It's the start of another semester at the college where I teach, and I was looking around for stories that could show my students what the heart and soul of journalism is all about, the idea that reporters should "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

Fortunately, it wasn't long before I came across two stories that illustrated this dictum perfectly: An article in the Detroit Free Press about a man who walks 21 miles every day to and from his factory job, and one from The New York Times about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's penchant for accepting luxury freebies from the rich and powerful.

Comfort the Afflicted

The Free Press piece about 56-year-old James Robertson begins with a tour de force feature lead, rich with detail and description:

"Leaving home in Detroit at 8 a.m., James Robertson doesn't look like an endurance athlete.

Pudgy of form, shod in heavy work boots, Robertson trudges almost haltingly as he starts another workday.

But as he steps out into the cold, Robertson, 56, is steeled for an Olympic-sized commute. Getting to and from his factory job 23 miles away in Rochester Hills, he'll take a bus partway there and partway home. And he'll also walk an astounding 21 miles.

Five days a week. Monday through Friday.

It's the life Robertson has led for the last decade, ever since his 1988 Honda Accord quit on him."

Bill Laitner's story, combined with digital video and a photo gallery of Robertson's daily trek, painstakingly paints a picture of a man who, like millions of other Americans, is scraping by as best he can in the Midwestern rustbelt. In doing so it touches on issues familiar to anyone who reads the news: the dearth of mass transit in many areas where it is sorely needed, and, more broadly, the plight of the have-nots in a country where the rich grow ever richer while the poor get poorer.

(There's a happy coda to this story: After reading about Robertson's situation, Free Press readers donated more than $200,000 so he can buy, at the very least, a working car.)

Afflict the Comfortable

The Times story, on the other hand, peers into the world at the other end of the economic spectrum, that of the wealthy and powerful New Jersey governor who also happens to be mulling a run for the GOP presidential nomination. In it, reporters Kate Zernike and Michael Barbaro contrast Christie's tough-talking populist image with the behind-the-scenes reality:

"The governor... shot to national prominence as a cheese-steak-on-the-boardwalk Everyman who bluntly preached transparency and austerity as the antidote to bloated state budgets. But throughout his career in public service, Mr. Christie has indulged a taste that runs more toward Champagne at the Four Seasons.

He has also quietly let others pay the bills.

That tendency — the governor himself says he wants to “squeeze all the juice out of the orange” — has put him in ethically questionable situations, taking benefits from those who stand to benefit from him."

The reporters put their backs into some rock-solid reporting, detailing how Christie accepted, among other things, a trip aboard a private jet owned by billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson (who at the time was lobbying against a bill before Christie to legalize online gambling in New Jersey), as well as a stay in a $30,000-a-night hotel suite paid for by King Abdullah of Jordan.

Then there were the governor's trips to at least three Dallas Cowboys games aboard the jet of team owner Jerry Jones, whose company had bagged a contract with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after getting the nod from Christie.

New Jersey taxpayers footed the bill for other trips, including more than $10,000 for a jaunt to the  2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans. The Times notes that Christie has tried to hide such expenses, but the costs for the Super Bowl trip came to light when another paper, The Record, sued for the information.

Both stories are perfect examples of a reporter's three-pronged mission: To inform the public, to shed light on the plight of those less fortunate, and to hold the powerful accountable for their actions. Aspiring journalism students wanting to better understand that mission should read these two stories.

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