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Intelligence
Report
Breaks News Every Day
VOLUME XXVI, NUMBER 11 MARCH 12, 2006
WLS-TV, Chicago, is trying a new approach to showcase investigative stories on a daily
basis.
A number of the pieces recently dealt with homeland security, as did several other
interesting investigations done around the country. Variations of these could work in many
markets.
The Intelligence Report established as daily franchise
WLS-TV, Chicago
How to get your investigative unit on air more frequently is something many news
executives have been dealing with.
It is hard --- if not impossible --- to turn a big story day after day.
"Obviously, with a limited number of people working in the investigative unit,
developing 'the big story' takes time," says veteran investigative reporter Chuck
Goudie.
Jennifer Graves, WLS-TV Vice President and News Director, inspired Goudie to look at
how he approached his job, and she gave him the freedom to develop a new investigative
franchise.
The concept of the Intelligence Report was created.
"This is still in the trial stage. But we have committed to putting the Intelligence
Report on our newscast every day," he says.
"These are not long-term, long-form investigative pieces. They are more hit-and-run
type stories. But I have managed to get on the air every day with material that nobody
else has," says Goudie.
The Intelligence Report helps differentiate the station.
"Without giving up the name 'I-Team,' the intent is to brand this as something other
stations don't have. The term Intelligence Report can cover anything --- from terrorism to
street gangs to the mob to politics," he says.
Some days the story may be 1:45 on tape, or it could be a V/O with the anchors and
Goudie interacting about what they've learned.
It runs most nights at 6 p.m.
"The theory is to get it on the same show every day, just like you would
HealthBeat or sports or weather that runs at a certain time," he says.
Most of the pieces are first block stories, although some have run in the second block,
depending on the news of the day.
Content is the latest "intelligence"
In the first two weeks, half of the stories were terrorism-related, driven by either
arrests of suspects or investigative tips.
For example, Goudie and the investigative unit linked to Chicago three alleged terrorists
who were arrested recently in Toledo.
"That gave us several days worth of material we ran with," he says.
These are sometimes pieces of a bigger, ongoing story that can stand alone.
"These were things that we might have ordinarily felt we needed a month to look into
backgrounds and connections. In this case, we were able to turn things quickly and get
them on the air in a more timely fashion, although they were in smaller pieces," he
says.
He stresses they will not sacrifice quality for the sake of getting on the air quickly.
Goudie says it's a matter of changing your mindset.
As they looked at the Toledo terrorists, they learned that one of them owned a travel
agency in Chicago.
"There is a bigger story here, because almost all of these terror suspects who have
been arrested in the last year own or have a piece of a travel agency," he says.
"Our ordinary mindset might have been, 'That's the story. We're going to spend a
month developing that story.' We may still do it, but in the meantime, we were able to put
these current stories on the air," he explains.
Other non-terrorism pieces have included:
--- A plane ran out of fuel.
A small plane made an emergency landing on a Chicago expressway. It flipped upside down,
but the student pilot and instructor survived. No one on the ground was hurt, but it was a
spectacular picture, and there were a lot of questions about it.
"We moved on it that day, and that afternoon, we were the only ones to report that
the owner of the company said the plane ran out of fuel," he says.
--- Natalee Holloway followup.
"The owner of the casino where she and the suspect were that night is a convicted,
high-ranking Chicago mobster, who has pretty much been given a pass in the
investigation," says Goudie.
The criminal has been a prominent member of the Chicago outfit for 40 years.
"He is a convicted felon in the United States. But he is licensed to manage a casino
in Aruba, and has done so for the last eight years. We turned a local angle and put it on
the air the same day that ABC ran an exclusive interview with one of the men last seen
with her," says Goudie.
"We had talked about going to Aruba and spending several days to put it together for
the book. Rather than just shelve the story, we managed to put it on the air," he
says.
These are topical stories. But they are not necessarily spinning out of the day's news
that everyone else is covering.
Another recent piece was on an embezzler who is being prosecuted for stealing $2
million from his employer.
Goudie discovered the man currently works for the Cook County Treasurer in the tax
department!
"That was another quick turn. He was appearing in court that day, and we got a tip
he currently worked for the government. It was a story no one else had, and the only
'day-of' nature to it was the man happened to be in court that day," he says.
Goudie admits this is a lot of work.
"It has taken some time to get used to turning things day after day," he says.
"But it is working in terms of what is happening on the air. The Intelligence Report
name has already generated some buzz.
People are calling saying, 'I've got something for the Intelligence Report," says
Goudie.
He adds that so far there is plenty of material to report.
Resources may be adjusted
They are deciding what resources will be needed to sustain the daily report, as well as
the other long-term I-Team investigations which will continue.
Veteran I-Team producer Ann Pistone has kept her focus on the larger investigations that
viewers are accustomed to seeing on WLS.
"While I am trying to run down stories that may be on the air today, I may also be
shooting things for two weeks from now that Ann has set up. It is still a work in
progress. It has caused us to re-evaluate our vision of what we are capable of doing on a
daily basis," he adds.
Hometown terrorist stories: They're here among us
When the three men were arrested as suspected terrorists in Toledo, Goudie discovered a
local link: Chicago was to be a training center for terrorists plotting attacks on
American soldiers in Iraq.
A former U.S. Special Forces soldier was recruited by hometown terrorists, but he informed
for the FBI.
Goudie revealed that the man was involved with now accused terrorists in suburban Chicago
and Toledo. The former soldier travelled with a prime suspect to Jordan to deliver
computers with plans for roadside bombings targeting the US military. He helped train at a
Toledo gun range. He plotted to order chemical weapons.
Plus, Goudie discovered the suspects had links to a Chicago charity and at one time ran a
travel agency in the area.
There is often a Chicago angle on terrorism stories.
"When it comes to stories like this, we presume there is going to be a Chicago
connection, even if the feds don't say there is," Goudie explains.
"We normally will take names, and start running them to see if they show up in any of
the databases in lawsuits, property records, corporate records or things like that. Almost
always one of the players in these schemes will have some Chicago connection," he
says.
With the investigator's new philosophy, they will put stories on the air as they
determine the information to be accurate, as opposed to waiting until they fill out the
entire picture.
For instance, they reported that one of the suspects lived in an apartment in the
Southwest section of the city while he was running a travel agency in the downtown area.
"We didn't necessarily know who he was associating with at that time, who might have
been living in his apartment, what kind of car he was driving, or what the travel agency's
real business was," says Goudie.
"We didn't have the answers to those questions, but we put him here during a time
that was critical to the terrorist operation, and we felt that was important to put on the
air in the context of this arrest," he explains.
Goudie thinks many suspected terrorists will have connections to more than one city.
"These are not only multi-national individuals, they are multi-state individuals.
Regardless of your market, when a story like this comes up, I would encourage other
reporters to take 15 minutes and run the names through databases and see if they have
local addresses," he says.
Goudie also believes viewer interest in these stories remains strong.
"Our numbers are excellent and there is no falloff in the ratings. People aren't
tuning out when these stories come on. If anything, they are talking about it and calling
us," he adds.
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