Simon J. Levien

A politics big-read on A1 (The Wall Street Journal)

"No One is Looking Forward to the 2024 Presidential Election," June 17, 2023

Alongside the politics enterprise team, I co-wrote a series of A1 features tracking major trends among voters across the country. This story focused on voter dread toward 2024 among both GOP and Democratic voters. I interviewed dozens of constituents from all walks of life and from all political inclinations to assemble a thorough news analysis, including this story which ran as the Weekend Edition above-the-fold lead story in the first week of the internship.

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A travel story turned to a campaign feature (The Wall Street Journal)

"How a GOP Lawmaker Is Trying to Hold On to Moderates With Control of Congress at Stake," Aug. 18, 2023

I traveled to New York state to tail Rep. Mike Lawler and interview constituents about his uphill battle for re-election as a moderate Republican, one of the handful of toss-up seats that control of Congress depends on. Though Democrats substantially outnumber Republicans in the district, it's anybody's game. Featuring interviews with Lawler, his challengers, and constituents across the political spectrum.

A Capitol Hill scoop that started a major news thread (The Wall Street Journal)

"Covid-19, 'Woke' Complains Hold Up Biden's Ambassador Picks," July 3, 2023

Acting on a tip from a trusted source, I rushed to press Sens. Rand Paul and J.D. Vance on why they were blocking State Department official confirmations in the Senate. Paul's hold had yet to be reported, and Vance's hold was exclusively reported to the Journal. Cited by other major outlets after Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a speech and delivered a letter to senators demanding the nominees be confirmed. My co-writer got comment from the State Department.

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A 12-month, 4,600-word investigative magazine feature into Harvard's KKK and the school's narrow reconciliation attempts (The Harvard Crimson)

"The Crimson Klan," March 25, 2021
After nearly 12 months of research, I pieced together the forgotten history of the Ku Klux Klan’s presence at Harvard, unearthing photos of robed Klansmen posing at commencement. Scholars I interviewed criticized how the 20th century was seemingly excluded from Harvard’s historical reconciliation efforts today.

After publication, Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery project included a report chapter on the 20th century and dedicated a section to the KKK’s presence on campus. This was The Crimson’s most-read piece last school year and received coverage from the Washington Post, Boston Globe, The Root, TheGrio, several podcasts, and others. Figures who have commented on the article include Deray Mckesson, Shaun King, Cornel West, Reddit CEO Ellen K. Pao, Nieman Lab Founder Joshua Benton, former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter, and poet Kevin Young, who made this a topic in his keynote address to the Harvard Alumni Association.

It was featured by Investigative Reporters and Editors in its newsletter for best local investigative reporting and won AAJA's Student Excellence in Written Reporting Award; named Longreads' Editor's Pick; and was a Finalist in In-Depth Reporting at the SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards.

Spot news on a historic Congress vote (The Wall Street Journal)

"U.S. House Votes 422-0 to Demand Release of Evan Gershkovich," June 13, 2023

Not long after I received my press clearance for the Capitol, the House voted unanimously on a resolution calling for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been held in Russia for more than 100 days now. Among many other breaking news stories I wrote about legislative actions, I wrote a spot story about this rare bipartisan resolution.

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An 11-month investigation into a literal cover-up of racist art on campus (The Harvard Crimson)

"A Secret at the Hearth of Adams House," April 7, 2022
An 11-month, nearly-5,000-word investigation into historic, racist statues on campus that Harvard administrators boarded up and refused to acknowledge and publicly discuss for several years.

After publication, the article was No. 1 on The Crimson's most-read for a week; there was a demonstration; administrators held a public discussion session with students; and they announced the statues will be removed during upcoming renovations. Jill Abramson, the former Executive Editor of the New York Times, assigned my article as a reading in her investigative journalism class at Harvard. The article was named the National Winner in Investigative Reporting across all platforms in the SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards.

An A1 multi-week enterprise story on casino regulators (The Boston Globe)

"Mass. gaming regulators don’t seem to know how many residents in the state have a gambling problem. Now, sports betting is legal.," Aug. 14, 2022

After receiving an assignment to look into casino regulation, I realized there was a bigger story: I learned state regulators weren't keeping tabs on how many Mass. residents had gambling problems. They didn't know for sure if gambling was getting better or worse as state legislators pushed successfully to grow the industry by legalizing sports betting.

The above-the-fold lead story received comments from legislators.

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A state politics feature with a national lens (The Boston Globe)

"‘A little red pocket on the New Hampshire border’: The national fissures splitting a competitive Mass. state rep. race," July 22, 2022
An Page A1 feature I pitched on a state representative race reflective of national political battles. I systematically reviewed all of Massachusetts’ State House races for the most telling and representative local election fights. This one was the winner, featuring three first-time candidates with wildly different political brands and rhetoric, two of which would mark a historic shift for the district if elected.

This became the Globe’s most-read news story on the day of its publication. Clarification note due to a copy editor’s error.

A colorful metro story (The Boston Globe)

"The strange Mass. crime wave over catalytic converters and the bill aiming to curb theft," June 20, 2022
Catalytic converter theft and legislative means to put a damper on it was a topic I believed needed more coverage in Massachusetts. I identified a bill doing just that moving speedily through the legislative process but flying under the media radar. I interviewed metals experts, scrap metal dealers, legislators, police PIOs, and theft victims.

Well-read online, the piece made A1.

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In-depth foreign correspondence (The Harvard Crimson)

"Harvard Professor’s Paper Claiming ‘Comfort Women’ in Imperial Japan Were Voluntarily Employed Stokes International Controversy," Feb. 7, 2021
While in Seoul in a rare set of student foreign correspondence, I co-wrote an eight-article in-depth series that anchored coverage on an unfolding international scandal over a Harvard professor's research, featuring an exclusive interview with the professor, secured by our early reach-out.

Following our reporting, people protested in South Korea and on Harvard campus, politicians in multiple countries issued statements, a would-be Harvard donor reneged, and the journal delayed printing the professor's paper. Our series was cited by the New York Times, UPI, VICE, CNN, The Lily, and over a dozen other international outlets. Finalist in In-Depth Reporting in the SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards.

Environmental feature reporting (The Harvard Crimson)

"‘God Only Knows’: As Sea Level Rise Threatens Harvard and Greater Boston Area, Experts Mull Mitigation Strategy," May 27, 2021.
For The Crimson's commencement issue, I pitched bridging academic classroom discussions on climate change's effects on coastal cities with what future realities the riverside Harvard campus might face. Joined by two other reporters, we researched how experts expect Harvard to fare in wide-ranging flooding scenarios. Reporting far into the future of campus that hasn't previously been explored, Harvard administrators were generally unprepared for worse case scenarios. Awarded 1st Place Story of the Year in Local Climate Reporting by the Associated Collegiate Press.

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Computer-aided investigative journalism (The Harvard Crimson)

"In Massive Security Oversight, Thousands of Private University Documents Left Vulnerable," Dec. 10, 2021
After sleuthing around in Microsoft Bing's features, I discovered a security oversight in Harvard's IT system that enabled any Harvard affiliate to view and download tens of thousands of sensitive administrative or personnel documents. My co-writer and I informed Harvard IT and they patched the vulnerability, though it was discovered again months later elsewhere in the system. I am co-leading a team to sift through obtained documents for an investigative story package.

Cover story photography (The Harvard Crimson)

"Cornel West and the 'True Harvard'" Oct. 10, 2021
On a last-second assignment, I was sent down to New York to serve as a photographer for a longform profile of Cornel West after his departure from Harvard. My photos of Prof. West, his office, and Union Theological Seminary became the cover image for the monthly glossy magazine.

Photo and graphic credits (top-down): Mustafa Hussein/The Wall Street Journal; Christopher Gregory-Rivera/The Wall Street Journal; Al Drago/Bloomberg News; Leslie Jones Collection/Boston Public Library; Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe; Simon J. Levien/The Crimson; Barry Chin/Boston Globe; Steve Helber/Associated Press; Simon J. Levien/The Crimson; Madison A. Shirazi/The Crimson; Justin Y. Ye/The Crimson; Simon J. Levien/The Crimson (x3).

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