Journalistic Guts: Get You Some

ProPublica tells the story of how the Raleigh News & Observer had (and still has) the guts to take on Blackwater Worldwide. Here's a taste of the interview with the N&O's Steve Riley:

When did you realize the significance of Blackwater as an investigative subject?

We started paying attention as far back as 2001, when they were just a training company. When Fallujah burst upon us in March 2004, we pretty quickly came to the conclusion that we should go as deep as we could. We saw the Fallujah incident as a way to explain how those four guys came to be on that bridge that day—tracing their lives up to their decision to work for Blackwater. This gave us a way to explain the increasing importance of these private military contractors that we were paying a lot of money for.

Full story here.