the political spectrum, it’s good to know that all of us in Idaho journalism stand up for reporting and truth.

And speaking of reporting, you won’t want to miss our Idaho Press Club Fall Conference this year. The Southwest Chapter has put together an epic array of speakers who will inspire, inform, and help us all do our jobs better. Look for details in this issue and register at idahopressclub.org.

Betsy Russell is the Boise bureau chief for the Idaho Press, and is the president of the Idaho Press Club.

By Tommy Simmons

At the heart of the case attorneys argued Friday, Sept. 21 before the Idaho Supreme Court is the question of when and why news organizations can face lawsuits for factual reporting, as well as who can file that lawsuit.

The suit involves former Idaho teacher James Verity, who sued news outlets last year for reporting on a sexual relationship he had with a student and the subsequent fallout, even though the teacher did not claim the reporting was inaccurate or ask for a correction.

Attorneys launched into arguments Friday about Idaho’s defamation law, and whether news organizations can libel individuals through the mere implications of a news story. Verity declined through his lawyer to speak with the Idaho Press. His case lists USA Today and Boise’s KTVB as defendants in connection with a Pulitzer Prize finalist story the organizations published, but the lawsuit didn’t begin with a high profile case filing in Idaho — in fact, it stems from events that took place about 13 years ago in another state

“Conduct in Oregon”

It began in 2005 in Prineville, Oregon, when Verity — then a middle school teacher and high school basketball coach — had an “inappropriate physical relationship involving sexual contact” with an 18-year-old student-athlete, a relationship Verity has since admitted to, according to documents filed by attorneys.

That relationship included more than 2,600 text messages and more than 500 hours’ worth of phone calls, as well as “inappropriate physical contact.”

In June 2005, school authorities relieved Verity of his coaching duties, and he resigned from his teaching position two days later; as a result of that resignation, the school district provided him a letter of reference “that did not include any details of Mr. Verity’s inappropriate relationship,” according to briefs filed by attorneys.

Verity tried to regain his teaching license in Oregon, according to court documents.

As part of the process to reapply for his license, he met with a psychologist who wrote he “should not be alone with any female student over the age of 12,” according to court documents. According to documents filed by Verity’s attorney, however, another psychologist found there was “no significant reason to believe that Verity is a risk to ‘cross the line’ with a student of any age.”

At the same time, he also applied for a license in his wife’s native Idaho, according to court documents. He was initially denied in both states, then appealed in both states, according to a brief filed by his attorney. He eventually chose to focus on Idaho, and thus didn’t attend a hearing for his Oregon license “causing a default order to be entered denying reinstatement in Oregon.”

Verity later applied for a teaching license in Idaho, but the state denied him one in September 2008, based on his “conduct in Oregon.”

Yet, after his attorney submitted “supplemental materials” to the Idaho Professional Standards Commission of the Department of Education, and a day of deliberations, the board ruled he would be granted a teaching license. He and his family moved to Idaho — where he’d attended college with his wife — in June 2009. By mid-July 2009, according to court documents, he had not received a license, so his attorney wrote a letter to the Idaho Attorney General’s Office. In that letter, his attorney wrote the state would only issue a license to Verity if he agreed to tell his new employers he’d had his license revoked in Oregon.

“The obvious intent of such a condition is to effectively render Mr. Verity’s license useless. … This condition serves no purpose except to make it extremely difficult for Mr. Verity to get a job,” his attorney wrote.

After that, Idaho’s Chief Certification Officer Christina Linder did issue Verity a teaching license, although, she later wrote, she did so “against my will.”

Caldwell and Nampa

Verity started applying to Idaho schools after that, and “although Mr. Verity disclosed the circumstances surrounding his license revocation in Oregon to Idaho state licensing officials, he did not provide the same information in his application materials to local schools.”

According to Deb Kristensen, one of the attorneys defending the media organizations, Verity did not dispute that fact — or any other — during his deposition by attorneys during the subsequent lawsuit.

Briefs filed recently by Verity’s attorney, though, paint a slightly different picture, because they read, “Just as he had done with his application for teaching credentials in the state of Idaho, Verity fully disclosed his Oregon revocation and the circumstances that led to such revocation” to the Caldwell School District, where he applied. Those briefs also state Randy Schrader, then assistant superintendent of the Caldwell School District, spoke with Melanie Hensman, a member of the board that awarded Verity his Idaho teaching license. Hensman told the assistant superintendent, according to the briefs, that “she would be comfortable with her own daughter being in Verity’s classroom.”

Still, as Jodie Mills, then superintendent of the Caldwell School District would later tell reporters in 2015-16, when her school district hired Verity to work at Caldwell High School beginning in fall 2010, authorities knew nothing about his history in Oregon. He worked as a physical science teacher there and coached boys’ basketball, according to court documents.

But in February 2013, district officials placed him on leave after receiving reports he’d “made inappropriate contact with female students in his classroom,” according to briefs filed by attorneys.

Also according to court briefs, that contact included “tickling, slapping girls on the butt, and comments made about punching and hitting when students need to go to the restroom.”

Students would also later confirm Verity hit them on the “behind, back of the legs, arms and/or head with a ruler during class time.”

As a result, officials delivered a formal letter of reprimand to Verity in February 2013.

Verity left his position in Caldwell and accepted another at Nampa’s Sage Valley Middle School in 2014. In November of that year, he also began coaching basketball at Eagle High School.

USA Today’s investigation

In late 2014, as Verity settled into his new position as an Eagle High School basketball coach, Stephen Reilly, an investigative reporter and data analyst for USA Today, took an interest in media reports of teacher misconduct across the country.

Reilly and his editors “wanted to do a national analysis of teacher misconduct to identify any issues in the systems that are meant to protect students from teacher misconduct.”

Thus, in 2015 Reilly began the lengthy process of submitting records requests across the country, looking for information about teacher misconduct. His piece — later nominated for a Pulitzer Prize — ultimately included data from school districts nationwide. Within that data was information about Verity, and his revoked Oregon teaching license.

According to court documents, Reilly spoke with Idaho school district employees about Verity. It was only because of his investigation that Mills, the Caldwell superintendent, learned about Verity’s past, she told Reilly over the phone. Had district officials known about the Oregon incident, she told the reporter, “it would ‘absolutely’ have been a concern.”

In February 2016, Reilly tried to reach Verity by email and phone, eventually speaking with the teacher by his classroom phone. The conversation was brief, according to court documents.

That was about the same time KTVB reporter Tami Tremblay began working on the story as well; she spoke with Mills and tried to reach Verity, much as Reilly did.

Ultimately, when the USA Today story appeared in print on Feb. 15, 2016, it included no information about Verity. But USA Today distributed the data from Reilly’s investigation to its partner news outlets in other states, and that included KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon. On the same day as the USA Today story, a story appeared on KGW-TV’s website containing information about Verity.

“The article indicates Verity lost his Oregon teaching license and then obtained a license in Idaho ‘simply by crossing state lines,’” according to recent briefs filed by Verity’s attorney. “The article further states that, in obtaining his license in Idaho, Verity ‘slipped through the cracks.’”

Reilly kept reporting on the topic, and since USA Today had partnered with KTVB, the broadcast group did as well.

“All the defendants were working collaboratively and jointly on the story about Verity,” according to a brief filed by Verity’s attorney.

Still, according to court briefs, Verity confirmed all of the details reported by KGW-TV and USA Today, “but he took issue with the fact that ‘more information’ could have been provided in some cases.”

Public reaction to the KGW story on Feb. 15 was immediate, according to court documents — people “inundated” the Vallivue School District with calls laying out their concerns about Verity teaching and coaching in the district.

When Reilly spoke with the principal of Sage Valley Middle School later that month, he said he “did not become aware of documents regarding the revocation of Mr. Verity’s teaching license during the hiring process.”

Days after Reilly’s piece appeared in USA Today, Verity resigned from his job at the middle school. USA Today reported his resignation.

The lawsuit

Less than a month after that, on March 28, 2016, Verity and his wife, Sarahna Verity, filed a complaint in Ada County’s 4th District Court of Idaho against USA Today, KTVB, KGW-TV Reilly and Tremblay.

The Veritys alleged defamation, invasion of privacy, and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Verity did not, however, claim the piece was inaccurate, nor did he ask the news organizations to retract it, according to court documents. Kristensen said during a deposition, Verity confirmed the details in Reilly’s reporting.

Still, in briefs filed before the Idaho Supreme Court date, Verity’s attorney wrote there were “factual and implied falsehoods” in the stories. Among them were the claims the Caldwell School District was unaware of his conduct in Oregon, and the claim he’d been denied a teaching license in Idaho. A third error, according to briefs from both sides, had to do with a claim in a KTVB story that Verity was not included in a national database of teachers who had been disciplined for misconduct — when in fact he was. According to court documents, KTVB quickly corrected the error when it became known.

During deposition though, Verity confirmed the details in the reporting, Kristensen said. Verity’s attorney didn’t make mention of the falsehoods until recent documents.

The fact that Verity didn’t dispute the claims in the stories made the case unusual, because, as Kristensen pointed out Friday, “truth is an absolute defense.”

“You cannot have a defamation lawsuit if you have truth,” she said.

Kristensen and her team asked 4th Judicial District Court Judge Melissa Moody for a “summary judgment” — in effect, asking her to rule on the case without it going to trial, because they felt, since the reporting was accurate, the defamation claim was moot.

Yet an October ruling from Moody seemed to fly in the face of that axiom. Moody wrote if Verity could prove the reporting “though literally true, could create false inference” and if he could prove the reporters were “negligent in publishing a false statement,” Verity might have a case for “defamation by implication” — meaning the implications, not the facts, of the USA Today piece had damaged his reputation.

That decision could be far-reaching, Kristensen said Friday, even for journalists who report the truth.

“If someone could infer you meant to say something else, and that something else was defamatory, they could sue you,” she said.

That ruling seemed inaccurate to Kristensen, which was why she asked for a “permissive appeal” from the Idaho Supreme Court. The Supreme Court usually only hears cases after they have reached some sort of a conclusion in district court. They made an exception in the Verity case, Kristensen said Friday. To her, it seemed to indicate the justices were interested in the issues at stake.

Defamation by implication?

In court documents and in person Friday, Kristensen pointed out Idaho doesn’t have much history with recognizing “defamation by implication.” The issue arose in a 1990 court case, also involving a news story, but has been largely absent from Idaho case law since then.

She added she didn’t think the Idaho Supreme Court needed to adopt any new torts related to defamation by implication either.

“There is no need based on the facts of this case to go there — to adopt a claim many courts have called a slippery slope,” she said. “It’s bringing an action based on what was not said.”

In addition to that, she pointed out, the Idaho Supreme Court has always held that even if a news outlet makes a slight error in reporting, they are protected from lawsuit if the spirit of their reporting accurately represents what happened.

“No one I represent … seeks to do anything but get at the truth, particularly in matters of public concern,” Kristensen told the justices.

Ron Shepherd, Verity’s attorney, saw the case differently. For him, it was about Verity’s right to protect his reputation. He pointed out Verity effectively lost his job after the USA Today piece came out, and said Verity was no longer able to coach his children’s sports teams.

“If this is not a defamation case, I don’t know what is,” Shepherd said Friday. “(Kristensen) never mentioned once the importance of protecting one’s independent right to protect one’s reputation.”

Verity, Shepherd said, “fell prey to one Washington, D.C. journalist’s quest to receive the Pulitzer Prize.”

“(Reilly) learned Verity did not fit the gist of his storyline,” Shepherd told the justices. “This was learned late in the investigation.”

The USA Today story implies, Shepherd said, that Verity “fled Oregon” and “went beneath the radar,” to Idaho. That wasn’t the case, Shepherd pointed out — Verity tried first to get another teaching license in Oregon, then, when he applied for one in Idaho, he told Idaho officials about his past relationship with a student. Reilly’s story did not reflect that, Shepherd said.

“It makes it sound like he slid under the radar screen and now he’s back in the classroom,” Shepherd said.

Additionally, Shepherd claimed, the story seems to imply Verity is a danger to female students.

“This article suggests he is a predator,” Shepherd said. “I think that’s a fair statement.”

He pointed out while Idaho courts haven’t, in the past, referred to certain cases as “defamation by implication,” the precedent still exists, although it goes by other names.

“This is an egregious case of defamation,” he said.

Are public school teachers public figures?

Shepherd also argued Verity is a private individual, and not a public figure. The distinction is important, because private individuals have more leeway to sue a news organization for defamation than public figures do. Public figures must prove a news organization acted with “actual malice,” meaning reporters either knew their words were false or displayed “reckless disregard for the truth.” Private individuals receive more protection.

“Individuals that aren’t public officials are unique and vulnerable … and so based on that, private individuals are treated differently,” Shepherd told the justices. “I certainly disagree Mr. Verity, or any public school teacher, is a public official just by virtue of being a public school teacher.”

He pointed out private individuals can’t protect themselves from defamation in the media the same way public officials can, and while he lauded the media, he told justices reporting is a means to an end to protect private individuals, not prey on them.

“The media is extremely important … but the reality is the media is really a means to an ultimate end, which is to protect individuals from oppression,” Shepherd said. “Without those individuals, the media is pointless.”

Justices also probed the issue, asking Kristensen if a person becomes a public official anytime they appear in a news report. Kristensen replied that since a public school teacher is a government employee, when a story is written about how a teacher conducts themselves on the job, they become a public official, and thus have less room to claim defamation against a news organization.

“Anytime a teacher has an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student, that would elevate a teacher to public figure status,” Kristensen responded to the justices.

She wasn’t alone in this opinion, she pointed out — the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. had penned a dissenting opinion making a “vehement case” teachers were, in fact, public officials.

“There is plenty of precedent for this court to come to the same conclusion,” she said. “People have looked at that, and found that reasoning to be sound.”

“You’re going to have to meet a hard burden”

Shepherd, after the hour-long hearing, said he and Verity hope the justices rule he is not a public official, and also rule there is precedent for him to sue for defamation by implication. The justices are, in effect, he said, asked to decide what defamation by implication looks like in Idaho.

He said “nothing too surprising” happened Friday morning. He indicated Verity did not want to speak with the Idaho Press.

The case, Kristensen said, is bigger than just one instance of a person claiming defamation against news outlets. It strikes at the core of what news outlets do every day, and whether reporters can stand on the truth they report. She pointed out the justices agreed to hear the case, even though it had an unusual path to the Idaho Supreme Court. That would seem to indicate they were interested in the issue.

“If you’re going to hold someone responsible for something they didn’t say, you’re going to have to meet a hard burden,” she told the justices. “That’s what free speech is all about.”

Tommy Simmons is the Ada County public safety reporter for the Idaho Press. Follow him on Twitter @tsimmonsipt

By Holly Beech

Editor’s Note: Holly Beech won an Idaho Press Club Don Watkins Mid-Career Scholarship to attend an IRE watchdog workshop in Portland in April. This is her article on what she learned there. You, too, can apply for an Idaho Press Club scholarship; the deadline is Feb. 15. See our website, www.idahopressclub.org, for details.

Jason Leopold is involved in dozens of lawsuits against the government challenging public record denials. A senior investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News, Leopold presented at the Investigative Reporters and Editors watchdog workshop in Portland, Oregon, on April 14. Thanks to a mid-career scholarship from the Idaho Press Club, I was able to attend. We heard from an inspiring lineup of journalists, including Reveal’s senior editor, Ziva Branstetter, and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Paige St. John of the Los Angeles Times.

Our reporting team at the Idaho Press, unlike Leopold, probably won’t be suing the NSA anytime soon or, as with St. John, flying down to Bermuda to connect with evasive sources. Our staff must balance deep-dive investigations with daily news stories. Even still, these tips were useful because reporters should think of their beats like an investigation, St. John said. Covering a beat is just an extended investigation, she said. You must set long-term story goals and develop sources and stories over time. You must mine public records, question the traditional narrative, rise above story pitches and become an expert in the subject matter.

Other useful tips from the workshop included:

Ask these five questions before starting an investigation:

* Who’s being harmed?

* Can we quantify the harm?

* Is the problem new?

* Who allowed it to happen?

* Will readers care?

Summarize your story in a sentence, rather than as an abstract topic. The summary needs a verb. For example, “Mortgage lenders in 61 cities are discriminating against people of color” is a more effective guide for an investigation than “Redlining in America.”

Write as you go.  Land a great interview? Write it up before the details fade. Find an important document? Summarize it. You can figure out how it all fits together later. Add correct web links as you write, which will serve as a fact-checking tool later.

Become the master of your subject matter. Understand how the system is supposed to work and who it is supposed to serve — who is accountable? Who is vulnerable? Question the narrative and the rhetoric. Put things together and see the larger patterns. The difference between a reporter and a scribe is critical thinking.

Build your source list. Call sources frequently, not just when you need a quote for a story. Stick with the “no surprise” rule by being up front about what’s on the record and what they can expect to see in print.

Thank you to the Idaho Press Club for the opportunity to travel outside my normal circles and gain perspective from other journalists.

Holly Beech is the assistant editor of the Idaho Press.