Selected reporting
Representative work from Erin McLaughlin's reporting for NBC News and CNN — organized by kind of journalism. Each entry links to the original published story or broadcast.
Investigations & Accountability
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Cost of Denial — inside America's health-insurance denials
NBC News' ongoing investigation into health-insurance claim denials — Erin McLaughlin's reports for the series have followed patients fighting for doctor-recommended care and documented insurers' responses.
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Texas AG investigates military healthcare contractor after NBC report
Cost of Denial follow-up — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into TriWest Healthcare Alliance, citing NBC News' reporting on wrongfully denied claims for military families.
Watch report at NBC News → -
Healthcare CEO apologizes for coverage problems
NBC Nightly News report in which a health-care chief executive apologizes to patients for coverage failures documented by the Cost of Denial investigation.
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Military families call out healthcare company
Cost of Denial segment on military families insured through TriWest who say the health-care company failed to deliver the coverage they were owed.
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After a man's death following insurance denials, West Virginia changes the law
Cost of Denial report — after Eric Tennant died while fighting his insurer for doctor-recommended cancer treatment, his widow's campaign helped pass a West Virginia law curbing insurance denials, signed by the governor.
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Sono Bello: cosmetic surgery chains face allegations of injuries and deaths
Joint KFF Health News–NBC News investigation into Sono Bello and other cosmetic surgery chains — more than 200 lawsuits alleging disfiguring injuries, including 12 wrongful death cases over seven years.
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Jihadist recruiter walking free in Belgium
CNN exclusive inside Brussels' jihadist recruitment network — McLaughlin interviews the mother of a teenager who died in Syria after being recruited in Belgium, and confronts a convicted ISIS recruiter freed by a Belgian court.
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Tracking ISIS operative at large reveals missed opportunities
CNN investigation into Oussama Atar — the ISIS operative suspected of coordinating the Paris and Brussels attacks — and how authorities missed opportunities to stop him.
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A.I. chatbots becoming popular but worry privacy advocates
NBC Nightly News accountability report on the AI companion industry — chatbots engineered to feel human — and what happens to the intimate personal data millions of users share with them.
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Tennessee woman accused of selling fake weight loss drugs as counterfeit concerns grow
Investigation into counterfeit weight-loss drugs reaching American patients, including the case of a Tennessee woman accused of selling fake medication.
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Cancer patient's fight for doctor recommended treatment
NBC Nightly News segment from the Cost of Denial investigation following a cancer patient's battle against an insurer's denial of doctor-recommended treatment.
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Family fights for coverage of autism therapy
Cost of Denial segment following a family fighting their insurer for coverage of their child's autism therapy.
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Dartmouth researchers look to meld therapy apps with modern AI
Inside the first clinical trial of Therabot — a generative-AI therapy app built at Dartmouth — and its creators' effort to bring mental-health services to underserved populations.
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International
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Russian troops descend on Ukraine
Live reporting from Kyiv as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, including coverage as missile strikes hit the capital.
Watch report at TODAY → -
Gaza's youngest survivors: Saving the Al-Shifa babies
NBC News documentary on the premature babies of Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital — evacuated after Israeli forces raided the facility in November 2023 — and their fight to survive.
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Biden: Iran's ballistic missile attack on Israel was 'defeated and ineffective'
Live coverage of Iran's ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1, 2024 — including reporting while taking shelter as sirens sounded.
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Israel–Hamas war: the first hostage releases
Coverage of the first negotiated releases of hostages held in Gaza — the delay that sent families on an emotional roller coaster, the reunions that followed, and the cease-fire talks that made them possible.
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Parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin push for deal after his killing in Hamas captivity
First interview with the parents of Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin after his body was found in a Gaza tunnel — the squalid conditions he was kept in, their exasperation with the failed diplomatic process, and their warning that remaining hostages 'are not going to make it much longer.'
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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar killed by Israeli forces
Coverage of the killing of Yahya Sinwar — Hamas leader and architect of the October 7 attacks — in an Israeli operation in Gaza, and what his death meant for the war.
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The Bucha boy whose mother died of starvation
McLaughlin meets a Ukrainian boy in Bucha whose mother died of starvation as the family sheltered in a basement during the Russian occupation — and who now visits her grave in the yard of their home.
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Inside Mariupol: an amateur photographer shares the terror and hope of the war
The story of a young Ukrainian photographer who documented life under siege in Mariupol — his images offering a rare window inside the city as it was destroyed.
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Brave Ukrainian prosecutors aim to hold Russia accountable for war crimes
Sunday Focus report from Bucha on Ukrainian prosecutors pursuing justice after the killings of civilians — including the case of a boy who survived the shooting that killed his father.
Watch report at TODAY → -
Life, Death, and Liberation: Izium, Ukraine
NBC News documentary — an NBC team spent weeks inside the bombed-out city of Izium hearing the stories of those who survived Russian occupation, torture, and relentless bombardment.
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Establishing order in Mariupol
CNN report from Mariupol in 2014 as steelworkers and miners took to the streets to reestablish order amid the first Russian-backed seizure of the city — eight years before its destruction.
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MH17: a mother's plea to Putin
CNN interview with Silene Fredriksz at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport — the Dutch mother who bought her son Bryce and his girlfriend Daisy their tickets on MH17 made an impassioned plea to Vladimir Putin: 'Take care of my son and my daughter. Bring them home.'
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A mother's regret over flight MH17
CNN report from Amsterdam — a mother who lost two sons in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, and families waiting for answers at Schiphol.
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Britain's vote to leave the EU — Brexit reporting
CNN coverage of the Brexit referendum and its aftermath — from the 2016 vote through the EU's first-ever divorce negotiations, including reporting on the impact in Wales, the UK's poorest region.
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Breaking & National Reporting
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Trump rally assassination attempt — Butler, Pennsylvania
Reporting from Butler after the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump — including coverage of new video showing the gunman moving outside the rally's security perimeter before shots were fired.
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ICE temporarily halts vehicle pursuits after fatal shootings in Maine and Texas
Reporting from Biddeford, Maine after an ICE officer fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero — a 26-year-old father who was not the target of the arrest warrant — as ICE temporarily halted vehicle pursuits nationwide.
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Park Avenue mass shooting — inside the Midtown tower
Coverage of the mass shooting at 345 Park Avenue — McLaughlin reported on the chaos inside the skyscraper as office workers barricaded themselves from the gunman.
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Coronavirus outbreak: strained hospitals running low on supplies
As COVID-19 hit its first U.S. epicenter, doctors in Seattle told McLaughlin they were running out of protective equipment — part of a report on hospitals facing shortages of staff, ventilators, beds and PPE.
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Inside overwhelmed COVID-19 wards — Los Angeles
Reporting from inside Los Angeles hospitals at the winter peak of the pandemic — including an exclusive tour of Harvard-UCLA Medical Center's COVID wards as ICUs hit capacity and hospitals weighed rationing care.
Watch report at TODAY → -
'They have to defend themselves': U.S. Marshals speak out on violent clashes with Portland protestors
Exclusive interview with U.S. Marshals officials defending their tactics during clashes with protesters outside Portland's federal courthouse in 2020.
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