ProPublica redefines terms to show broader impact and wins Selden Ring Award
T. Christian Miller, a senior reporter for the nonprofit news organization, ProPublica, won the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting this week for a business story: “Injured War Zone Contractors Fight to Get Care From AIG and Other Insurers.”
His work, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times, where he previously worked, documented the delays that civilian contractors in war zones encounter in collecting on insurance claims for injuries and death. He writes that “insurance companies initially rejected 44 percent of claims from contractors involving serious injuries.”
T. Christian Miller
Today’s Tip: Redefine the language to ensure that the data capture everyone.
As noted in the explanation of how they did the series, ProPublica and the Times used a database of claims filed by contractors injured or killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. They then redefined the term “dispute.” The Labor Department classified a dispute as being “when a Labor examiner has determined that two parties are in disagreement.” However, the Times and ProPublica redefined it to mean when an insurance carrier “filed a Notice of Controversion against a claim, thereby potentially delaying payments.” This language change made the Times/ProPublica number of contested claims twice as high as the Labor Department’s, they say.
The series provided the first real numbers on fatalities — more than 1,600 – and injuries — 37,000 – among civilians supporting U.S. troops in war zones, according to the announcement about the award.
As noted in previous blogs, numbers can be deceiving. When you request data, read all of the footnotes and ask questions to ensure that the numbers comprise what you expect.
