MADISON – More than 150 guests joined the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism in celebrating its 10th anniversary Thursday at the UW-Madison Memorial Union.
The event included a panel featuring David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning associate editor at The Washington Post; Cara Lombardo, Wall Street Journal reporter and former WCIJ intern; and Michael Wagner, UW-Madison associate professor of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The panel discussed the importance of investigative journalism in today’s world, with Maraniss saying it “has never been more important than right now.”
During the event, the WCIJ highlighted some of its biggest stories over the years, including the Failure at the Faucet series on Wisconsin’s drinking water; Broken Whistle, which exposed poor treatment of whistleblowers; and the ongoing series Undemocratic: Secrecy and Power vs. the People, which explores threats to the state’s democracy.
Since its founding 2009, more than 750 news outlets across the country have published, broadcast or cited the WCIJ’s 340 major reports, reaching an estimated audience of 72 million people. The Center was founded by Andy Hall and Dee J. Hall, who were veteran (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal reporters at the time.
