Texas Watchdog Offers Investigative Journalism Training

Published on Monday, December 01, 2008
ARTICLES

When I was a reporter for The Tennessean in Nashville I did what good journalists ought to do. I dug into public records, uncovered government waste and turned a spotlight on politicians' fraud and corruption.

Sadly, I wasn't able to do as much investigative journalism as I wanted to. Between budget cuts and a lack of desire from the paper's top brass to aggressively pursue elected officials, my hands - and the hands of other good reporters - were tied.

This is the story of every paper and television news team across the country. Massive layoffs and timid leadership in newsrooms mean that newspapers and the nightly news are less relevant - and there are fewer investigative reporters to serve as watchdogs for voters and taxpayers.

That's why a small team of journalists and I started Texas Watchdog. Part of Texas Watchdog's mission is to provide investigative tools and training to think-tank staff members, bloggers, activists of any stripe and journalists at newsrooms with few resources.

Think tanks have already started a tradition of doing investigative work that newspapers once did. When I was with the Tennessee Center for Policy Research we uncovered Al Gore's giant utility bills. And it was the investigative journalists of the John Locke Foundation in North Carolina that uncovered the dirt that sent a corrupt state House Speaker to jail.

Texas Watchdog can help more think tanks do this kind of work.

Texas Watchdog can help because it has a proven track record of credible investigative journalism by following the money and digging up waste, fraud and corruption. We've looked at Republican and Democratic politicians, and we've examined possible fraud in Texas counties controlled by both parties. Our central, driving force is forcing government to be more open and more transparent.

For example, one of our landmark projects dealt with Texas legislators' financial disclosures. Lawmakers and other Texas officials are required to disclose gifts worth $250 or more by listing them on personal reports collected by the state. The law also requires them to list sources of income for themselves, their spouses and their dependent children, stock holdings and business interests, among other items.

Those forms are public record, but they're not usually available online. But we placed them on the Texas Watchdog site, along with an interactive Google map so readers can point to their home and see the lawmaker who represents them. This expose was a statewide hit - and Texas Watchdog was flooded with tips about lawmakers' conflicts of interest found by readers across The Lone Star State.

We've also uncovered potential voter fraud in Harris County and Dallas County here in Texas though our analysis of dead people still registered on voter rolls. Visit www.texaswatchdog.org to read the story, "Dead voters cast ballots in Dallas County."

Texas Watchdog sends out a constant stream of public records requests in order to shine a spotlight on politicians and bureaucrats. During one such request we uncovered a letter indicating one candidate for state office apparently used his influence to send a major hurricane cleanup contract to a legal client of his.

This candidate lost his bid for office.

The Texas Watchdog staff believes that our work is one part of the solution to the decline of investigative journalism at newspapers and TV stations. We want to be a resource for think tanks and other groups that want to investigate government, make government more transparent and to keep "city hall" honest.

Contact Texas Watchdog and let's brainstorm about how we can help.

Trent Seibert is editor of Texas Watchdog. Write him at trent@texaswatchdog.org.