Longreads Best of 2015: Investigative Reporting

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories.

我们要求一些作家和编辑在特定类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here, the best in investigative reporting.

这里有最好的调查报道。

* * *

** **

Lauren Kirchner

劳伦·基什内尔

Senior Reporting Fellow at ProPublica.

ProPublica 的高级报告研究员。

## The Price of Nice Nails (Sarah Maslin Nir, The New York Times)

## 漂亮指甲的价格（Sarah Maslin Nir，《纽约时报》）

I can’t remember another investigation that had as much widespread and immediate impact as this one.

我不记得还有哪一项调查能像这次调查一样产生如此广泛和直接的影响。

Through a year of persistent and patient reporting, Nir uncovered the ugly truth of New York’s nail salon industry: the labor exploitation, institutionalized racism, and dire health risks faced by its manicurists.

通过一年持续耐心的报道，尼尔揭露了纽约美甲沙龙行业的丑陋真相：劳工剥削、制度化的种族主义以及美甲师面临的可怕的健康风险。

It was an explosive story, but Nir told it with restraint.

这是一个爆炸性的故事，但尼尔却克制地讲述了它。

When this came out, everyone I knew was talking about it.

当这件事出来时，我认识的每个人都在谈论它。

Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio both pretty much immediately launched emergency task forces and investigations to address the problems Nir described.

科莫州长和白思豪市长几乎立即启动了紧急工作组和调查，以解决尼尔描述的问题。

Reforms continue to roll out for salon owners who put their workers at risk.

针对将员工置于危险之中的沙龙老板的改革仍在继续。

But I noticed a subtler impact, too: some real soul-searching among New Yorkers about the ethics of indulging in cheap luxuries—for many of us, the only luxuries we can afford.

但我也注意到了一个更微妙的影响：纽约人对沉迷于廉价奢侈品的道德进行了真正的反省——对我们许多人来说，这是我们唯一能买得起的奢侈品。

A lot of readers were asking themselves, how could we have not have seen it?

很多读者都在问自己，我们怎么可能没有看到呢？

“We hold hands with this person for a half hour; we look into her eyes,” as Nir later put it.

“我们和这个人牵着手半个小时；我们看着她的眼睛，”尼尔后来说。

“I think my investigation revealed that we are not seeing them.”

“我认为我的调查表明我们没有看到他们。”

## Shaken Science (Debbie Cenziper and many others, The Washington Post)

## 动摇的科学（Debbie Centziper 等，《华盛顿邮报》）

The Post had to have a lot of guts to take on a topic as fraught as Shaken Baby Syndrome, the (now) controversial diagnosis that has landed countless innocent parents and caretakers in jail over the past four decades.

《华盛顿邮报》必须有很大的勇气来讨论像摇晃婴儿综合症这样令人担忧的话题，这种（现在）颇具争议的诊断在过去四十年中已使无数无辜的父母和看护人入狱。

“The diagnosis gave a generation of doctors a way to account for unexplained head injuries in babies and prosecutors a stronger case for criminal intent when police had no witnesses, no confessions and only circumstantial evidence.” Working with Northwestern University’s Medill Justice Project, the Post team examined 1,800 SBS cases since 2001, to show how many questions have been raised after the fact, and how little consensus there now is for the science SBS was supposedly based on.

“这一诊断为一代医生提供了一种解释婴儿不明原因头部受伤的方法，并且在警方没有证人、没有口供、只有间接证据的情况下，检察官为犯罪意图提供了更有力的证据。”邮报团队与西北大学梅迪尔司法项目合作，审查了自 2001 年以来的 1,800 个 SBS 案件，以显示事后提出了多少问题，以及目前对于 SBS 所依据的科学缺乏共识。

The series includes heartbreaking interviews from both sides of the debate, and graphics that inform and explain in a non-overwhelming way.

该系列包括辩论双方令人心碎的采访，以及以非压倒性方式提供信息和解释的图表。

It’s incredibly thorough, totally readable, and devastating.

它非常彻底、完全可读且具有毁灭性。

Mark Lotto

马克·洛托

Editorial lead, Medium, and proprietor of Matter.

《Medium》的编辑主管和《Matter》的所有者。

## Cosby: The Women (Noreen Malone, Photos: Amanda Demme, New York Magazine)

## 科斯比：女人（诺琳·马龙，照片：Amanda Demme，纽约杂志）

It’s been described as a feat of Mossian magazine-making, an innovative multimedia, multi-platform package, a site-crashing cover story—and it’s all those things, it is.

它被描述为 Mossian 杂志制作的一项壮举、一个创新的多媒体、多平台包、一个网站崩溃的封面故事——而且它就是所有这些东西，确实如此。

But those monumental compliments also obscure the truly impressive thing about “Cosby: The Women”: Noreen Malone’s reporting—her painstaking, sensitive, rigorous, expansive, mind-blowing reporting.

但这些巨大的赞美也掩盖了《科斯比：女人》真正令人印象深刻的事情：诺琳·马龙的报道——她艰苦、敏感、严谨、广泛、令人兴奋的报道。

It must have taken months and untold reserves of will for her to find and interview these women, to gather their stories, shape them, bear witness to their pain.

她一定花了几个月的时间和无数的意志力来找到并采访这些女性，收集她们的故事，塑造她们，见证她们的痛苦。

In her own words, from her intro: “The group of women Cosby allegedly assaulted functions almost as a longitudinal study—both for how an individual woman, on her own, deals with such trauma over the decades and for how the culture at large has grappled with rape over the same time period.” There it is: Not a cleverly packaged cover story about a dark-side celebrity, but a longitudinal study conducted over decades, reported over months, about trauma and silence and the culture that allowed it.

用她自己的话来说，在她的介绍中：“科斯比据称遭受袭击的女性群体几乎可以作为一项纵向研究——既可以了解一个女性在过去几十年中如何独自应对这种创伤，也可以了解整个文化在同一时期如何应对强奸问题。”就是这样：不是一个关于黑暗面名人的巧妙包装的封面故事，而是一项长达数十年、历时数月的纵向研究，涉及创伤和沉默以及允许这种情况发生的文化。

## The Counted: People Killed By the Police in the US (The Guardian) & Investigation: Police Shootings (The Washington Post)

## 统计：美国被警察杀害的人数（《卫报》）和调查：警察枪击事件（《华盛顿邮报》）

The Guardian has done extraordinary, laudable work compiling its database of all police shootings in 2015; The Washington Post’s investigation was equally impressive, and they’ve generated a lot of great stories out of it and around it.

《卫报》在编制 2015 年所有警察枪击事件数据库方面所做的工作非常出色，值得称赞。 《华盛顿邮报》的调查同样令人印象深刻，他们从中及其周围产生了许多精彩的故事。

These databases are necessary, but they can also run the risk of reducing a lot of human beings to digestible stats and scrollable infographics.

这些数据库是必要的，但它们也可能面临将大量人员简化为易于理解的统计数据和可滚动信息图表的风险。

So I’m mostly putting them down because I can’t say “Twitter and Facebook, and millions of people on them.” On these social platforms, activists and bystanders with their cell cameras and invested, inventive journalists and terrified young people are pulling together a devastating investigation into an institutional crime as big and old as the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.

所以我主要是贬低它们，因为我不能说“Twitter 和 Facebook，以及数百万人使用它们”。在这些社交平台上，带着手机摄像头的活动人士和旁观者，以及投入精力、富有创造力的记者和惊慌失措的年轻人，正在对像天主教会性虐待丑闻这样规模庞大、历史悠久的机构犯罪进行毁灭性的调查。

On these social platforms, those databases are updated live, with another terrible video, another needless death, on those social platforms, victims are given back their humanity and voice.

在这些社交平台上，那些数据库实时更新，又一个可怕的视频，又一个不必要的死亡，在这些社交平台上，受害者得到了人性和声音。

As Stacia L.

正如斯塔西亚·L.

Brown wrote in her heart-aching Buzzfeed piece, “Why I Facebook Stalk Black Teenagers.”: “It’s a powerful and chilling development: young people of color sharing what could become their last will and testament.

布朗在她令人心痛的 Buzzfeed 文章“为什么我在 Facebook 上跟踪黑人青少年”中写道：“这是一个强大而令人心寒的发展：有色人种的年轻人分享的东西可能会成为他们最后的遗嘱和遗嘱。

They’re shooting cell phone footage that could be admissible in the trials that follow their deaths.

他们正在拍摄手机录像，这些录像可以在他们死后的审判中使用。

They’re erecting memorials in their own honor, typing micro-obituaries.”

他们为了自己的荣誉而建立纪念碑，写微型讣告。”

## Ghost Boat (Eric Reidy, Medium)

## 幽灵船（埃里克·雷迪，中型）

In the Spotlight-ish movie adaptation of “Ghost Boat,” I’m played by the John Slattery figure, the well-meaning editor who doesn’t quite see what we had at first and is half-annoyed to keep hearing the pitch.

在这部由聚光灯改编的电影《幽灵船》中，我由约翰·斯拉特里（John Slattery）扮演，他是一位善意的编辑，一开始并不太明白我们的情况，而且对继续听到音调感到有点恼火。

The mysterious disappearance of 243 refugees in the Mediterranean?

地中海243名难民神秘失踪？

How do you even tell a story without an ending?

你怎么能讲一个没有结局的故事呢？

I didn’t have any clue, which is why I feel comfortable recommending the story here.

我没有任何线索，这就是为什么我愿意在这里推荐这个故事。

But Medium editor and Matter co-founder Bobbie Johnson and Tunisia-based reporter Eric Reidy did: Make it as honest, open, and alive as possible.

但 Medium 编辑兼 Matter 联合创始人鲍比·约翰逊 (Bobbie Johnson) 和突尼斯记者埃里克·雷迪 (Eric Reidy) 做到了：让它尽可能诚实、开放和活跃。

“Ghost Boat” tackles a gargantuan, global topic through a new kind of live, crowdsourced reporting.

《幽灵船》通过一种新型的现场众包报道来解决一个庞大的全球话题。

The serialized, episode-a-week approach draws in the audience.

连续剧、每周一集的方式吸引了观众。

Literally draws them in: Experts, amateurs, J-school students, have all joined together—even as the story spreads from smugglers in Libya, to fishermen in Tunisia, to legal sources in Italy who leak wiretaps—to find leads and chase down theories and understand, really feel, all the complexity and frustration of this investigation.

从字面上看，吸引了他们：专家、业余爱好者、J 学院的学生，都联合起来——即使这个故事从利比亚的走私者，到突尼斯的渔民，再到意大利泄露窃听的合法消息来源——都在寻找线索，追寻理论，并真正理解、真正感受到这项调查的所有复杂性和挫败感。

There have been haunting, affecting, immersive moments throughout.

整个过程中都有令人难以忘怀、感人至深、身临其境的时刻。

At one point, having uncovered a garbage dump in Tunisia that’s been turned into a mass grave, Reidy questions what he’s seeing—and pinpoints exactly why this story, this approach, this moment is so goddamn important.

有一次，雷迪在突尼斯发现了一个已经变成乱葬坑的垃圾场，他对自己所看到的东西提出了质疑，并准确地指出了为什么这个故事、这个方法、这个时刻如此重要。

“Walking over the nondescript ground, I was imagining the bodies buried in piles under my feet.

“走在不起眼的地面上，我想象着脚下埋着成堆的尸体。

Those corpses had an identity—they were people.

这些尸体有一个身份——他们是人。

And those people had families, friends, loved ones, maybe children, who, like the Ghost Boat families, are in limbo: suspended by nagging questions.”

这些人有家人、朋友、亲人，也许还有孩子，他们就像幽灵船的家庭一样，陷入了困境：被一些挥之不去的问题悬而未决。”

Ariella Cohen

阿瑞拉·科恩

Editor-in-chief at Next City.

《下一城》杂志主编。

## Revenge Killing (Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker)

## 复仇杀戮（雷切尔·阿维夫，《纽约客》）

Wow.

哇。

This New Yorker piece by Rachel Aviv made me text my Louisianian African-American husband a thank you for not allowing me to try to move us back to Louisiana to raise our family.

雷切尔·阿维夫（Rachel Aviv）的这篇《纽约客》文章让我给我的路易斯安那非裔美国丈夫发短信，感谢你不允许我试图搬回路易斯安那养家糊口。

It made me cry.

这让我哭了。

It made me send a small donation to the Innocence Project.

这让我向“纯真计划”捐款了一小笔。

You hear a whole lot about the racism of our criminal justice system, and in the past 16 months, I feel like not a day has gone by without a headline about some racist police action or another.

你听到了很多关于我们刑事司法系统的种族主义的消息，在过去的 16 个月里，我觉得每一天都会出现有关警察种族主义行为或其他行为的头条新闻。

But this story drilled into the sickness infecting American courtrooms in such a way that you would have to be Donald Trump to leave the story without recognizing the need for change.

但这个故事深入探讨了美国法庭的病态，以至于你必须是唐纳德·特朗普才能在不认识到变革的必要性的情况下离开这个故事。

Sometimes I get annoyed at the way the New Yorker writes about the South—it can feel condescending and like everyone is either a charmingly non-threatening retro figure or a Victim of American Oppression who we in the North should contemplate with sensitivity as we book Airbnb reservations for our upcoming visit to the new hipster New Orleans.

有时我对《纽约客》描写南方的方式感到恼火——它会让人感觉居高临下，好像每个人要么是一个迷人的、没有威胁的复古人物​​，要么是美国压迫的受害者，我们北方人在为即将到来的新潮新奥尔良之行预订 Airbnb 房间时应该敏感地思考这一点。

But with this story I had no such thoughts.

但有了这个故事，我就没有这样的想法了。

Aviv is an empathetic writer and the lives she lets us into— except for that of the monster district attorney whose blood thirst for black men is at the center of the piece— are presented with dignity and grace.

阿维夫是一位富有同情心的作家，她让我们进入的生活——除了怪物地区检察官的生活，他对黑人的嗜血是作品的中心——以尊严和优雅的方式呈现。

Following the article’s publication in July, the DA announced he would not run for reelection and this month, the parish’s first Black DA was sworn in.

该文章于 7 月发表后，地方检察官宣布他不会竞选连任，本月，该教区第一位黑人地方检察官宣誓就职。

That is powerful journalism.

这就是强大的新闻业。

## Tenants Take the Hit as New York Fails to Police Huge Housing Tax Break (Marcelo Rochabrun and Cezary Podkul​, ProPublica)

## 由于纽约未能实施巨额住房税收减免，租户受到打击（Marcelo Rochabrun 和 Cezary Podkul，ProPublica）

My inner watchdog has a huge crush on this story.

我内心的看门狗非常喜欢这个故事。

I measure the value of investigative pieces in their power for public impact and with this piece, Pro Publica served the city of New York a political hand grenade that can’t be ignored.

我衡量调查作品对公众影响力的价值，通过这篇文章，Pro Publica 为纽约市提供了一枚不可忽视的政治手榴弹。

Reporters Marcelo Rochabrun and Cezary Podkul exposed how the city’s failure to police the use of a controversial tax break enabled a prominent developer to illegally raise rents on tenants while reaping millions of dollars in subsidy for providing the rent protections they flouted.

记者马塞洛·罗恰布伦 (Marcelo Rochabrun) 和塞扎里·波德库尔 (Cezary Podkul) 揭露了该市未能监管有争议的税收减免政策，导致一家著名开发商非法提高租户租金，同时因提供他们蔑视的租金保护而获得数百万美元的补贴。

It was a juicy scoop and timely in two key ways.

这是一个多汁的独家新闻，并且在两个关键方面都很及时。

One, the tax break—421-A—is now being negotiated in Albany so lawmakers have an opportunity to push for reforms and two, the developer, Two Trees Management and the city recently signed on another affordable housing deal.

一是税收减免——421-A——目前正在奥尔巴尼进行谈判，以便立法者有机会推动改革；二是开发商、两棵树管理公司和该市最近签署了另一项经济适用房协议。

Like the best investigative journalism, this piece had humans at the center—there was no abstraction around who the public malfeasance in question was harming.

就像最好的调查性新闻报道一样，这篇文章以人类为中心——对于所讨论的公共不法行为正在伤害谁，没有抽象的概念。

Now, I don’t know how Pro Publica came to this story, but I like the fact that it was published with a call for New Yorkers to text in their own rent troubles.

现在，我不知道 Pro Publica 是如何得出这个故事的，但我喜欢这样一个事实：它的发布呼吁纽约人发短信解决自己的租金问题。

It would be interesting to know if this story was crowd-sourced.

知道这个故事是否是众包的会很有趣。

All in all, this is the kind of watchdog reporting that every city needs.

总而言之，这是每个城市都需要的监督报告。

Longreads Editor’s Pick: Mike Dang

长读编辑推荐：Mike Dang

@reportermike

@reporttermike

## Whatsoever Things Are True (Matthew Shaer, Atavist)

## 凡事属实（Matthew Shaer，Atavist）

Matthew Shaer spent several months speaking to dozens of people while looking into a story of how two men were separately convicted and exonerated, years apart, for a double murder in 1982.

马修·谢尔（Matthew Shaer）花了几个月的时间与数十人交谈，同时调查了两个男子如何在 1982 年的双重谋杀案中分别被定罪和被无罪释放的故事。

The story takes you to unexpected places with its string of reversals, investigation into the investigators, and exposure of a limited criminal-justice system.

这个故事通过一连串的逆转、对调查人员的调查以及对有限刑事司法系统的曝光，将你带到意想不到的地方。

Shaer found himself unraveling details until the minute he filed his story.

谢尔发现自己一直在解开细节，直到他提交故事的那一刻。

“When I started the reporting process, 11 months ago,” he writes in his intro, “I assumed that every new interview would bring me, in a straight line, one step closer to solving the case.

“11 个月前，当我开始报道过程时，”他在介绍中写道，“我以为每一次新的采访都会让我距离破案更近一步。

But more often than not, as the red light on my recorder went dim, I encountered new alleys, new questions, new ways of interpreting the available evidence.” In the end, a very convoluted story is masterfully pieced together.

但更多时候，当我的录音机上的红灯变暗时，我会遇到新的小巷、新的问题、解释现有证据的新方法。”最终，一个非常复杂的故事被巧妙地拼凑在一起。

Longreads Editor’s Pick: Mark Armstrong

长读编辑推荐：马克·阿姆斯特朗

@markarms

@markarms

## How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Built Six Homes (Justin Elliott and Laura Sullivan, ProPublica & NPR)

## 红十字会如何为海地筹集 50 亿美元并建造六所房屋（Justin Elliott 和 Laura Sullivan、ProPublica 和 NPR）

Whether it’s a business, government or charity, following the money almost inevitably leads to indications of waste.

无论是企业、政府还是慈善机构，追随金钱几乎不可避免地会导致浪费的迹象。

But Justin Elliott and Laura Sullivan’s account of mismanagement with the Red Cross’s efforts in Haiti is still shocking in how millions of dollars and seemingly good intentions can lead to corruption and “a cycle of overhead” where no one in need actually benefits.

但贾斯汀·埃利奥特（Justin Elliott）和劳拉·沙利文（Laura Sullivan）对红十字会在海地的工作管理不善的描述仍然令人震惊，因为数百万美元和看似良好的意图如何导致腐败和“管理费用循环”，而没有任何需要的人真正受益。

On the bright side for nonprofits: One of the most promising trends in journalism has been the continued rise of specialized 501(c)(3) organizations dedicated to investigative journalism—the above piece is just one example of the outstanding work being done by ProPublica, The Marshall Project, Mother Jones, and The Trace, to name just a few.

对于非营利组织来说，光明的一面是：新闻业最有前途的趋势之一是致力于调查性新闻的专门 501(c)(3) 组织的持续崛起——上述文章只是 ProPublica、The Marshall Project、Mother Jones 和 The Trace 等所做的杰出工作的一个例子。

They’re all worthy of your holiday gift-giving this year.

它们都值得您今年赠送节日礼物。