Last week, the Chicago Reader laid off four of its best journalists: John Conroy (previously), Harold Henderson, Tori Marlan, and Steve Bogira. The cuts almost certainly mark the beginning of the end of the paper's role in Chicago as an investigative force and a corruption watchdog. The New York Times responds with a salute to Conroy and a defense of muckraking's relevance. [more inside]
posted by Iridic on Dec 11, 2007 - 25 comments

The Library Of Unified Information Sources (LOUIS) is a beta-release project of the previously mentioned Sunlight Foundation, the goal of which is "to create a comprehensive, completely indexed and cross-referenced depository of federal documents from the executive and legislative branches of government." LOUIS currently contains searchable full text documents of Congressional Reports, the Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, Presidential Documents, the Federal Register, GAO Reports and Bills & Resolutions, going back to 2001. Other interesting Sunlight Foundation projects include Visualizing Earmarks, 3 (non-satirical) Modest Proposals, The Congressional Family Business Project, and Congresspedia.
posted by cog_nate on Jun 20, 2007 - 2 comments

Muckraking just ain't what it used to be. The term was first coined by T. Roosevelt in 1906. The practice has gained and lost favor over the ensuing decades. Corporations have been fighting back, suing investigative reporters (or their "producers") and winning damages. Now "Prime time exposes" are mostly about citizen on citizen crime and entrapping catching pedophiles on the prowl. This only comes to mind because I'm currently reading Theodore Rex and following the ebb and flow of his fight with combinations and trusts, and because a local reporter was arrested while 'investigating security' at area maternity wards, presumably for her signature segment of investigative journalism, "Does It Work?"
posted by lysdexic on Mar 29, 2007 - 13 comments

Should a politician's "artistic endeavors" come into play when voters go to the polls? George Allen thinks that parts of his opponent, Jim Webb's, novels are demeaning to women and contain depictions of incest. Also, Republican candidate for Texas Comptroller, Susan Combs, is being accused of writing porngraphy because of excerpts like these from a romance novel she wrote 15 years ago. And they're not the only politicians who've written naughty things.
posted by eunoia on Nov 4, 2006 - 40 comments