The 21st century is just about one-quarter over. And, in my mind, it’s a slam dunk as to what’s the most consequential piece of journalism of the last 25 years.
It’s the 2018 “Pervasion of Justice” series in the Miami Herald. The reporter was Julie K. Brown, and what she detailed – and detailed should be underlined and bolded there – was the sex trafficking ring maintained for the wealthy and powerful by financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In the series, Brown interviewed about 80 victims of Epstein, some who were as young as 13 when they were exploited. Those victims never knew the terms of Epstein’s two state charge convictions or that he made a deal that canceled federal charges.
The stories also detailed how Epstein’s “incarceration” included frequent home visits and trips to New York and his Caribbean retreat.
Brown’s work led to new charges against Epstein in 2019 – charges that were pending when Epstein died in his New York jail cell, supposedly by his own hand.
Here it is, 2025, and we’re still amidst the reprecussions of Brown’s reporting. Largely because one of Epstein’s most prominent associates, Donald Trump, was president at the time of the publication and somehow managed to get elected again last year.
Brown is the Woodward and Bernstein of this generation. She should have a Pulitzer Prize to show for the incredible work she did.
That she doesn’t is possibly due to the machinations of attorney Alan Dershowitz, who knew Epstein and was implicated in Brown’s reporting. He complained loudly and publicly, and lobbied the Pulitzer committee against awarding Brown for her work.
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When I started my career, there were few women in newsrooms. When I retired, more than half the people in my newsroom were female.
That is a remarkable change and there’s only one reason for it. And it’s not because of affirmative action, DEI, wokeness or anything else detractors conjure.
The reason is that the women who go into journalism are very good at journalism.
It has been my privilege to work with, work for and to mentor women of exceptional talent. They put in the time, they put up with the frustrations, they deal with the vagaries of corporate capriciousness. Like all journalists, they don’t get paid as well as other professionals – and too many of them still don’t get paid as much as their male counterparts.
They also have to contend with a lot of crap. Which brings us to this week.
I once aspired to be a White House correspondent – that what’s I thought was the ultimate job in journalism. That viewpoint changed as I saw other uses for my abilities – and I saw the way people who cover the president never seem to stop working.
So when two women covering the mishegas known as Trump dared to ask questions that he didn’t want to answer, he lashed out in a way you kind of expect from a low-life grifter.
When a reporter for Bloomberg News asked why he didn’t just release the Epstein files instead of having Congress vote to subpoena them, he told her “Quiet, quiet piggy.” Implying that a woman looking for a simple answer was less than human.
When a reporter for ABC News confronted Trump about welcoming Mohammed bin Salman – the Saudi leader who allegedly masterminded the murder of a Washington Post journalist – he went into a diatribe against her and urged the FCC to take away the network’s broadcast license.
Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey and ABC’s Mary Bruce stood firm against an abusive old fart. Hopefully, their employers will have their back. They join a long line of female journalists – April Ryan and Abby Phillips, among others – who’ve had their professionalism and integrity challenged by someone with none of either.
What a lot of people are wondering is why other White House reporters, particularly male counterparts, didn’t come to the defense of Lucey and Bruce.
One reason is that a president’s feeble attempt to humiliate a reporter is not in the J-school playbook. If you want to know how far Trump is from what considered acceptable behavior from anyone in public life, think of any other president in our lifetime who would talk to a female reporter in that manner. Not even Richard Nixon – the standard for miserable presidents until now – would do that.
But there’s also the problem of fear. Other journalists aren’t brave enough to risk Trump’s wrath.
And there’s also the problem of sycophancy. This White House has brought more of those who suck up to Trump into the ranks of supposedly objective journalists
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So to Julie Brown and Catherine Lucey and Mary Bruce and all the American women working in newsrooms around the world, thanks for making journalism so much better.
When you think about what makes America great, they should be among the first thoughts.
SUBJECTISM 