RTDNA 2024 - NCPR - Investigative reporting - If All Else Fails
North Country Public Radio spent six months investigating extremist groups and militia movements in upstate New York for a special reporting project called If All Else Fails. Our reporting found that these groups are active and recruiting across New York State - sometimes online, sometimes in the real world - and we uncovered ties between two local law enforcement leaders and far-right organizations. The project received a Signal Award and was featured nationally by NPR, WNYC, and The New Yorker. The entire series, which was also released as a podcast, was broadcast on the radio in four parts January 16-19, 2024.
We launched this series because authoritarian movements are on the rise around the world. As in other rural areas across the US, many conservatives in our region have shifted to the right, embracing conspiracy theories and identifying with provocative and violent groups and movements. NCPR has been among the few local journalism outlets to report on that political shift as it’s happened.
In 2023, we doubled down on our history of in-depth reporting by dedicating resources to hire freelancer and longtime NCPR reporter Zach Hirsch, who teamed up with NCPR staffer Emily Russell. With financial help from a Grist/Center for Rural Strategies grant, Hirsch and Russell, under the supervision of News Director David Sommerstein, researched, reported, and co-hosted the series. Hirsch did the mix and sound design.
How we did the investigation and what we found:
Our If All Else Fails team traveled across the region, gathering interviews with North Country residents and elected leaders. We also spoke with national extremism experts, security officials, and two militia members who had been involved in trainings in upstate New York. We submitted public records requests and looked at several incidents in which groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Patriot Front, and Q-Anon made their presence known; and, by embedding in a Proud Boys Telegram channel, we discovered a propaganda video that shed new light on an intimidation march that the group held across multiple cities.
Our investigation also unearthed a previously unreported email sent from Lewis County Sheriff, and 'constitutional sheriff' member, Mike Carpinelli to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
We also discovered that another local sheriff, Rich Giardino of Fulton County, was also part of a constitutional sheriffs’ group called Protect America Now. Our interviews inspired him to leave that group. “Thanks for bringing this to my attention,” Giardino texted us. “Your insistent questioning caused me to dig deeper.”
We felt it was important to speak with people who were not leaders, politicians, or even members of any specific group, and we did this throughout our series. For our last in-depth profile, we met James Bonet, a Glens Falls man who had served time in federal prison for illegally entering the U.S. Capital on Jan. 6, 2021. Bonet walked us through his political evolution, from “Bernie bro” (his words) to wellness enthusiast to loyal Trump supporter. We felt that this story helped our listeners understand how kernels of truth can be weaponized into dangerous political movements.
Challenges in reporting:
Access was the most challenging aspect of the reporting. Since Sheriff Mike Carpinelli was a central figure in our series, we sent him a detailed list of questions and multiple interview requests to no avail. Carpinelli initially left us a voicemail, but that was the only time the sheriff reached out to us directly. He did acknowledge our requests in an October 2023 Facebook post, writing, in part, “I will not entertain an article that doesn’t support our country and county and most of the residents of Lewis County.”
Despite this obstacle, we were able to tell Carpinelli’s story by:
- Conducting an in-depth review of the sheriff’s public statements, videos, posts, radio shows, podcast appearances;
- Scouring data from the 2022 Oath Keepers data leak with help from NCPR’s digital director Bill Haenel, who helped us discover that the leaked data included Carpinelli’s email address;
- Submitting a highly specific FOIL request based on the information gleaned in the data leak, revealing an email exchange between Carpinelli and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
Another access issue had to do with a lack of comprehensive, up-to-date data on anti-government militias and other extremist groups. By their nature, many of these groups operate under the radar. Furthermore, extremism experts told us that many went underground after Jan. 6, 2021, fearing prosecution. So we collected as much information online as we could, through Telegram channels, Facebook groups, and anonymous sources, and acknowledged the limitations of this aspect of our reporting.
Impact and reach (see supplementary document attached to submission):
After our podcast came out, we heard from dozens of listeners across the country and reached 681,000 downloads. In addition to the national recognition referenced above, we also received local media coverage from the Watertown Daily Times, VTDigger’s ‘Vermont Conversation’ podcast, WAMC’s News Podcast, and the New York Almanack. The text version of Episode 1 was reprinted in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Niagra Gazette, and Democrat & Chronicle newspapers.
SUMMARY OF STORIES IN THIS ENTRY:
0:00 - 5:06 (partial story) Far-right extremism is thriving in rural areas. Here's what it looks like in Upstate NY (aired 1/16/24)
When we set out to look at far-right extremism in Upstate New York, we had a few basic questions. First, we wanted to know the status of the far-right movement here. What do people believe in? What groups and militias have been active? We found that all kinds of extremist groups have tried to recruit people here.
5:08 - 8:26 (partial story) How one Upstate NY sheriff's oath led him down a far-right path (aired 1/17/24)
There’s a far-right group that teaches sheriffs around the country that they don’t have to enforce laws they think are unconstitutional. Some sheriffs in rural Upstate New York have embraced that idea, including Mike Carpinelli, who also has ties to the Oath Keepers militia.
8:26 - 11:00 (partial story) A sheriff was recruited to a far-right group. Now he's reconsidering (aired 1/18/24)
Sheriff Rich Giardino defended his membership in a far-right constitutional sheriffs group, until our reporting and questions led him to rethink that stance.
11:02 - 14:22 (partial story) This NY man went to prison for Jan. 6. Today he's even more convinced he's right (aired 1/19/24)
James Bonet went through a political transformation over the last few years, from leaning left to diving deep into the far right. He went down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, including about the 2020 presidential election. And that eventually landed him in federal prison.
FULL LIST OF ‘IF ALL ELSE FAILS’ EPISODES (the first four episodes are also the full broadcast versions of the excerpts in the award submission)
Trailer: Introducing: ‘If All Else Fails’
Episode 1: Far-right extremism is thriving in rural areas. Here's what it looks like in Upstate NY
Episode 2: How one Upstate NY sheriff's oath led him down a far-right path
Episode 3: A sheriff was recruited to a far-right group. Now he's reconsidering
Episode 4: This NY man went to prison for Jan. 6. Today he's even more convinced he's right
Episode 5: We investigated the far-right in the North Country. Here's what we found
Bonus episode: New York's top security official on the threat of domestic extremism
