Awardwinning journalists talk local roots at Islanders Write

Islanders Write, a literary event sponsored by The Martha’s Vineyard Times, showcased insights of various wordsmiths, from Pulitzer prizewinning journalists to bestselling novelists, all of whom share a link to the Island.

The free two-day event kicked off last Wednesday night at Featherstone Center for the Arts with a panel discussion called “Writing on the Edge: New Models for Reporting and the Current State of Journalism.”

The panel, moderated by Times Publisher Charles Sennott, included awardwinning investigative journalist and staff writer for the New Yorker Jane Mayer and CEO of Hunterbrook Nathaniel Horwitz, both of whom talked about their start as local journalists, and their local connection to the Island. They also explored how they’ve adapted to journalism’s dramatically shifting landscape, and what feels like, particularly for investigative reporters, a climate of fear, as sources fear retribution in exposing important truths. 

While pointing out that the Island has an embarrassment of riches for events that celebrate authors and thought leaders, Sennott said that what makes this event unique is that “all of the writers who speak on panels and conduct writing workshops are directly connected in some way to the Island. All of the novelists, playwrights, journalists, poets, scribes, and essayists who attend proudly fit within that most inclusive definition of ‘Islander.’”

He opened up the panel with a discussion on the crisis in local journalism, and updated readers about how The Times has confronted challenges by revamping the news organization’s website and expanding its membership model, which aims to increase the paper’s sustainability through community support at a time when up to two local newspapers close every week in the U.S.

Both Mayer and Horwitz started their careers at local papers. Mayer, who’s long visited the Island, and recently bought a house here, said she started at the Weathersfield Weekly in Vermont in 1973, the summer when the Watergate scandal broke; she also started a paper called the Black River Tribune later in the ’70s with the then–future governor of Connecticut Ned Lamont. 

Horwitz, who attended the Island’s high school, started his career at The Martha’s Vineyard Times in 2014, where he managed to get in the White House press pool when then-President Barack Obama visited the Island. 

Horwitz joked that he thought that the opportunity would be “illustrious,” and he could “speak truth to power” and get to know hotshot journalists. But instead, he spent a hot August day in a packed bus at the Vineyard Golf Club as Obama “methodically walked his way through 17 holes.” Horwitz also remembered when he sent a message to the White House press secretary, trying to be part of the informal banter that he noticed was happening on the internal messaging of the press pool. The press secretary would then forward updates to anyone subscribed to the White House press service. Horwitz, as Obama was still on the 17th hole for “what felt like an eternity,” jokingly typed out, “Where you at, bro?” It was mistakenly forwarded to thousands of journalists. As he observed, it was his last scheduled week on the job, but as the quip caused a stir, he realized an editor would certainly have had cause to make it his last day.

The current state of journalism is largely different from when either Horwitz or Mayer started in the industry.

“This is a perfect moment to be in Martha’s Vineyard instead of Washington, D.C., where it’s one of the worst moments for journalism that I’ve ever seen in my life,” Mayer, who is the author of “Dark Money” and an imminent sequel, said.

Mayer said that she’s never seen more people in the U.S. intimidated to talk to the press. She also noted New York Times reporters were recently subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury about their anonymous sources for a story about an Air Force One plane donated by Qatar.

Intimidation, Mayer said, is “going directly at reporters, and it’s basically saying, You may have committed a crime for telling the truth in the country.”

Horwitz asked Mayer how she gets people to talk when the country’s never been more afraid. “I covered the War on Terror, and particularly torture,” she answered. “So waterboarding works.” Then in all seriousness, she said she gets inspiration from a Bob Woodward–coined tactic, in which he calls people just before dinner, when they start to relax with a drink and tend to be a little bit looser. Also, she said, “Try to do a fair amount of homework before [showing] up at someone’s door.”

Horwitz, who said he would have been an international war reporter in another era, now runs an open-source business news outlet called Hunterbrook, which supports investigative journalism, and is funded not through advertisements, but investment and litigation: i.e., major litigation firms use investigative journalism to bring cases against major corporations. He said the model is somewhat like Erin Brockovich, a consumer advocate and environmentalist who publicized wrongdoing by California corporations, and whose story was immortalized in an Academy awardwinning film.

Horwitz also highlighted Hunterbrook’s use of artificial intelligence, not to write stories but to do research. A bright spot, he said, is that a team of a few dozen journalists and a dozen freelancers have only so many human hours, but through new AI tools, each team member can do more research than ever. He added that there is a full-time fact-checking team at Hunterbrook to ensure any AI-supported research is tied to a relevant source.

The Wednesday talk didn’t just highlight the insights of acclaimed journalists. It also stressed the future of journalism at The Times, centered around young Islanders. At the start of the panel, Sennott announced that Horwitz’s mother, Pulitzer-prizewinning author Geraldine Brooks, recently sponsored an internship at The Times in honor of her husband and Nathaniel’s father, the late Tony Horwitz, also an author and Pulitzer-prizewinning journalist. The Tony Horwitz Internship was awarded to Maria Barros, an incoming senior at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS).

Sennott also announced that Nicholas Vukota was recently named “Island Writer” at The Times, an initiative coordinated through Islanders Write and the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation to mentor and train young journalists from the Island. Vukota attended Edgartown School and MVRHS, and reports on sports and police for the paper. Vukota is the second Island Writer: Sarah Shaw Dawson, who covers housing, education, and health, was awarded the honor last year.

This initiative is growing, and The Times is planning to announce a third Island Writer position in the fall.