Thread by @gburton

I read this New Yorker story. I hate it. Here are my thoughts. THREAD: newyorker.com/news/dispatch/….

Eight years ago, I landed a dream job with a small daily in Southern California called @mydesert.

I had moved to California from Delaware, where rising seas and violent storms were trashing beaches and resort towns.

Like the daughters of Zeus and Aphrodite, seasonal surges gobbled up larger chunks of the coast every year. And, every year, the feds rebuilt the seaboard to the benefit of, among others, wealthy homeowners.

Those storm surges also landed at the feet of DuPont chemical facilities and nuclear power plants. In Delaware, climate change is more than an economic nightmare.

We assigned two reporters to the stories. @delawareonline, owned by @gannett and part of the USA TODAY Network @usatoday, never once said, nope, too much environment coverage.

Later, when Hurricane Sandy devastated the coast, @hollistowns and his great team of journalists at the @asburyparkpress (also USA TODAY Network) dug deep into the causes of the disaster and its consequences. Nobody asked Hollis to pull back a bit on that environment stuff.

When News Journal reporter Molly Murray, a dear friend and devoted chronicler of Delaware’s land and water, unexpectedly died, friends funded an environmental journalism scholarship in her name, delawareonline.com/story/news/loc…

Not long after I arrived in California, the @freep lured the newsroom’s top investigative reporter to Michigan (not your fault @peterbhatia).

@keithmatheny had covered many things in Palm Springs – tribal trust funds, wily politicians and, as time allowed, endangered tortoises and the beleaguered Salton Sea.

California was in epic drought. Yet, in my corner of the desert, plush golf courses and developments with paddle boats and man-made lakefronts dominated the landscape. I wanted to know why. I tripled the investigative team. We focused on the environment.

California is (mostly) immune to hurricanes and nor’easters. A lot of it is hot. After Delaware, I was curious to know “What happens when average temperatures rise in a place that is hot as hell?” So, I hired a reporter at The Desert Sun to explore the water-climate nexus.

That reporter, @byianjames, wrote a series of stories that exposed depleted aquifers and overdrafts desertsun.com/pages/interact….

He broke a series of reports about Nestle bottling water from U.S. Forest Service land in California. The company’s permit had expired more than 20 years earlier. But it continued to pull more than 20 million gallons of water off of public land every year.

In return, the United States was collecting a princely $524. Ian’s reporting set up a yearslong challenge to the practice. desertsun.com/story/news/201….

At Joshua Tree National Park, he covered the retreat of the park’s namesake plant from the desert floor, where low and high temps were higher than ever. Ian’s work led to dramatic changes in public opinion and incremental changes in public policy. desertsun.com/story/news/env…

When another reporting position opened up at The Desert Sun, I hired a second environmental reporter to cover the energy-climate nexus.

.@sammy_roth began a deep exploration of California’s solar energy expansion, investments in wind and geothermal and the battle between big energy, rooftop solar and net metering.

Sammy’s investigation of the Imperial Irrigation District (big players in the fate of Colorado River water) exposed a permissive climate for conflicts of interest and political deal-making. desertsun.com/story/tech/sci….

Sammy produced a seminal series on the Western power grid and teamed with Ian and photographer @zoekmeyers on a series about the Salton Sea disaster. desertsun.com/pages/interact…

Not once did someone at USA TODAY Network say, ‘Nope, too much environmental reporting.’ Just the opposite. The Network’s flagship published Ian, Sammy and Zoë’s work – delivering enterprise reporting on the environment from California to millions of readers across the country.

11 months ago, I joined @azcentral. I had worked, along with two reporters from The Desert Sun, on The Republic’s Pulitzer winning project on The Wall. Our newsrooms collaborated on other projects about immigration, climate change and desert habitat. usatoday.com/border-wall/

Two years ago, The Arizona Republic and @indystar (both of USA TODAY Network) doubled down on environmental reporting thanks to a generous grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust @pulliamtrust.

In Phoenix, @pulliamtrust supports 1 reporter, 2 full-time fellows, photography and travel expenses. I hired Ian to join that team. Our current fellows are @priscillatotiya and @andrewnicla. I tried to hire Sammy, but he took a job @latimes. Dodgers fan, what are you going to do?

The new editor in Palm Springs, @julie_makinen, replaced Ian at The Desert Sun with @janetwilson66, an amazing environment reporter who previously had worked at the L.A. Times and Free Press (revenge is sweet).

Next month, Julie will announce she’s hired a reporter to focus on the nexus of climate and fire (replacing Sammy).

Yep, two environmental reporters at The Desert Sun. Nobody at the USA TODAY Network said, hey, too much environment coverage.

The Desert Sun just published this two-year project: desertsun.com/in-depth/news/…

In Phoenix this week, we screened a 30 minute documentary on the Colorado River, produced by The Arizona Republic as part of a series of stories focused exclusively on the desert Southwest’s environment: azcentral.com/in-depth/news/…

Our water future was central to the film and discussions in Phoenix this week sponsored by @ten_across @kylcenter @landpolicy @azcentral @asu.

Reporters @brandonloomis, @photochowder, @davidwallace, @shaunmckinnon, @jsusong and Ian invested time as moderators or presenters to scientists, policy makers, politicians and the public.

Discussions about climate change and journalism tend to split rooms into optimists and pessimists (On climate change @cynthiabarnett is an optimist; @abrahmL not so much). I’m an optimist. But I get all the feels of the pessimists.

Last year, @courierjournal said goodbye to environment reporter @jbruggers. James and I regularly chatted during calls I organized for environment reporters in the USA TODAY Network.

These calls were a nod to a common mission and strength in collaboration – the power of the Network’s reach and collective talents.

(By the way, during those calls with reporters and editors across the country, nobody ever said, hey, this is too much environment coverage.)

James landed at @insideclimate, where he continues to cover, or encourage coverage of, Kentucky’s environment. That’s great news for a state where the federal Superfund law took root, much to the credit of the Courier Journal’s coverage of the Valley of the Drums.

Louisville’s top editor, @kentuckyrag, replaced James with a great reporter who will split time between environmental reporting and other investigative projects. So, less than full time on land, water and pollution.

I love hiring, but, in these days of contraction, every open position presents a choice. Not all choices are equal: Cover coal ash, school test scores or income inequality? It’s agonizing. Every editor I know fights to make the right choice.

This week, Rick and James (not Rick James) ended up in that @newyorker story by @charlesbethea, who laments the decline of environmental reporting in coal country.

First, I hate it for what it gets right.

There are fewer reporters, of all kinds, in American newsrooms. There’s no doubt there are fewer reporters watching statehouses, courthouses and police departments, all across the country.

But if we’re talking about environmental reporting, this story omits a lot of exculpatory evidence. Reporting on the environment has never been better.

There’s national media. @propublica and Abrahm have added reporting heft focused on the environment. @nytimes killed its environment desk a few years ago and then reversed course a couple years later.

.@buzzfeed, @voxdotcom, @grist, @yalee360, @insideclimate cultivate reporters who cover the environment. @highcountrynews remains a gold standard. @outsidemagazine and @natgeo are important outlets.

Then there’s all the work being done at the local level to fill in the gaps. The talented @lyndseygilpin launched @southerlymag from Kentucky to make sure reporting on the environment thrives in the same places James has watchdogged for years.

In a Twitter clapback of her own, Lyndsey (an @sej board member) challenged the premise of The New Yorker story.

Then there’s us, in the @usatoday network. @eweise at USA TODAY has added climate as a focus from her office in San Francisco. @usatodayweather and @ledgeking cover climate, NOAA and the EPA for USA TODAY.

Tomorrow, and the next day, I’m going to hire environment reporters when able. Nobody at USA TODAY has ever advised otherwise. They’ve praised work of this kind.

They’ve encouraged more of it – and acted in every way like a company committed to telling the critical stories this nation and our communities need to read.

And there’s one more thing to hate about the New Yorker story. It let this quote “More and more, local news of import is being drowned out by generic USA Today coverage” slip in, to which I say bullshit.

I’m here to testify that deep, long, narrative and investigative writing and reporting is nurtured by editors across the USA TODAY Network. Have you read The Wall project, linked above?

Have you read this? usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…?

Or this: usatoday.com/pages/interact…

Or this: usatoday.com/in-depth/news/…

Or, so many more: usatoday.com/news/investiga…

I have subscribed to The New Yorker for 30 years. I’ll reup until I die – because it’s an incredibly important vehicle for journalism (newyorker.com/subscribe).

So is The Desert Sun, you can subscribe here (offers.desertsun.com/specialoffer/).

So is The Arizona Republic, you can subscribe here (offers.azcentral.com/specialoffer/).

So is the Louisville Courier Journal, you can subscribe here (offers.courier-journal.com/specialoffer/).

And, if you want to fund environmental reporting positions or initiatives at the local level via a grant, I’m listening at [e-mail]. Rick Green, [e-mail], is ready, too. END THREAD