Deborah Nelson

Senior lecturer and director of the Carnegie Seminar

Deborah Nelson joined the Merrill faculty in 2006, after five years as the Washington investigations editor for The Los Angeles Times. She also reported for the Washington Post, Seattle Times and Chicago Sun-Times. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Fulbright specialist in investigative reporting. Her latest work, "The Cruelest Show on Earth" appears in Mother Jones, Nov-Dec 2011.  She directs the Carnegie Seminar, which is reporting on the working poor this semester. 

@Newshawks   Students may make office hours appointments here.

She shared in the Pulitzer for a Seattle Times series that exposed widespread problems in the federal government's Indian Housing Program.  As an editor, she helped produce  Pulitzer-winning series on the deaths of 229 children in the District of Columbia's care,  and on the deadly accident record of the Marines Harrier jump jet.  Her science and environmental reporting also has received national honors. She wrote a critically acclaimed book, The War Behind Me (Basic Books 2008) on U.S. war crimes in Vietnam.

In addition to the Carnegie Seminar, she teaches media law and non-fiction war literature. She is co-leading an initiative for the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda and the Salzburg Global Seminar to develop a global curriculum on international criminal law and justice for journalism schools in conflict and post-conflict areas.  She is on the advisory boards of the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the Investigative Reporting Workshop. She is an active member and past president of  Investigative Reporters and Editors. 

Nelson earned a B.S. in Journalism from Northern Illinois University and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law.

CV DEBORAH NELSON MAR 2012.doc

Syllabi: 

Media Law JOUR400

Probing War: Investigative Narratives and American Conflicts JOUR289J

Carnegie Research Seminar JOUR698N/479N

Recent Publications

"The Cruelest Show on Earth," Mother Jones, Nov-Dec 2011.

An investigation into Ringling's treatment of its famed circus elephants and the government's failure to act, based on thousands of pages of corporate and federal records.

The War Behind Me: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth About U.S. War Crimes (Basic Books, 2008).

A month before the My Lai massacre, U.S. soldiers entered a remote Vietnamese hamlet, rounded up 19 civilians, many of them children, and opened fire. The case is among hundreds of American atrocities detailed in a long-secret Pentagon archive on the Vietnam War.  The War Behind Me traces the narratives of the courageous soldiers who tried to stop the violence and confronts those who were responsible -- from the battlefield to the White House.  Their stories, documented in declassified papers and in interviews, yield disturbing revelations about government complicity and cover-up. "An important book" -- New York Times

Research Interests

Currently working on journalism projects concerning international humanitarian and criminal law,  environmental law, and economic justice.

Expertise

Investigative journalism.

News reporting, writing and editing.

Communications law  (including First Amendment, Freedom of Information Act, reporter's privilege, shield laws, libel and privacy).

Awards

Pulitzer Prize, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Overseas Press Club, Sigma Delta Chi, Scripps Howard Foundation, John B. Oakes, Women in Communication, National Housing, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Suburban Newspapers of America, Peter Lisagor, Herman Kogan, Jacob Scher, IAPEA Sweepstakes, 

Affiliations

Fund for Investigative Journalism, Investigative Reporting Workshop, Investigative Reporters and Editors

Courses Taught

Carnegie Seminar JOUR698N/479N

Media Law JOUR400

Probing War: Investigative Narratives and American Conflicts (I-Series Course) JOUR289J

Investigative Reporting  JOUR698I/498I