AP, Knight helping FOI-based reporting survive
Kudos to The Associated Press and the Knight Foundation for efforts that will foster freedom of information through investigative journalism:
- In a New York Times article today, the AP announced that it will distribute to its 1,500 U.S. newspaper members investigative reports produced by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica. This six-month experiment will provide great copy for newspapers and a powerful venue for investigative work. With that kind of coverage the great work these groups do will have more power and more weight to change the world. I hope the experiment works, and I hope they continue it permanently. Some of the best FOI-based reporting is being done by these organizations (particularly ProPublica - check it out!).
- In another news item reported today, the Knight Foundation announced it will spend $15 million to bolster innovative ways of sustaining investigative reporting. The grants include $1.32 million for the Center for Investigative Reporting to launch a multimedia investigative reporting project in California, $565,000 for the Sunlight Foundation to develop Web tools for the public to access campaign contribution and vote information, and $1.01 million for ProPublica to develop a way for it to survive. Other money will fund efforts by Boston University, Center for Public Integrity and Investigative Reporters and Editors. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in my opinion, is probably the savior of journalism (as the primary funder for the National Freedom of Information Coalition and Society of Professional Journalists newsroom training). Express your support for putting their money where our mouths are!
Thanks to all of these organizations for trying to find ways for keeping investigative journalism alive. This is crucial. This year I've judged a few FOI-award contests and it's great that citizen journalists are entering the competitions, but their work pales to the kind of document gathering done by trained journalists. As a journalist, I took our skills for granted and thought they really weren't that special - that anyone could do it. But now as a journalism professor, civilian and contest judge, I've come to realize that few people can do what we do. We are trained to do it, we have a passion to do it, we earn (earned?) a paycheck to do it, and we do it right. Be proud, and keep FOI-based journalism alive!