Accounting for Accuracy

For more than two decades, investigative correspondent Heidi Przybyla, ’95, has made a career of putting the facts front and center.

October 10, 2022

Soon after graduating with highest honors in International Relations and German from the James Madison College, Heidi Przybyla landed a plum job at a prestigious accounting firm. But it wasn’t long before she felt the gravitational pull of writing and a more vital connection to current events. So, she started cold calling people in Washington, D.C., trying to land some kind of position in journalism.  

Przybyla parleyed her knowledge of German into a post as an assistant to a German correspondent, packed up her Grand Am, and drove to the nation’s capital. “Not before—my mother likes to remind me—I got lost and looped around Detroit Metro airport,” recalls Przybyla. “But there is proof that I made it to Washington eventually.” 

That there is. Przybyla has established herself as a premier reporter, with a run of comprehensive coverage and influential stories in national politics over the course of 20 years. Among them are Przybyla’s 2005 report that President George W. Bush planned to privatize social security, and a 2019 scoop that then-candidate Joe Biden still supported the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of almost all abortion services. “Literally 24 to 48 hours later, Biden held a news conference and reversed that position,” Przybyla recounts. “My job is not to affect policy or to influence policy, but it is to give people the full truth and the full record of our elected lawmakers and candidates. That's what I did in that case, and it really had an impact.” 

In September 2022, Przybyla was named national investigative correspondent for Politico. Prior to that she was a reporter for NBC News, and she also logged lengthy stints at USA Today and Bloomberg News. 

 

“My job is not to affect or to influence policy, but to give people the full truth and the full record of our elected lawmakers and candidates.”

 

Przybyla has been at the center of the storm during an almost unprecedented period of political crisis and a pandemic, both of which have forced a reassessment of the role of journalism. “I covered the impeachment pretty closely, and I sent a tweet out saying that now more than ever, our job is not to give both sides’ version of the truth, but to give the truth. Somehow, it seemed controversial,” says Przybyla. “I do believe the most important thing is to give full context. It's not good enough to just transcribe what our elected officials or candidates are saying. You have to go that extra step to tell people the truth as you know it, the facts. As Thomas Jefferson said, to have a democracy we need an educated public.” 

In a moment of division, one aspect of Przybyla’s approach to journalism that stands out is her sense of empathy with those she talks to. The Dearborn Heights native, whose father was a mover and whose mother worked at Ford, has never lost touch with her roots. “I know what it's like to be a hostess at Ruby Tuesday, or to work at the donut shop on a Sunday morning,” Przybyla says. “Letting people know a little bit about who you are makes them feel a bit more comfortable talking to you, and I've done that.”  

Contributing Writer(s): Chris Quirk