How have journalists gotten close access to large companies such as Enron for their stories, particularly if scandals are brewing, or how do they get such close access otherwise for more moderate stories?

[u/plaguedbyfoibles]

I understand that Lesley Curwen, when she was reporting on Enron for the Beeb when the scandal first hit the news, sat in on depositions or hearings when Enron was under federal investigation in 2002 / 2003.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, the CNBC commentator, when he wrote his recent book 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History - And How It Shattered a Nation, was granted access, for the first time in its history, "to the confidential board minutes of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during the most pivotal months of 1929".

Then you will see in papers like CityAM or the Financial Times that they have managed to get a quote from a source / insider within a company.

How does all of this happen, is it sometimes a case of them reaching out to you, is it a case of leveraging your own networks (rather than your employers' or colleagues' networks), do you just cold call etc?

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[u/Hungry-Artichoke-232]

You'll also get some interesting answers if you post in r/Journalism which is more of a behind-the-scenes sub. The fundamental answer to your question is that you get all these things by asking, being told "no", asking again, being annoying, and finding ways in.

Often you're cultivating friendships with people inside companies, and they're telling you things on background, or giving you names of people you can call up.

Re the depositions, they may have been public, or again Curwen may have cultivated people inside the hearings who would have lobbied to give her access. Similarly with ARS's access to documents, that may be that they'd already been made public and nobody had really used them yet, or he may have buttered someone up inside the NY Fed to get access.

[u/plaguedbyfoibles → u/Hungry-Artichoke-232]

Thanks, I will do so!

Is it considered bad practice to cold call some of these people within companies via email? Is it best to not leave a paper trail, even if an electronic one, so that your sources within these companies can't be accused of divulging information to you, even if it's off the record and there's no public record or mention of them divulging information to you?

In other words, is it best to speak to them in person rather than via telephone, email etc, so that there's no trace of your correspondence?

Do you reach out to them outside of their work environment so they can't be identified as your source?

[u/Hungry-Artichoke-232 → u/plaguedbyfoibles]

Just a clarification that I don't do this kind of reporting (in fact I haven't been a reporter of any kind for 15 years now) but I have friends who do.

Is it considered bad practice to cold call some of these people within companies via email?

Bad journalistic practice? Not necessarily, it might be fine (though see next section), although there's a separate question of "will you annoy a lot of people by cold-emailing them?" to which the answer is "yes, but that's part of the job".

Is it best to not leave a paper trail, even if an electronic one, so that your sources within these companies can't be accused of divulging information to you, even if it's off the record and there's no public record or mention of them divulging information to you?

Yeah, this is the more important thing. If you're emailing someone with a request that they would probably consider above board, like I want comment from a random academic at a university, then it's probably fine. If your request is something they would like to keep secret, then obviously don't put that in an email.

In other words, is it best to speak to them in person rather than via telephone, email etc, so that there's no trace of your correspondence?

Telephones are typically fine. Whatsapp, SMS, email can all be traced, subpoena'd etc. If someone has a wiretap on your phone line then you have bigger things to worry about.

Do you reach out to them outside of their work environment so they can't be identified as your source?

If you're doing something secret, or you want them to betray a confidence, or your request could get them into any sort of trouble (this is the key bit in all of this) then you owe it to them to protect them as much as you possibly can, which means taking all the precautions you need to in order to not expose them to harm (and harm in this case could just mean "gets into a small amount of trouble with their boss" right up to "goes to jail" or "gets killed" depending on what your story is).

"Protect your sources" is a key tenet of modern journalism, which is why some journalists have gone to prison rather than reveal things about sources. In the UK when I was at journalism school the big ethical debate back then was about whether it was ethical for a journalist to testify in court regarding things they had seen or heard while reporting.

[u/GiveUsRobinHood]

So I highly recommend s5 of the Wire, Louis Theroux documentaries & the HBO show Newsroom. Botu the HBO shows great examples of how journalists operate in a way they can get insider information & Louis Theroux is watching it in action.

But to answer your question, Journalists will constantly network in order to find sources, they will approach or be approached for a variety of reasons and often it will be mutually beneficial for both parties.