A Pulitzer Winner on the Rewards of Zagging When Others Zig
COM’s Steve Stecklow on the stock option backdating series
While everyone else zigs, says Steve Stecklow, a journalism lecturer at Boston University’s College of Communication and a special senior writer at the Wall Street Journal, he prefers to zag.
“I had an editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer who used to say the most interesting stories are the ones not being told,” Stecklow says.
So Stecklow, along with Journal writers James Bandler, Charles Forelle, and Mark Maremont, set out to tell one of those stories. They chose the questionable corporate practice of backdating stock options. The results of their more than 100 stories are impressive: 140 companies are now under federal investigation, a dozen people have been indicted, and more than 70 executives have lost their jobs. And one more thing: Stecklow and his colleagues were awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for public-service journalism.
BU Today spoke with Stecklow about the stories, the practice of backdating, and consequences of looking for the stories that are not being told.
Nicole Laskowski can be reached at nicolel@bu.edu.