Reznet

A Career Called Purgatory

By Geneva Horse Chief

VERMILION, S.D.-It's an honor being a reporter, a prominent journalist told Native American students.

"The real honor is connecting with people under real circumstances," Peggy Engel told the American Indian Journalism Institute here June 17.

She advised the students to begin working any area of the media and to work for the value of the experience. She mentioned never underestimating even the smallest of assignments.

Engel said that deciding a career could feel uncomfortable at first, "like trying on strange clothes. ô You're worried about how they will fit."

Engel said her career as a reporter began in 1976 in Lorain, Ohio, when she was assigned to cover small "beats" such as city council meetings and school board meetings. It was the quickest way for her to get published, she said.

At times, she said, she thought to herself, "This is purgatory," because she felt unsure that these types of stories would lead to profound reporting.

Engel's first investigative break happened while covering a small school board meeting, she said. Through a conversation with a retired city clerk, discussing the death of a spouse "who died from coughing to death," Engel revealed the exploitation of miners working at a quarry in Lorain.

Large numbers of workers were underpaid and working in hazardous conditions, she said. Her investigation uncovered employee deaths at the quarry, caused by silicosis, tuberculosis and industrial accidents.

Engel described several experiences while covering difficult assignments, and stressed the importance of journalists being there to record injustice.

"There are a lot of people out there crying for help," she said. "It is a reporter's responsibility and role to look out of those who don't have a voice."

Nurturing an investigative career involves access, resources and knowledge of one's rights, Engel stressed to her audience. During a question and answer session, she discussed resources available to reporters and reminded students that laws differ from state to state.

In 1986, Engel was awarded the Penny Missouri Award for an article about pediatric AIDS cases. After working for the Lorain Journal, she worked at the Des Moines Register. In 1981, she was hired as a reporter and editor for The Washington Post. In 2001, Engel was named managing editor of the Newseum, an interactive museum of news.

Geneva Horse Chief (Osage) is a 2002 graduate of The Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute. She is a student at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.