Sep 23, 2026 · 51 min · 10 segments
In this episode, Rebecca talks with Kate Cimini, investigations editor at The Baltimore Sun, about her award-winning investigative reporting and life as a journalist. Cimini's series on child welfare…
Kate CiminiGuest
Rebecca SnyderHost
I'm glad that he has started to figure out a path, but let's get back to sort of how you handle an investigation like this.
So I want to understand sort of the news tips and then also how you pull together all those pieces.
So in your role as investigations editor, Do you have a beat or an area? Were you looking into juvenile justice? Were you looking into the feeder programs for the National Guard? Or were you just freelancing and saying, gosh, what's out there in the world? What Google reviews are out there in the world? So how do you source those news tips and when you start an investigation?
And so when that happened, I was transitioning more actually to the reporting side.
that particular month and um we sometimes just get tips we get people reaching out with um you know suggestions um i i can't remember if this was an email directly to me or if it was an email to our news tips email even uh and i just started you know taking a look at it um But I read all of our news tips emails.
But, you know, I read all of them just because a lot of times something will come out of it.
What makes a news tip seem credible? I mean, because you're getting hundreds and you say most of them are spam.
Well, when I say most of them are spam, I mean, truly, most of them are from maybe the same five people who just send us links to other news articles.
Um, and then the ones that are written from an actual human signed with somebody's name, um, from an email and, um, give kind of a concrete argument.
Um, I always take a second look at those, um, and, you know, might write back, might try and learn a little bit more, um, and, you know, see what, what else they have to say, maybe have a phone call.
I'm glad that he has started to figure out a path, but let's get back to sort of how you handle an investigation like this.
So I want to understand sort of the news tips and then also how you pull together all those pieces.
So in your role as investigations editor, Do you have a beat or an area? Were you looking into juvenile justice? Were you looking into the feeder programs for the National Guard? Or were you just freelancing and saying, gosh, what's out there in the world? What Google reviews are out there in the world? So how do you source those news tips and when you start an investigation?
And so when that happened, I was transitioning more actually to the reporting side.
that particular month and um we sometimes just get tips we get people reaching out with um you know suggestions um i i can't remember if this was an email directly to me or if it was an email to our news tips email even uh and i just started you know taking a look at it um But I read all of our news tips emails.
But, you know, I read all of them just because a lot of times something will come out of it.
What makes a news tip seem credible? I mean, because you're getting hundreds and you say most of them are spam.
Well, when I say most of them are spam, I mean, truly, most of them are from maybe the same five people who just send us links to other news articles.
Um, and then the ones that are written from an actual human signed with somebody's name, um, from an email and, um, give kind of a concrete argument.
Um, I always take a second look at those, um, and, you know, might write back, might try and learn a little bit more, um, and, you know, see what, what else they have to say, maybe have a phone call.
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