1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
SGMD: Jack Kevorkian Credits: Anchor: Dr. Sanjay Gupta Sr. Executive Producer: Roni Selig Senior Producer: Caleb Hellerman Producer: Cristina Hernandez.
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
6/26/2010
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Dr. Jack Kevorkian polarized the country with his controversial advocacy of assisted suicide. While many people recoiled from Kevorkian's approach, he focused attention like a laser beam on the struggles of terminally ill patients, an influence that forever changed the way medicine is practiced. Kevorkian eventually spent eight years in prison for helping to kill a patient. Free again and unrepentant, in the summer of 2010, he agreed to meet Dr. Sanjay Gupta at their shared alma mater — the medical school of the University of Michigan — to explain how he developed his unique sensibility and views on life and death. In a revealing, 30-minute interview, Kevorkian tells Gupta about his early days as a physician and defends his controversial legacy. He shows off some of his remarkable artwork and offers a profound glimpse of his bleak view on human nature. It's a sometimes funny, sometimes infuriating, always thought-provoking visit with a man who challenges our assumptions about medicine and the value of human life.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Gupta and his production team did extensive research to prepare thought-provoking questions for Kevorkian, and a fair amount of pre-production planning and location scouting to find evocative locations for the interview. These included the hallway with class photos of Kevorkian's medical school class; as he told Gupta, "This really brings back memories." We also combed contemporary newspaper accounts to find headlines that we incorporated in the final production.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
The focus of the program is a one-on-one conversation between Dr. Sanjay and Dr. Jack Kevorkian. In preparation for filming, we had a number of conversations with Kevorkian's long-time attorney Mayer Morganroth, and documentary filmmaker Steve Jones, who produced a film about Kevorkian's post-jail run for Congress
6. Results (if any).
n/a
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
We have not required any clarifications or corrections.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Our SGMD program was built on a single, revealing interview with a fascinating man. Interviews can be powerful when you as a journalist are well-prepared, and inspired to go beyond the obvious questions. Kevorkian has been interviewed many times, but rarely if ever about his formative years as a high school student and medical student, and not often about his artwork and what it says about his dark view of human life. Spending several hours with Kevorkian, and touching on subjects where he had not given the same answer a hundred times, provided interesting material in itself and also laid the groundwork for more direct questioning about the legacy of Kevorkian's assisted suicide campaign. It helped to be creative in the setting (touring the University of Michigan Medical School, alma mater to both Gupta and Kevorkian); the relaxed and evocative setting helped make it a less constrained conversation and helped shape the interview.