This first appeared in the Aug. 1, 2026, edition of the IPR Newsletter — one of the main ways we communicate directly with our community. It's free for anyone, and you can sign up here.
This week, Interlochen Public Radio reported on the findings of a two-year investigation into decades of sexual abuse and misconduct by former faculty and staff at Interlochen Center for the Arts.
The findings of the report, in the investigators' own words, are devastating. They point to extreme trauma and abuse suffered by young people whose pain most of us can only begin to imagine.
Today, I'd like to explain how we covered the story, because while lots of news organizations did, IPR News found itself in a unique position. IPR's broadcast license is owned by Interlochen Arts Group, a subsidiary of Interlochen Center for the Arts — the organization at the center of the story. Our station is on Interlochen's campus.
But we also have editorial independence. That means no senior leader at Interlochen — including IPR's executive director — had any say in the coverage of this story. Or any story. Interlochen has, in my tenure as news director, always respected that firewall, and they did this week, too.
The people we interviewed did not see our questions in advance and they don't review our stories before they're published. The stories for broadcast and our website were edited by a Massachusetts-based contract editor who works regularly with our newsroom but is not on Interlochen's staff.
Our coverage
• Abuses at Interlochen Center for the Arts over the past 70 years detailed in new report (July 29, 2026)
• Grand Traverse Co. prosecutor receives unredacted Interlochen abuse report (July 31, 2026)
Interlochen did allow us (and other unaffiliated news organizations) to see the report a day in advance, if we agreed to wait until 6 p.m. Tuesday to publish our story. That short delay, or embargo, is a standard practice in journalism, especially surrounding news of high interest. There were zero conditions on what the story could contain, nor would we have agreed to any.
At IPR, we have two additional conditions for agreeing to an embargo. The first is that doing so will allow us to report a more thorough and accurate story. The report here is 97 pages long and covers allegations spanning seven decades. Getting early word about its release allowed us to review it carefully and to have a detailed interview with Interlochen President Trey Devey. That serves the public understanding of the story.
It also must be true that an embargo will not make the information less valuable to the public or stifle its urgency. Because the report addresses misconduct from decades past, we felt a day-and-a-half delay would not diminish the value of the information to those reading it.
We received the report at noon on Monday. A reporter, an editor and I pored over it, reading it from cover to cover. We pulled out parts we thought would give you a good summary of its contents. We contacted RAINN, the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization for comment on how Interlochen is handling the situation. And we conducted our interview with Devey.
All of that, I hope, gave you a clear and thorough — if also searing and difficult — understanding of what happened here over the last seven decades. I hope you felt we asked difficult questions of the people who lead Interlochen that deepened your understanding of the story. And I hope above all that the work we did is worthy of your trust.
Interlochen Public Radio's journalism will always be independent and beholden only to the public interest. Period.
We welcome your feedback on this issue or any others. Write to us at TalkToIPR@interlochen.org.
Learn more about IPR's journalism ethics and how we cover the news.
