Jim Heaney

Jim Heaney is editor and executive director of Investigative Post. He was an investigative reporter with The Buffalo News from 1986 to 2011 and a reporter and editor with The Orlando Sentinel from 1980-86. His coverage over the years has focused on economic development, local and state government, politics, education, housing and transportation, and he was an early practitioner of computer-assisted reporting. Heaney has won more than 20 journalism awards and was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Nov 3

2017

Buffalo lawmakers seek to contain reporters

We recently announced an event that will explore how hostile government officials at the federal, state and local level have become to the press, and by extension, the public’s right to know. As if on cue, Darius Pridgen and his colleagues on the Buffalo Common Council underscored that hostility Friday by announcing steps intended to put reporters in their place. In the process, they made themselves look kind of silly, to say nothing of petty. The directive, outlined in a press release you can read here, said the Council will require reporters to sit in a designated area in the[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Oct 27

2017

Podcast: Sarah Cohen on local reporting

This week’s podcast features the keynote address given by Sarah Cohen at Investigative Post’s annual benefit dinner Oct. 19. Cohen, who was part of a team at The Washington Post that won a Pulitzer Prize, and later an editor at The New York Times, focused her remarks on local news and investigative reporting. “The chaos at the national level … is starting to trickle down to state and local governments,” she said.

Posted 8 years ago

Oct 11

2017

Heaney talks 43North on ‘Pressroom

Jim Heaney tells Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom that out-of-town entrepreneurs who take state money and then leave after just a year remind him of a Steve Miller song … “Take the Money and Run.”

Posted 8 years ago

Sep 25

2017

Heaney discusses Buffalo police on ‘Pressroom

Jim Heaney tells Susan Arbetter that “Buffalo has a policing problem” on Monday’s edition of The Capitol Pressroom. Arbetter interviewed him about an Investigative Post story from last week that documented unconstitutional searches and other misconduct on the part of the department’s Strike Force and Housing Unit.

Posted 8 years ago

Sep 18

2017

Podcast: Journalist Sarah Cohen

After a hiatus, Investigative Post has resumed its podcast program with a Jim Heaney interview with Sarah Cohen, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and editor with The New York Times. Cohen, a Buffalo native, will be the keynote speaker at Investigative Post’s gala dinner on Oct. 19 at the Hyatt Regency. She’ll discuss the state of investigative reporting and Donald’s Trump impact on the media. Cohen covers some of that ground in her podcast interview with Heaney. “A lot of places and people are realizing that investigative reporting … based on facts and documents and holding officials accountable is the[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Sep 13

2017

Assessing Buffalo’s mayoral primary

A win is a win, and Byron Brown certainly did that Tuesday, capturing a little more than half the vote in a three-way Democratic primary for mayor. The victory sets Brown up for a fourth term, equalling the tenure of Jimmy Griffin. That’s about where the good news ends for the mayor. The numbers are not otherwise kind. Let’s start with his 13,346 votes – the lowest of his four primary runs and little more than half of his total eight years ago. (Mickey Kearns garnered more votes eight years ago in losing to Brown in a landslide. Think about it.)[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Jul 13

2017

Heaney talks transit extension on ‘Pressroom

Jim Heaney discusses two recent stories done by Investigative Post on the proposed extension of Metro Rail and Buffalo’s continuing lead poisoning crisis. Heaney explained to Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom why he thinks the rail extension is a bad idea and chastises city and county officials for their failure to address lead poisoning with a greater sense of urgency.

Posted 8 years ago

Jul 5

2017

Heaney talks “corruption coalition” on ‘Pressroom

Jim Heaney tells Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom there’s a “corruption coalition” at play in Albany that explains the failure of the state Legislature to reform New York’s troubled economic development programs. Heaney also discusses the challenges faced by investigative reporting.

Posted 8 years ago