Channel 8 News Center

The class took its final field trip on Tuesday, as we went back downtown to visit the Channel 8 News Center. It was there where we spent a little over an hour with Channel 8 senior investigative reporter Steve Andrews. It was a real treat being able to hear from someone as experienced and talented as Andrews. It was also fascinating to hear from someone in the television broadcasting field stress how important public records can be to building a story.
After a brief introduction Andrews showed the class videos of five stories from his 23 years of experience that public records played a large role in. For me, the first story was the best example of what can happen when you put in the time and effort to get the facts and put together a solid story. Andrews did an investigative piece on Tampa Bay Water, a company that had built a massive reservoir right here in Tampa. The walls of the reservoir had dozens of cracks in it, causing obvious concerns for the tax payers that had helped build it. Andrews wanted to find out the extent of the problem and also what was causing the problem.
His answers to these questions were found in a massive stack of reports given to him by Tampa Bay Water. The reports were public record, so Andrews requested them from Tampa Bay Water. They obliged by giving him the entire document, a massive stack of papers that Tampa Bay Water figured Andrews would look at and say that there is no way I’m reading all of this. They were wrong, as Andrews read every single word of the reports. Also in the reports were videos made by divers who went underwater to examine the cracks extensively. All of this information allowed Andrews to produce an eye-opening story about tons of wasted tax dollars spent in the flawed construction of this reservoir.
This was an excellent way to wrap up the field trip segment of the semester. It was great for us to hear a talented reporter like Steve Andrews show us examples of how going the extra mile in your investigation can give you a dynamite story.