In April, the Trump administration sent a group of more than 200 migrants to El Salvador to be held in a prison for terrorists, in exchange for millions of dollars and the release from American custody of leaders of MS-13, a violent gang.
The deal, heralded by the White House as part of its effort to crack down on crime, is actually undercutting a U.S. government inquiry into MS-13. The repatriation of gang leaders to El Salvador comes after federal prosecutors amassed evidence that President Nayib Bukele had a corrupt arrangement with MS-13 leaders to keep violence down in the country.
Those were the findings of an investigation published in The New York Times last week. A team of six Times reporters wrote the article, including journalists from the Washington bureau, the International desk and the Metro desk, which covers the New York City area.
Matea Gold, a Washington editor who helps spearhead cross-desk investigations conducted from the bureau, edited the article and helped form the team. In an interview with Times Insider, Ms. Gold, who joined The Times from The Washington Post six months ago, spoke about what it’s like assembling and leading a team of investigative journalists. The conversation below has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How does this investigation fit into your role in the Washington bureau?
It’s important to start with the overarching goal that Dick Stevenson, the bureau chief, and I have. As we’re covering this new administration, we are finding time amid a really intense press of news to step back and tell bigger stories that give people a sense of who’s making decisions, what kind of influence is shaping those decisions and the impact on the ground. In order to do that, we really have to think a lot about how to deploy resources? We have to carve out space to tell bigger stories and then figure out the people who will be pivotal to telling those stories.
How do you stitch together one narrative with the reporting work of six different people?
In this case, the credit goes to Alan Feuer, who not only reported for the story but also played the role of what we call an anchor. He was taking the feeds from all the reporters and weaving them together into one narrative. That required mastering all the material that his colleagues were sending.
The reporters are on a group chat together in just constant conversation. We make sure we keep one master file so we have everything in one place and no details get lost.
As an editor, I need to be in the weeds with my reporters and understand everything they’re learning, because often that helps me connect dots between what different reporters are finding from different sources. It’s vital that we strength-test the validity of what people are telling us and make sure we’re really 100 percent confident in everything we’re presenting to the public. So, I think it’s important that there’s a reporter who can help drive that train and also an editor sort of sitting alongside them.
The anchor role — that’s a nice term. What else can’t readers see about a project such as this one?
Readers probably don’t have a sense of how many different versions and iterations these articles go through. I don’t think I could possibly even count the number of drafts this investigation required. There were many, and then there were multiple rereadings by everyone involved in the process. We’re triple-checking then quadruple-checking all the facts. But we’re also making sure that the words sing, that the narrative is tight, that it feels propulsive. We want people to stay along for the ride. That just takes an incredible amount of iterative work.
You strive to tell a gripping story but are limited to the use of facts you know to be true. How do you approach storytelling then?
I really believe that the sophistication and expertise in our reporting should be matched by the rigor and quality of our writing. We’re here to provide a completely engrossing experience that helps people learn more about the world that we’re in. The facts that this newsroom unearths every day are eye-popping. Our responsibility is to do justice to the reporting with good storytelling, using narrative, story structure, characters and quotes.
If you master deep investigative reporting and powerful writing, you have readers hooked.
Six bylines on one article feels uncommon. Is a large reporting team something new or have newspapers always used them?
I definitely think the industry on a whole has become more comfortable with this kind of format. The proof of the concept is in the outcome. There is something magical about bringing a group of journalists together who sometimes don’t even know each other that well but are able to complement each other’s reporting and skill set. That gives you a much fuller and deeper story than you’d ever have before.
I do think at a time when we’re covering stories that are so complex, and across so many different topic areas and themes and institutions, we have a real responsibility to actually draw from all the resources The Times has to tell those stories in the fullest and most complete way. I think of this as part of our obligation to the public.
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