Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter.
Now, it’s a big story. We’re referring to Coingate. On Saturday, The New York Times reported on the rapidly unfolding political and legal scandal in Ohio involving a Republican bigwig and millions in missing rare coins he purportedly was investing for the state. The Los Angeles Times weighed in the same day with its own story, although, curiously, the story was reported from Chicago. (Note to L.A. Times Chicago bureau: The airfare to Columbus from Chicago is only $94.)
Even the Insurance Journal jumped on the story today. And bloggers have been having a field day.
Here’s a quick summary of what’s going on: As much as $13 million of $50 million in state worker compensation funds, given to Republican powerbroker Thomas Noe to invest, are missing. Noe, a rare coin dealer, is under multiple investigations or audits over the investments and his prodigious campaign fundraising efforts for GOP candidates. (He was a major donor to President Bush’s re-election campaign.) Ohio Gov. Robert A. Taft, a Republican, has promised a full investigation. His director of worker compensation has resigned, and the state’s attorney general has asked the Justice Department to get involved in the probe because of Noe’s close ties to so many major players.
As we noted a few weeks back, the real credit here goes to the Toledo Blade, which has dominated Coingate since Mike Wilkinson and James Drew broke the story April 3. And the paper has remained far out ahead of everybody else since.
Yesterday, Blade readers were treated to a detailed explanation of coin “arbitrage” and Noe’s own financial interest in a company that “grades” coins, establishing their value on the market.
Last week, Editor & Publisher’s Graham Wilson caught up with Wilkinson and Jim Drew to discuss their coverage. Graham wrote:
The Blade had considered in the beginning whether it was a story at all, but it became clear that there was something to it when the reporters found out that the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s internal auditor had written a memo in 2000 raising questions about Noe’s activities, Drew said. “In many ways this would not have been a story, if this one internal auditor for the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation hadn’t done his job,” he added.
Or, we might add, if a reporter hadn’t trusted his gut instincts and kept digging.
“What was unusual to me is that we didn’t have any competition at that point,” said Drew, who called this the biggest investigative story he’s covered in 20 years in journalism. “No other newspapers were picking it up.”
Now they are. But they’ve got a long way to go to catch up to the feisty Blade.
–Susan Q. Stranahan
Has America ever needed a media defender more than now? Help us by joining CJR today.
