This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss Palantir scoops, coping mechanisms, and feeling God in this Samsung television.
JOSEPH: I’m going to talk about how our Palantir leak story came about, Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People, because I think it shows the value of just hammering on a broader story, finding a way in, then getting more and more specifics on it.
It really starts with Jason’s story on April 9 called Inside a Powerful Database ICE Uses to Identify and Deport People. This was about ICE’s tool called the Investigative Case Management (ICM) system. The tool was not new. It had been around for multiple years and other outlets had covered it. What was new was that we got to see actual parts of the database. This provided an opportunity for us to cover it in new, specific detail.