"There are two kinds of reporters -- the retrievers and the bloodhounds. One brings back the story content to merely depict the surface of a situation -- an earthquake, a fire, a school closing -- without reference to the shabby construction that made the buildings collapse, the building inspector who didn’t make his rounds, the financial mistakes or misplaced priorities that closed the school. This is sometimes called, incorrectly, 'objective' journalism. The bloodhound smells something wrong, and the whiff of blood quickens his senses. If he exposes the problem, someone will be embarrassed enough to fix it. The bloodhounds don’t all have warm fuzzy personalities, but journalism could not fulfill its role as 'tribune,' defender of the weak, without them."
Ralph Cipriano, a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, is a veteran muckraking reporter who’s exposed corruption in local governments, the Philadelphia D.A.’s office, police departments, Ivy League football and the Catholic Church. He’s currently a blogger for Big Trial and a freelance writer for publications that include Philadelphia magazine and Newsweek.
As an author, Cipriano has written Courtroom Cowboy, a biography of trailblazing Philadelphia lawyer Jim Beasley, and The Hit Man, which chronicled the life of former mobster turned government witness John Veasey. Cipriano’s latest book is Target: The Senator, A Story About Power And Abuse Of Power, about the life of former Pennsylvania power broker Vincent J. Fumo.
Historic Libel Case
In the history of American journalism, only once did a reporter sue his own editor for libel. It happened in 1998 when Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano went to court to challenge Inquirer editor Robert J. Rosenthal. The lawsuit was over libelous quotes that Rosenthal gave to Howie Kurtz of The Washington Post about the truthfulness of Cipriano's work. Rosenthal was upset because a Cipriano story that the editor killed because it was supposedly "anti-Catholic,"a story highly critical of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the archbishop of Philadelphia, had just been published on the front page of the National Catholic Reporter. The libel suit ended in 2001 with a confidential settlement and a public apology from Rosenthal, who was subsequently fired.