ProPublica has hired Wall Street Journal reporter Joel Schectman for its Washington bureau.
Schectman is an investigative reporter who has spent more than 10 years writing exposés on espionage, covert surveillance and U.S. psychological and influence operations.
At The Wall Street Journal, he investigated Chevron’s relationship with the CIA in Venezuela, the spy agency’s secret role in a historic AI deal and how the Pentagon spread UFO mythology.
Prior to his time at the Journal, Schectman spent nearly nine years at Reuters, where he exposed a rogue National Security Agency surveillance program in the United Arab Emirates, a Pentagon campaign that stoked vaccine hesitancy at the height of the pandemic and the failures of the CIA to protect its informants in Iran. Schectman has won five National Press Club awards for stories on defense and intelligence. His work has also been recognized by the Loeb Awards, the Ford Presidential Foundation and the Overseas Press Club.
“I’m excited to join ProPublica, where we’ll bring accountability journalism to the most shadowy corridors of American power,” Schectman said in a statement.
