ABSTRACT
At the turn of the century Lincoln Steffens exposed the corruption of US local politics in his Shame of the Cities (cit. in Ekirch 1974:92); in the 1970s British investigator Ray Fitzwalter, in what became known as the ‘Poulson Saga’, revealed to an incredulous public how politicians of both major political parties could be bought. Today in Britain the scope of public administration, and therefore of maladministration, is greater than ever before, yet many fear that journalists are not up to the standards of Steffens and Fitzwalter. This chapter argues that monitoring the activities of the local state (which now extends well beyond elected local government) should be a principal task for investigative journalists, particularly in the local and regional media. It shows that the job is becoming more difficult because of the changing nature of the local state, and that the emphasis of reporting is now changing towards what editors see as a more reader-friendly agenda. Although based upon the British experience, the lessons are equally relevant to other countries.
