Local Reporter Mark Flatten to Become Investigator for Goldwater Institute

Mark Flatten, an investigative reporter with the East Valley Tribune for more than 20 years, is leaving the newspaper on June 5 to start work as an investigator for the Goldwater Institute.Flatten helped the newspaper on many of its biggest stories and won numerous awards over the years. According to...

By Ray Stern

May 22, 2009

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Mark Flatten, an investigative reporter with the East Valley Tribune for more than 20 years, is leaving the newspaper on June 5 to start work as an investigator for the Goldwater Institute.

Flatten helped the newspaper on many of its biggest stories and won numerous awards over the years. According to the Arizona Guardian this morning, Flatten will be "producing journalistic-type investigative reports."

The Institute is made up of conservatives who believe in the ideals preached by Barry Goldwater, (and apparently not in the ideals of Joe Arpaio).

The coup for Goldwater is another hole in the hull for the East Valley Tribune, which seems to be going the way of the Tucson Citizen. While we can only hope the Trib stays afloat, it appears one of its most skilled bailers just jumped on a life raft.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.