We arrived at the north Lakeland, FL,
low-income nursing home in the heat of the day, perhaps 1pm. It was
blistering' hot. The old man whom we came to meet, a former
farmworker, and the woman who ran the place, greeted us in the
courtyard. She suggested that we do the interview sitting at a
concrete table in the sun. I, the cameraman, was soaked in sweat
already, from carrying the gear from the car, so I didn't really
care. No lights needed here, so I sat up my sticks, and clipped on
the mic. Suddenly a man in a suit walked up.
"I need to talk to this man before
you get started."
I did not like his abrupt style. What
is wrong with, good afternoon, or excuse me?
I turned toward him and said, "Who
the fuck are YOU?" Better for the cameraman than the reporter to
be direct. I was more blunt back then, in my mid-twenties.
He presented a wallet from his jacket
pocket and introduced himself, adding "F-B-I," separating
the letters like that.
I smiled, "You fucking followed us
here, didn't you! All the way from Tampa?"
He smirked, very irritated. I did not
let him respond. I continued softly, "You know if you listen
while we are interviewing the gentleman, then you will know what to
ask. I am sure that if you followed us here, then you really don't
even know his name." He inhaled deeply. I continued, "Do
you!" I pointed behind him. "There is a chair in the shade
over there." He deferred. I was helping him. We proceeded with
the interview.
We, a two-man local investigative
television team, the WTSP-TV Action News I-Team, had been busting
the US Attorney's … back, let's say, and were continuing to build a
case, after a series and a documentary, that proved that a family was
violating slavery laws. Someone at Justice, or in the US Attorney's
office in Tampa, specifically, was convinced that we had inside
sources. How did they know we were heading to Lakeland? Were they
listening in on my reporter's phone calls? Were they literally
following us out of the station? I DID have the only unmarked car at
the station, a white Caprice wagon, albeit with five radio antennae
sticking out of the roof, so it would not be hard to tail. I know
that we, in our mid twenties, were proud that the FBI was apparently
taking our lead.
Why would we be proud? I've said it
many times; if you are really doing your job as a reporter, then the
government, or a corporation, or a “target,” will be surveilling
you.
Now, to today's point. I have hundreds
of journalism friends. Many of them are flabbergasted, beside
themselves, shocked, over the Justice Department monitoring the
Associate Press. I do not like the shotgun approach that they
apparently took with the AP reporters, but I maintain that if you are
doing a good job, doing YOUR job, as a journalist, a real member of
the fourth estate, then the government will be listening to you,
tailing you, even trying to interfere with you.
To be truthful, in my investigative
career, I was disappointed in government officials who had not been
prepared for my arrival, like a California Health Department
bureaucrat we questioned on a series about deaths at state mental
hospitals. We fricasseed her. She thought that her pat
answers would suffice, and they didn't, because we were prepared.
Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates,
on the other hand, knew how to get info on reporters. When I
interviewed him on an investigation into LAPD police dog bites, that included several cases of children killed by their dogs, he
and his Public Affairs Officer, William Booth, who I think was a
Commander then, had prepared well. They seemed to know which lawyers
I had interviewed and had prepped for cases that they thought I might
want to discuss. Again, I was impressed, yet, I still managed to
surprise him by presenting a deposition that Gates had done a couple
of years earlier. He looked at Booth who said, “I told you about
this guy.” My source on the deposition had been very careful,
because he was very experienced with LAPD, and consequently, even
though I too had apparently been under investigation, we still
managed to surprise the “J. Edgar Hoover” of local law
enforcement. That source refused to talk on the phone, for instance.
So I look at the exasperation of those
in news, about the government monitoring reporters. I ask myself why,
and who the journos are who so upset, and I quickly realize that they
are news managers, breaking news reporters, or virtual spokespeople
for those whom they cover, and at the same time investigative
journalists are sitting back wondering “What the fuck do you think
they have been doing, all along?”
And yes, former
farmworker, Edward Chestnut, DID eventually interview with the FBI
agent, there in Lakeland, and later he testified along with a dozen
other interviewees in our stories, at the trial that resulted in four
convictions on slavery charges in US Federal Court, in Tampa.
