I want to start by saying thank you to the Texas Observer for inviting me here to give this speech tonight, and thanks beyond measure both to the journalists whose work we’re honoring and to those who have made the Observer a home for independent thought and righteous storytelling since 1954.
Tonight, I want to address one element of what makes good and challenging journalism so powerful, what makes the stories that these writers and reporters have told — about injustice, malevolent ineptitude, corruption and abuses of power — so absolutely critical and so difficult to do.
I want to talk about the challenges of speaking out.
