Investigative reporter Mike Beaudet has joined the team at WCVB-TV ABC 5 in Boston, and brings his years of groundbreaking reporting to the stations investigative unit, 5 Investigates, the station announced today.
"Mike is a talented journalist whose investigative reporting and skill for uncovering stories of waste and mismanagement has really impacted the lives of those in the Boston community," said Bill Fine, WCVB President and General Manager. "He will be a great asset to our NewsCenter 5 team as part of our newly expanded, award winning investigative unit."
As a multi-media investigative journalist, Mike will join reporters Kathy Curran and Karen Anderson to create the market's most experienced investigative unit.
"This trio, all Massachusetts natives, presents the strongest lineup of investigative reporters anywhere," said Andrew Vrees, WCVB News Director. "Mike's return to television will have an immediate and positive impact on our viewers and in our newsroom."
Mike's success of breaking impactful stories, holding the powerful accountable and helping protect the vulnerable has influenced public policies and made an impact on the communities we serve.
"WCVB is Boston's news leader for a reason," Mike said. "WCVB recognizes what it takes to produce quality investigative journalism. It takes guts, instinct, and a commitment to uncovering the truth, and I look forward to joining a team that exemplifies those attributes."
With nearly twenty years of experience as an investigative journalist, Mike left his last position at WFXT-TV FOX 25 in September to focus on his position as a Journalism Professor at Northeastern University full-time. He had been with FOX 25 since 1996, and was part of the original reporting team that launched the news department at the station. He started at FOX 25 as a general assignment reporter, and had most recently been an investigative reporter for the station in addition to anchoring the Sunday evening newscasts.
During his time at FOX 25, Mike taught journalism classes for several years at Emerson College and Northeastern. In 2014, he joined Northeastern as a professor of the practice. With his students at Northeastern, Mike also formed a partnership with FOX 25 to produce investigative reports that aired on the station since February 2015.
Mike will continue to teach at Northeastern, and the partnership that he started that tapped the talents of his students to assist in the in-depth investigations will shift to WCVB. Those investigations will also dually serve as case studies for the students.
"This new partnership with WCVB allows our students to take their work even further," said Jonathan Kaufman, director of Northeastern's School of Journalism. "Northeastern students have a proven track record of working alongside professional journalists to produce hard-hitting investigations."
Prior to FOX 25, Mike was a reporter and anchor at WMUR-TV ABC 9 in Manchester, NH. He has also worked at WLBZ-TV NBC 2 in Bangor, ME as a reporter and anchor.
Over the course of his career, Mike received 15 New England Emmy awards. His most recent award came in 2014 following a series of reports exposing government dysfunction. In 2011, Mike and his team were awarded an Associated Press Award as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award for an investigation they conducted into a state worker who ran marathons while claiming to be too injured to work. Beaudet and his investigative unit were awarded the Award of Excellence by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) for coverage of drunk driving and underage drinking issues.
A native of East Longmeadow, MA, Mike is a 1992 graduate of Emerson College where he earned a Bachelor's degree in communications. He is also a 2008 graduate of Northeastern University where he earned his Master's in journalism.
Mike starts at WCVB today.
