Award-winning Los Angeles Times’ reporters Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, who uncovered corruption in the city of Bell, gave a presentation Tuesday in the USU about the challenges of investigative journalism.
They discussed the process they went through to uncover these stories, from requesting public documents to crunching numbers and figuring out the salaries of Bell city officials.
Gottlieb and Vives have received numerous awards in journalism, including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their investigative pieces uncovering the corruption scandal in the city of Bell.
Media outlets have named them “an unlikely duo.”
Gottlieb is a veteran reporter of the Los Angeles Times while Vives is relatively new to the world of professional journalism, with only three years of reporting for the Los Angeles Times under his belt.
Their investigative work has brought criminal charges against the ex-city officials of the City of Bell and has led to a more thorough examination of government agencies throughout the state of California.
“This story is a career story,” Gottlieb said.