Martha Mendoza is one of Northern California’s most prominent and internationally recognized working journalists. Based in Silicon Valley, she is an Associated Press National Writer who has won numerous awards and prompted Congressional hearings, Pentagon investigations and White House responses. She is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize: in 2000, for Investigative Reporting as part of a team that revealed, with extensive documentation, how American soldiers early in the Korean War killed hundreds of civilians at the No Gun Ri bridge; and in 2016, the Gold Medal for Public Service as part of a team that exposed slavery in the Thai seafood industry.

Mendoza also received the Science-in-Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers in 2010 for a series that examined the threat of global drug-resistant infectious diseases on four continents. She was a 2001 Knight Fellow at Stanford University and a 2007 Ferris Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. Born in Los Angeles in 1966, Mendoza’s childhood followed her parent’s careers as a Peace Corps administrators, public advocate and lawyer in India, Western Samoa and Nepal. Today, she is a guest lecturer at the graduate University of California, Santa Cruz Science Communications Program. She lives with her family in Santa Cruz.

Here, former Chronicle Executive Editor Ward Bushee interviews Martha Mendoza.

Question: In recent months you were among a team of AP reporters at the border who broke the story of migrant children being separated from their parents, and sometimes put up for adoption, as fallout from the Trump Administration’s border moves. And seemingly within hours, you were exhaustively covering the deadly Camp Fire first from New York and then from Chico, CA. Is this a typical time in your life as an AP National Writer?

Answer: Actually yes, that was pretty typical, if intense. My role at AP is to be an investigative reporter working on impactful projects, usually in teams. These can take a few weeks or even months to report, fact check, legal check and produce in multi-formats. But we are a lean news organization and when national or international hits in my region, I do jump in. Northern California seems to have a disproportionate amount of national stories, doesn’t it?

Q: It seems you often come up with exposes that other news organizations and their reporters have missed. For instance, you were part of the small AP reporting team that investigated how slaves were being used to produce some of the world seafood supply sold by American food companies? How was the AP first, and what was your roll, with initiating this expose?

A: My mission is to find stories that no one else is telling, so I appreciate your perspective on this. My colleagues Margie Mason in Jakarta and Robin McDowell in Myanmar went after a huge challenge of finding people who were currently enslaved after stories of freed slaves were not getting the attention needed to bring about change. They asked me to work with them on tracking the supply chain of the seafood, which sounded intriguing if challenging. In the end, my part involved a lot of looking at databases, going to supermarket fish counters and seafood industry events.

Q: In listening and reading interviews about you, it seems that you bring a fire-in-the belly and even a crusading spirit to your work. Your reporting has brought some level of justice for people who don’t have a voice in today’s society. To that end, it must have been so gratifying to see the freeing of scores of slaves when officials took action after the AP expose. What other examples would you list as good outcomes because of your reporting?

A: Journalism really can make a difference. That’s why it’s so important to support and recognize the role media plays in a strong democracy. Last year my colleague Garance Burke, also from NorCal, and I focused on immigration. One day after we put a spotlight on “tender age shelters” set up to detain babies and toddlers taken from their parents, President Donald Trump ended his administration’s policy of separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border. In the hours following our investigation documenting allegations of extreme physical abuse of migrant teenagers held at a Virginia facility, Gov. Ralph Northam ordered state officials to investigate. And in the wake of our data-driven package revealing that most of the 14,000 migrant kids in government care were being kept in shelters with hundreds of others, despite expert warnings that institutionalization can cause life-long trauma, Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation aimed at closing two mass facilities in Texas and Florida. Weeks later one was shuttered.

So over the years, lots of stories have brought about positive change. I think my favorite is that I helped document a mass shooting by the U.S. Army of civilians at No Gun Ri, South Korea. The attack came in 1950, but I’ve been lucky enough to meet survivors, as well as the U.S. men who fired at them. These are courageous and conscientious people who spoke the truth.

Q: Additionally, does some of your unique ability to tell the story of victims of horrible injustice stem from growing up overseas? Along those lines, how do you balance your background with your efforts for neutral reporting?

A: I do think growing up in Asia and the South Pacific framed my view of the world in a broad way. But I have colleagues who came of age in rural America or big cities, and we all, as journalists, try to approach our subjects ethically and with great curiosity.

Q: Another feature of your investigative reporting seems to be your technical research knowhow. What do you consider your special skills and tools for identifying the right public records and data-mining them for the critical information that gives you an edge over other news agencies?

A: I am super-dogged, and we have great researchers at AP and beyond who generously share their skills and resources. At various conferences, and even in less formal settings, I am often both training and learning so we all can do better work.

Q: You are among a small, very select group of journalists who have won two Pulitzer Prizes, including being the AP’s first and only Gold Medal for Public Service for the slave trade seafood investigation. Surely this is a source of enormous pride but what are the impacts on your expectations for yourself and what other journalists and editors expect of you?

A: I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to have my work recognized in this way. But the most important part about winning those prizes is that they drew attention to the important topics I was writing about, engaging more people about the hidden damage during the Korean War and human trafficking in today’s seafood
sector.

Q: You have credited former UC Santa Cruz journalism instructor Conn Hallinan as having inspired you to become a journalist. What are the qualities of good newsgathering and journalistic responsibility that you learned from him and that you have put in to practice in your career?

A: Conn taught us the basics — accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. From the basics of writing and research, to ethics and objectivity, he pushed me to respect sources, hold those in power accountable, give voice to the voiceless and to listen and collaborate with editors.

Q: You are currently a visiting lecturer for a communications department journalism grad class at UCSC. What do you believe is important to impart to your grad students, particularly in regard to your own professional journey? And how do they view their future journalism careers taking shape in today’s tough professional journalism world?

A: You have to love this work, love asking questions, pressing for information, writing – otherwise, find something else. This is a precious opportunity. The students inspire me to do better at my own job. They bring these incredible work ethics and idealism about what journalism can and should be.

Q: I’ve heard you dropped out from UCSC for a year and went to an auto training school to learn how to be a mechanic. Was there a life lesson for you in that year away college? Can you fix your family cars these days?

A: I learned a lot of discipline by going to trade school, and also gratitude for my educational opportunities. The thing about fixing family cars these days is that I can’t get by with a set of tools anymore, I would need computers and a lot of high tech to maintain my Prius. So no, I don’t do a lot of auto repair, but I do know what my
mechanics are talking about. And I have a passion for cars. I love the races at Laguna Seca.

Q: One of the disturbing problems of today’s journalism world is the free fall of local community news in hometown America as newspapers shed staffing resulting in shrinking watchdog oversight of local governments and public officials. As a resident of Santa Cruz, a smaller city like many that has seen its traditional newspaper shrink dramatically, do you see other news sources filling the void and contributing to a resurgence of local watchdog reporting?

A: I see attempts at filling the void for local watchdog reporting. Our newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel (where I worked for three years!) is punching above its weight, focusing on big, important stories with a small staff. Our local radio and television reporters as well do their best to serve our community.

Q: The Trump Administration has tried to discredit if not vilify the mainstream media of which AP is a major player. What impact has Trump’s attacks on the media had on you?

A: Under the Trump Administration there are both more people thanking me for my service and accusing me of bias or reporting fake news. I try to ignore most of this, keep my head down, do the job that our readers and viewers deserve.