Jeff Horwitz, lead investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal, offered career insight to prospective student-journalists Thursday night.
During an hour-long virtual session hosted by the Redlands Bulldog, Horwitz unpacked his experience writing about technology for the news media giant. Well-known for his investigative reporting on Facebook, Horwitz has written about the company for nearly three years.
After gaining possession of leaked documents from former-Trump campaign consultant Paul Manafort’s hard drive, his reporting garnered international attention. Horwitz exposed a relationship between Manafort and a Russian billionaire to advance Russian geopolitical interests. Accordingly, the story gathered a response from the Trump administration and led to Horwitz making television network appearances on MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR.
Things weren’t always this way, though, as Horwitz outlined an eventual career path before landing a job at The Wall Street Journal.
Initially starting out at the San Bernardino Sun alongside George Watson, adjunct professor of the Redlands Bulldog, Horwitz later wrote for the Associated Press, the Washington City Press, and the American Banker before covering Facebook and Silicon Valley at his current position.
Horwitz also provided career advice to aspiring journalists, stating that strong reporting often requires “being a good person” when confiding in others for source material. Furthermore, being an expert in one’s field is not necessarily as important as being open to building up expertise over time, he said.
To hear more from guest speakers in the field, the Redlands Bulldog holds class sessions every Thursday at 4 p.m. on our Teams channel.
Photo contributed by Jeff Horwitz.
