This is an example of how data can prompt a story. In this case, the data that exists doesn't make the story-- it's the data that's missing.
In this investigation, reporters requested data on the number of complaints against livestock operations. In North Carolina, only 33 complaints were counted, while other states that do not have the same level of livestock production counted thousands of complaints. That told the reporters there was something going on. They thought the env. department must have been miscounting or withholding data...
https://thefern.org/2019/08/for-years-complaints-about-north-carolinas-hog-pollution-vanished-in-state-bureaucracy/