It’s hard to quantify what role The Daily Beast’s investigation into Herschel Walker played in last night’s Georgia runoff. But one thing is for damn sure: Thanks to Roger Sollenberger’s reporting, voters knew a hell of a lot more about Walker than he or his backers wanted them to know.
The Daily Beast’s mission statement declares that we are non-partisan but not neutral, and that is 100 percent accurate. We have staffers and contributors across the non-insane spectrum of politics, and we will shine a light into the shadowy corners of any party.
Our series of exclusive stories about Walker (list below) embodied our mission: finding the truth, exposing hypocrisy and malfeasance, leveraging our journalism for maximum impact. It’s been said so many times that it’s almost a cliché: The Daily Beast punches above its weight—and any other outlet looking into Walker found that out the hard way this year.
This transfixing body of reporting started the way many great stories do—with a reporter’s curiosity. It had already been reported that Walker had exaggerated and lied about a variety of things, which got Roger wondering… what else might he be hiding? A very deep dive into the Internet and many phone calls later, he was onto a story that would grow bigger by the week.
These were extremely difficult stories to bring to fruition, and there were many roadblocks, but Roger never gave up—and neither did his editor, Matt Fuller. And even though the election is over, the work continues. Roger is already digging into a new Walker story.
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Tracy Connor
Editor-in-Chief
