Bailey-King Author Series: Elliott shares insight on investigative journalism

Justin Elliott ‘03, the guest speaker for the ninth annual Bailey-King Author Series held April 3 in Southworth Library, informed and entertained his audience with stories from his Thayer days, his years on Brown University’s daily newspaper, and his current work at ProPublica, a nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism. The soft-spoken alum was modest, thoughtful, and often humorous. 

But a question posed to Elliott later in the evening — about whether he and his colleagues felt cowed by threats of litigation from the powerful and wealthy people they investigate on a daily basis — brought out the quiet confidence and passion noted by his former Thayer teachers and so necessary to his work as an investigative journalist. 

“The truth is a defense in libel cases,” Elliott said. 

The truth, or at least the passionate search for it, was front and center that night as Elliott discussed the nuts and bolts of finding out things other people want hidden. He also addressed today’s growing anti-journalist discourse intended to have an unsettling effect on reporters and other fact finders trying to do their jobs. 

Head of School Chris Fortunato P ‘26, ‘28, who welcomed guests to the event, described the event as another opportunity to discuss important and sometimes controversial issues in a forum committed to civil discourse.

Elliott has been a reporter at ProPublica for more than a decade. In 2023 he and colleagues revealed how a set of politically connected billionaires provided lavish gifts and travel to Supreme Court justices over many years. Those stories won the Pulitzer Prize and prompted the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct for the first time in its 234-year history. He was previously on the team of reporters documenting how the rich avoid taxes for “The Secret IRS Files” series. He co-wrote a story revealing how tech mogul Peter Thiel turned a Roth IRA into a multibillion-dollar tax haven. His work has spurred congressional investigations and changes to federal law. His coverage of TurboTax-maker Intuit’s misleading marketing tactics led to a settlement delivering $141 million back to consumers.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Elliott has won a George Polk Award, the Selden Ring Award, and a Gerald Loeb Award for business journalism. On Thursday night, however, he told his Southworth Library audience — as well as those watching via Zoom — that his job sometimes reminds him of being in sales: cold calling 20 or so people in the hopes that one or two people call him back. Later, he compared his job to that of searching for oil as he emphasized how weeks of following a particular lead might result in no story at all. 

“There’s a lot of drilling of dry holes,” said Elliott, adding that such labor-intensive practices make investigative journalism an expensive form of reporting and often the first item to be cut when a newspaper struggles financially. 

Elliott described himself as “sort of a math kid” during his Thayer days and proudly showed a slide of his Thayer Mathletics T-Shirt to the crowd. But he also wrote for Voice, Thayer’s award-winning student magazine, under the direction of longtime history and English teacher Dan Levinson, who had the honor of introducing Elliott that night. Elliott — who said Thayer teachers probably remember him as “that kid always asking annoying questions in class” — later found his calling as a reporter for The Brown Daily Herald as an undergrad. 

“I realized that there was a career where you could get paid, sort of, for asking annoying questions,” he said. 

Elliott lauded his Thayer experience and teachers such as Levinson and longtime English teachers Jim King P ‘01, ‘04, ‘06 and Betty Bailey ‘63, who were both in attendance that night and for whom the author series is named. 

“Those classes were preparation for this work in an extremely direct way,” said Elliott, referring to the trio’s various history and English courses. Moments later he added: “I somehow ended up spending my career writing term papers.” 

Elliott emphasized ProPublica’s nonpartisan nature and its numerous investigative pieces on subjects from all points on the political spectrum — “We tend to cover who’s in power,” he said — but he warned against what he sees as increasing attacks on first amendment freedoms and calls to criminalize the work of journalists. 

“This definitely has a chilling effect,” he said. 

In his introduction, Levinson noted Elliott’s intellectual curiosity as a student, both in the classroom and as a contributor to Voice. He said fellow alumni from Voice and its two student-led precursors, The Tiger’s Eye and Prologue, should feel kinship with Elliott and take pride in his accomplishments. Levinson, who taught at Thayer for 41 years, also highlighted the need for great reporting in today’s fractured and often fractious world. 

“Journalists are often reviled these days,” said Levinson, “but the best of them play an irreplaceable role in our society.” 

King echoed Levinson’s comments in lauding the accomplishments of Elliott — “It’s a wonderful switcheroo when the student becomes the teacher,” King said — and clarifying why such work is important. 

“If we don’t have people respecting the truth, then our whole society falls apart,” said King. 

King ended the evening by thanking the many people who make the annual event possible. He singled out Todd Slawsby ‘88 and his wife Amelia, whose donation founded the series, and Upper School English Faculty Denise King P ‘08, ‘10 (no relation), director of the series. 

“She gets the thrill of pulling all the loose strings together,” King said of his former colleague. 

One of the best moments of a memorable night had nothing to do with the series itself. Norma Atkinson GP ‘07, ‘11, ‘16, who taught history in the Upper School for 32 years, chose the April 3 talk as the best place to celebrate her 90th birthday. She was summarily serenaded with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” to put a cherry on top of the evening. 

Established in 2016 through the generous support of Todd Slawsby ‘88 and his wife Amelia, the Bailey-King Author Series honors longtime English faculty members Betty Bailey ‘63 and Jim King P ‘01, ‘04, ‘06 as it aims to inspire future writers. Upper School English Faculty Denise King P ‘08, ‘10 serves as director of the series. Past Bailey-King authors include: Derek Green (2017), Dominic Tierney (2018), Kirsten Greenidge (2019), Mira T. Lee (2020), Brit Bennett (2021), Joshua Bennett (2022), Kirsten King ‘10 (2023), and Farrah Penn (2024). 

Contributions to the Bailey-King Author Series endowed fund can be made by going to thayer.org/give and indicating "other" as the gift designation.