As you can probably imagine, a story concerning the Russian mafia and Secret Service was not easy to report. Even though everyone was talking about it on campus, no one would talk to State Press. But with some footwork and persistence, State Press got the story from other sources besides the conventional ones and ended up scooping every media outlet in town.
We first got wind of the story through sources with whom we work closely. At that point, it was a lot of talk and rumors but nothing concrete. We began asking around at places where the computer hard drives were seized, and it became obvious that people wanted to talk but were asked not to by investigators. Eventually, a few people opened up, and we got eyewitnesses to the seizures. We also talked to sources in Information Technology.
It was much harder to get comment from ASU police and the Secret Service. ASU police referred all questions to the Secret Service, who then refused to comment so as not to jeopardize the investigation.
After a day or so of running into dead ends, the State Press arranged to cooperate with The Arizona Republic on the story so that we could share information and hopefully get better access to the federal side of things. And it worked.
ASU police finally commented about ASU's involvement, confirming the information we had already gathered from other sources. We are still waiting on official comment from the Secret Service.
The Republic and the State Press published their stories on the same day, and a furor of media attention resulted from the articles. Not only did most local and Tucson news channels pick up the story, but we were invited to appear on the Channel 12 news morning show and 6 p.m. news. We talked about our knowledge of the story and our feelings about breaking the story. The Associated Press and CNN also reported the story.
Above all, we as college reporters learned to stick with the story and not to take 'no' for an answer. As much as people hate the press, we do serve as a balance to government action. Without the press pursuing this, students still wouldn't know that their personal information could have been stolen by using ASU computers.
The State Press will keep you updated as we learn more about the case.
