The Renegade Reporters

by Elissa Brent Weissman

  “Great job,” the rabbi said. “We’ve completed an entire Ashamnu, an alphabet of woe. We use the word we when reciting the Ashamnu, because even if you, individually, haven’t committed a particular sin this past year, someone among us has.”

  “You mean someone in this room murdered someone with poison?” the girl in the back asked excitedly.

  “I hope not,” the rabbi said, clearly planning to speak with the girl’s parents later. “But we all make mistakes. And we all need to be able to acknowledge our mistakes so we can apologize, forgive, and resolve to be better. So, what I’d like you all to do now is come up here, walk around, and read the words for every letter. As you do, I want you to silently, privately, think about which of these mistakes you might have made this year. When you recognize a mistake you made—and we have all made mistakes—ask yourself, who might your mistake have hurt?”

  Sadie jumped up, but Ash was slow to follow. Her empty stomach was grumbling, and the rabbi’s words were echoing in her head. It had been fun coming up with words for the bad things the people around her were doing. It was less fun acknowledging what she, herself, had done wrong.

  Ash saw Harry pause by the C paper, the one with comparing and competing, and Ash admitted—silently, privately—that she’d done that as well. (She was doing it right now, she realized, by noticing what he was looking at.) She’d been jealous too, of course. And judgmental. But that had all started when she’d gotten kicked off The News at Nine. If she’d been able to stay on the show, Harry never would have become lead anchor, which meant he wouldn’t have gotten such a big head, and she wouldn’t have had any cause to be jealous and judgmental. That meant it was all Ms. Sullivan’s fault, since she was the one who’d kicked her off the show.

  Ash sighed, thinking of a new entry for the letter B: blaming others. Ms. Sullivan wouldn’t have kicked her off the show if it hadn’t been for the dancing gym teacher video. And the dancing gym teacher video was Ash’s fault. Even if it had been an accident, it wasn’t a harmless one. Coach Kelly had been in her office, a place she thought was private. It was kind of like Ash looking at “pre-teen necessities” online. It was humiliating to think that companies might know she looked at underwear, while Coach Kelly had two million people watch her dance around in it. Ash felt a pang in her stomach, and she wasn’t sure if it was due to hunger this time.

  “One last thing before we move on with our service,” Rabbi Werner said. “Acknowledging the mistakes we’ve made is only the first step. The next, very important step is apologizing to the people we’ve hurt. I know that it can be difficult to say you’re sorry out loud, so I invite you all to take a piece of paper and a crayon, and apologize in writing.”

  About thirty seconds later, Sadie handed Ash a paper on which she’d drawn a flower and scribbled, Sorry I annoyed you. Ash smiled and wrote her own card that said, Sorry I annoyed you too.

  Then, to her surprise, Harry tapped her on the shoulder with a folded piece of paper. It said, Sorry I bragged about “Young Creatives to Watch.”

  Ash blinked at the note. She’d once read a story about a guy who got lost in the desert without anything to eat or drink. After a few days, he started to lose his sanity and thought he saw things that weren’t really there. Ash had only skipped one meal, but could the same thing be happening to her? It seemed crazy, but was it any more crazy than Harry handing her an apology note?

  In a daze, Ash turned the paper over and wrote, Sorry I was jealous of you being lead anchor.

  “It’s okay,” Harry said. He scribbled another note on the paper and handed it back. Sorry I’m going to break the Van Ness Media story before you.

  Ash burst out laughing, relieved to see the universe restored to its normal state. Sorry, she wrote, but you don’t stand a chance.

  “Seriously, though,” Harry said. “I’m really close.”

  “Good job, everyone,” said Rabbi Werner. “Please return to your seats. Remember, though, that you can continue to say you’re sorry in any way you’d like, once this service is over.”

  As Ash sat down, she tried not to think about Harry and instead focus on how to apologize—really apologize—to Coach Kelly. She decided that she was going to write her a note once she got home. But first, she was going to have something to eat.

  CHAPTER 22

  Error Message Derails Plans

  If the dots on the Van Ness Media map were tracking the Renegade Reporters’ movements over the week, they were recording an impressive example of how to do investigative journalism. The girls traveled around the city asking various kids and parents how they felt about online privacy. They went to the University of Baltimore to interview an expert on data brokers. And they spent lots of time in their basement studio, writing their report, recording takes, and sending emails to various departments at Van Ness Media requesting interviews but never getting a reply.

  Just when they were this close to finishing the episode, however, things started to go wrong. On Friday afternoon, Brielle got an error message in Movie Maker. She tried to fix it by logging out and closing the browser, but when she went to log back in, Van Ness Media said she had to contact the network administrator. Since her account was through school, she couldn’t do anything about it until Monday, when she could talk to her teacher. Luckily, she’d downloaded a rough edit shortly before the error, so she didn’t lose all her hard work. But they’d been hoping to go to air by Sunday, and now the episode wouldn’t be ready. A whole weekend wasted.

  When Monday came, they got more bad news. “Ms. Chung said they have to contact tech support at Van Ness Media,” Brielle said at recess. “Which might take a few days.”

  “A few days?” Ash groaned. Now that their reporting was complete, every hour already felt like a day. The days would be like years—years in which Harry E. Levin could make good on his threat.

  “She kept asking if I forgot my password,” Brielle complained, “but I didn’t. Like I’d forget something like that,” she scoffed. “But she said that’s the only reason anyone’s ever had to reset their Van Ness Media password in the middle of the year before.”

  “You guys,” Maya said quietly, “do you think Van Ness Media is onto us? Brielle put everything in Movie Maker, and we’ve been emailing asking for interviews, so they know what we know. They could be trying to stop us from reporting.”

  Goose bumps rose on Ash’s arms. Could Brielle’s error messages and password problems be purposeful?

  “The timing must be a coincidence,” Ash said uneasily.

  “Like we used to think the ads were a coincidence?” Maya said, raising one eyebrow.

  Brielle sighed. “No offense, Maya, but you’ve been totally paranoid since we started this thing. You guys recorded so much footage, it probably just overloaded the system. I’ve been working some magic with it, though. This episode is definitely one for my BSA application.”

  Maya looked like she wanted to say something else, but instead she motioned for them all to be quiet. Harry was walking across the field and right to their group. “Hello,” he said cheerily, holding out a tightly folded piece of paper. Ash took it.

  From one anchor to another, it said on the outside.

  “Goodbye,” Harry said. He smiled, turned around, and walked back across the field.

  Ash unfolded the note. Then everything dropped: the note, her jaw, her shoulders, her heart, her spirits. “He’s going to break the Van Ness Media story tomorrow morning.”

  “What?” said Maya, picking up the note. “How—how—”

  “Did you know about this?” Ash asked Brielle miserably.

  “Ouch. Of course not. I’d have told you guys.”

  Ash collapsed into the grass and closed her eyes. “It’s not fair. If it weren’t for all those Movie Maker errors, we’d have our episode out by now.”

  “They’re trying to silence us,” Maya said, sinking in
to the grass next to Ash. “I know it.”

  “Give it a rest, Maya,” said Brielle, looking down on them with crossed arms. “If anything, this proves the errors weren’t on purpose. Why would they be trying to silence us and not The News at Nine?”

  Ash opened her eyes with a flicker of hope. “Maybe Harry’s story is different.”

  Brielle pointed at her. “Yes!” she said excitedly. “Then we can still run our story.”

  “It’s got to be the same news,” Maya said, shaking her head. “What other big story about Van Ness Media could there be?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Brielle said. “Maybe something about . . . um . . . anything?”

  Ash was still weighed down with dread, but she forced herself to sit up. “Let us know what you find out after school?” she asked Brielle.

  Brielle promised. But all she could let them know was that Harry didn’t go to the after-school meeting. According to Ms. Sullivan, he had a dentist appointment. Even worse, Ms. Sullivan wouldn’t reveal what his big story was going to be. All the script says is “Breaking news: Van Ness Media,” Brielle texted. And “video clip of Maria Van Ness.”

  That made Ash and Maya collapse again, this time onto the linoleum floor of Ash’s basement. Harry didn’t just have the story, he had a video clip of Maria Van Ness to back it up. And he was going to report it all tomorrow morning, with extra-sparkly teeth.

  CHAPTER 23

  Breaking News from Van Ness Media

  “Good morning, John Dos Passos Elementary. Today is Tuesday, October twenty-second. The cold lunch is tuna salad with crackers. The hot lunch is meatball sub. I’m Harry E. Levin.”

  “I’m Damion Skinner. And you’re watching . . .”

  “The News at Nine.”

  In her classroom, Ash rose onto her tingling legs for the Pledge of Allegiance. After that came the birthdays, then an update from the principal. The wait was excruciating. Who cared about new mulch on the playground when Van Ness Media was about to be exposed for spying on everyone in the school?

  Finally, after what felt like hours, Harry said, “And now, breaking news about our sponsor, Baltimore-based Van Ness Media. Van Ness Media sponsors this show and makes many of the applications we use in school every day. But they are also the fastest-growing educational software company in the United States.”

  Ash’s heart was racing, but her ears seemed to be dragging. Was Harry reading in slow motion? He still wasn’t the most natural anchor, but he was acting even more awkward than usual. He sounded like the teacher had called on him to read aloud in class, and he didn’t know what any of the words meant.

  “Because the CEO of Van Ness Media, Maria Van Ness, lives in Federal Hill herself, she has decided to make a big announcement right here on The News at Nine.”

  Ash glanced at Maya, whose face betrayed the same combination of confusion and hope that Ash felt. So far, Harry didn’t have any original reporting. And if Maria Van Ness herself was going to make a big announcement, it couldn’t possibly be about something she didn’t want people to know. The Underground News anchor chanced a smile at her camerawoman and tried to send a telepathic message: Harry’s news is not our news. But what was it?

  The screen filled with a shot of Maria Van Ness sitting on a fancy chair in the Harbor East headquarters. A Van Ness Media sign was behind her. “Hello, John Dos Passos Elementary. I’m Maria Van Ness, founder and CEO of Van Ness Media. My company and I work hard to create software so kids like you can create shows like The News at Nine. But we know that creating is a process, and not everyone is ready to share what’s in their imagination right away. That’s why we’re launching a new program called Van Ness Dream Journal.”

  The video cut to a demonstration of the new program. It was a cross between a number of other Van Ness applications, with what looked like an empty sheet of notebook paper in the center of the screen. The “paper” filled with squiggles, text, sounds, and photos while Maria Van Ness’s voice continued in the background. “Van Ness Dream Journal is a place for you to brainstorm, daydream, and doodle. You can use it for the earliest stages of a school assignment, when the possibilities are wide-open. You can use it to experiment with an idea before transferring it to Writer, Movie Maker, or Art Studio. Or you can use it as a safe, special place for your zaniest dreams, your wildest emotions, and your most personal, private thoughts.”

  Ash was having pretty wild emotions right now. If she was hearing correctly, Maria Van Ness was encouraging kids to put their most personal, private thoughts and feelings into her software, without telling them that those personal, private thoughts—and exactly where you were standing when you had them—would also be shared with data brokers and advertisers. It was a dream, all right—a dream for the companies making money on private data!

  “But that’s not all.” The CEO was back on the screen. “Because I recently moved to Federal Hill myself, I want you to be my beta users. That means John Dos Passos Elementary will get to use Van Ness Dream Journal first, before any other kids at any other schools. After two weeks, we’ll ask you to fill out a survey telling us how we could make the program better. We’ll incorporate your feedback before we launch Van Ness Dream Journal to the more than five thousand school districts that have contracts with Van Ness Media throughout the United States. That’s over ten million kids who are counting on you to make sure Van Ness Dream Journal is their go-to place for their doodles, daydreams, and ideas. Are you up for the challenge?”

  “Yeah!” shouted a few kids in Ash’s class. Then they all started talking so excitedly that Mr. Brooks had to clap his hands to calm them down. Ash couldn’t hear the end of the announcement over the noise, but that was okay. She understood what was going on far too clearly. It wasn’t enough for Maria Van Ness to collect and save kids’ movements, or all the details they put in their projects and homework. She also wanted to know their deepest, most personal thoughts, to really flesh out their profiles for advertisers and anyone else who’d pay for the information. The kids at John Dos Passos Elementary were so excited to do it, they were cheering! It wasn’t their fault. Maria Van Ness had just told them that Van Ness Dream Journal was a safe place for private thoughts. How could they know it was the exact opposite?

  They couldn’t, unless someone reported on it.

  The News at Nine cut back to Harry, who was beaming from ear to ear. “That was a special announcement with breaking news from Maria Van Ness herself, brought to you exclusively by The News at Nine. I hope you’re all up to the challenge. There are ten million kids throughout the country counting on us.”

  Ash took a deep breath. Those ten million kids didn’t realize it yet, but they were counting on the Renegade Reporters too.

  CHAPTER 24

  Reporters Weigh Options, Take a Stand

  “I did warn you,” Harry said in the lunch line, “that I’d break the news first.”

  Ash pretended to be disappointed. She wanted to get some information of her own before bursting his bubble. “How’d you get the exclusive?” she asked.

  “I just called them up!” he said proudly. “I said I was from the show they sponsor at John Dos Passos and we’d heard rumors about something big going on at Van Ness Media, so we wanted to report on it.” Harry took his meatball sub and slid his tray down the line. “It was easy, actually. I started with the person who wrote about me for that feature, and he put me right through to someone in public relations. That person asked me a bunch of questions about The News at Nine and decided it’d be the perfect place to air their big announcement.”

  Ash examined the bowl of bananas to find the least spotted one while she considered Harry’s methods. Instead of trying to figure out what Ash and her friends were investigating on his own, he’d called Van Ness Media and tried to get them to offer it up. It was a smart approach, actually. No wonder that when Van Ness Media did offer something—the launch of Van Ness Dream
Journal—he’d run with it, assuming it was what Ash had been investigating all along.

  “To be honest,” Harry continued, “I was just hoping to break the story. It was pure luck that they offered me an exclusive interview.”

  “Announcement,” Ash corrected.

  “What?”

  “It wasn’t an interview. You didn’t sit down with Maria Van Ness and ask her questions. She just recorded a video of herself for The News to air.”

  “It’s okay,” Harry said, patting her hand. “You’re allowed to be jealous this time. I don’t know how you couldn’t be.” He tossed an apple in the air, caught it, and placed it on his tray. Then he walked back to his table, where his friends were fighting over who got to sit next to him. Ash looked away quickly, not wanting to lose her appetite, and took her usual seat.

  “Well,” Brielle said when she arrived, “he didn’t steal our story.”

  “No,” said Maya, seething. “But Van Ness Media is about to steal the private thoughts of ten million kids all over America.” Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she hadn’t even opened her lunchbox.

  “We’ve got to get our report out,” Ash said, “right away.”

  But Brielle shook her head. “I don’t know if we can go to air now.”

  “You saved a rough version somewhere before you got the error, right?” Ash asked her. “You can upload that to my account and finish editing tonight. I’ll give you my password.”

  “It’s not that,” Brielle said. “It’s the timing. Our news seems sort of dead on arrival.”

  Maya looked confused. “What do you mean? It’s more alive than ever. More important than ever.”