PublicIntegrity.org

URL	http://www.publicintegrity.org
Type of site	Online Investigative Journalism
Owner	501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
Created by	Charles Lewis

The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing investigative reporting on public officials, government policy and its effects^[1]. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a technical, Web-related term used in two distinct meanings: in popular usage, it is a widespread synonym for Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) — many popular and technical texts will use the term URL when referring to URI; strictly, the idea of a uniform syntax for... 501(c) is a provision of the United States Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. Â§ 501(c)), listing twenty-eight types of non-profit organizations exempt from some Federal income taxes. ... Charles Lewis is a former 60 Minutes producer who left the ranks of commercial journalism to found, in 1989, the Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan group which reports on political and government workings. ... A non-profit organization (often called non-profit org or simply non-profit or not-for-profit) can be seen as an organization that doesnt have a goal to make a profit. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Description

Located in Washington, DC, USA, the Center for Public Integrity produces reports aimed to provide transparent and insightful reporting. Topics include the financing of political campaigns, the stewardship of public institutions by governing officials, the influence private interests wield in federal and state government, and the ultimate results of public policy. Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Campaign finance refers to the means by which money is raised for election campaigns. ...

The Center releases its reports via its Web site, press releases and traditional book publishing. The information it collects and analyzes often reaches the public secondhand through coverage in conventional news mediums like television and newsprint. The Center's highest-profile release, The Buying of the President, appeared on The New York Times bestseller list several times after its January 2004 publication. The Center also collects and organizes the public records it gathers into online databases so that other reporters and the public have access to the information. In 2006, Slate media critic Jack Shafer described the Center as having "broken as many stories as almost any big-city daily in the last couple of decades"^[2]. Jack Shafer writes the PressBox column for online magazine Slate. ...

Because it's funded by a network of private donors and philanthropic organizations rather than advertisers, the Center operates on a business model different from most traditional news organizations.

History

The Founding (1989-1990)

The Center was founded in March 1989 by Charles Lewis after an 11-year career as a television reporter that included a stint as correspondent Mike Wallace's producer for the CBS News program 60 Minutes^[3]. Frustrated by his sense that the current system failed to adequately investigate corruption in Washington, Lewis quit his job at CBS and founded the Center. At the time, he wrote: Charles Lewis is a former 60 Minutes producer who left the ranks of commercial journalism to found, in 1989, the Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan group which reports on political and government workings. ... Mike Wallace (born Myron Leon Wallace on May 9, 1918) is a former American game show host, television personality, and journalist. ... CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. Its current president is Sean McManus who is also head of CBS Sports. ... 60 Minutes is an investigative television newsmagazine on United States television, which has run on CBS News since 1968. ...

In recent years, a disturbing paradox has increasingly gnawed at me: America's best and brightest reporters, working for the most respected national news organizations, too often do not investigate the country's most important stories. ... While about 4,000 accredited reporters work today in Washington, not much muckraking is actually going on. There needs to be a group of respected journalists in Washington who on a regular basis are doing insightful investigative studies of the systematic problems hampering government and the political process.^[4]

After starting out with headquarters in his home in Northern Virginia, Lewis began by garnering support from a variety of a prominent public figures -- early advisors included Arthur Schlesinger Jr., James MacGregor Burns, James David Barber, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Father Theodore Hesburgh, Bill Kovach and Hodding Carter III -- and securing funding^[5]. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. ... James MacGregor Burns is a presidential biographer, authority on leadership studies, Woodrow Wilson Professor (emeritus) of Political Science at Williams College, and scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park. ... Kathleen Hall Jamieson directs the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which runs FactCheck. ... The Rev. ... Bill Kovach is an American journalist. ... Hodding Carter III is an American journalist and politician best known for his role as Assistant Secretary of State during the Jimmy Carter administration. ...

Origin of the Name

In an essay marking the 10th anniversary of the Center's founding, Lewis wrote:

Initially the idea of having "investigative reporting" in the name appealed to me. But the landscape was crowded with groups having those words in their names: the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) in Missouri, the Fund for Investigative Journalism in Washington. It was not just that figuring out a way to include investigative and reporting in a memorable name without repeating all the other memorable names was going to be a problem. The whole reputation of investigative reporters was not exactly at its highest point at the time. Was this really how I wanted this group to be identified?

So I asked a friend who was not a journalist, "What should this be called?" We tried to come up with the central theme to our discussions and we realized that the theme was integrity. And then we refined that theme to public integrity. I went to my new Board members and suggested the name. We knew that it sounded a little pompous. A little pretentious. A little strange. But it ended up being a very useful name because when anything arose remotely involving ethics, or impropriety anywhere, any time, in any field of endeavor, we would get the call.^[3]

The Lewis Era (1990-2004)

In May of 1990, Lewis used the money he had raised and his house as collateral to open an 1800-square-foot office in Washington at 1910 K Street, N.W.^[3]. By the 1992 elections, Lewis had added three full-time staffers. The Center continued to grow over the years, relocating to 1634 I Street, N.W. in 1994, and by 2006 it employed more than three dozen employees. Its offices are now located at 910 17th Street, N.W. Lewis served as director until January 2005. At the time of his departure, the Center claimed to have published 14 books and more than 250 investigative reports^[6].

The Baskin-Rawls Era (2005-2007)

In December of 2004, the Center's board of director choose a successor, television journalist Roberta Baskin. Baskin came to the Center after directing consumer investigations for ABC News's 20/20 and serving as Washington correspondent for PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers^[7]. After the handover from the founder and long-time director Lewis, many of the Center's senior staff also left the organization^[5]. In early 2006, The National Journal reported that Center staffer Bob Williams alleged he was fired for raising concerns about a no-bid consulting contract that then-Managing Director Wendell Rawls, a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter, recieved from the Tennessee Valley Authority, "where an old friend served as chairman^[8] ." Baskin and Rawls declined to comment for the article on Williams' accusations about the reasons for his departure, but both disputed his contention that Rawl's contract was an example of cronyism and later contested the story's account of a "heated" confrontation at a staff meeting^[9]. This article is about the television show. ... National Journal is a weekly magazine about American politics and government, published by National Journal Group, Inc. ... Bob Williams was an Australian rugby league player for the Eastern Suburbs club. ... TVA logo The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly hard hit by the Great Depression. ... Crony redirects here. ...

Baskin held the position until May 24, 2006^[10], when Rawls stepped in to serve as acting director. Writing in 2007, Lewis would describe the Center's output during Baskin's tenure as "generally unremarkable" and reported that fundraising for 2005 and 2006 amounted to only half the total Lewis raised during 2004, his final year^[5].

The Buzenberg Era (2007-Present)

In December 2006, Rawls was succeeded by William E. Buzenberg, a vice president at American Public Media / Minnesota Public Radio^[11]. According to a report by Lewis, "the number of full-time staff was reduced by one-third" in early 2007^[5]. American Public Media logo American Public Media is the brand under which Minnesota Public Radio distributes public radio programming outside of the state of Minnesota. ... Minnesota Public Radio logo Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is a regional public radio network based in the U.S. state of Minnesota that has been broadcasting since 1967. ...

Notable Work

• America's Frontline Trade Officials (1990)
  • The Center's first report, America's Frontline Trade Officials reported that nearly one half of White House trade officials over a 15-year period became lobbyists for countries or overseas corporations after they left public service. According to Lewis, it "prompted a Justice Department ruling, a General Accounting Office report, a Congressional hearing, was cited by four presidential candidates in 1992 and was partly responsible for an executive order in January 1993 by President Clinton, placing a lifetime ban on foreign lobbying by White House trade officials^[5]."
• Fat Cat Hotel (1996)
  • "This Public i report, written by Margaret Ebrahim, won the 1996 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in Newsletter Journalism. The report profiles 75 fund-raisers and donors who stayed overnight in the Clinton White House^[12]."
• The Buying of the President, 1996, 2000, 2004
• Windfalls of War
• LobbyWatch
• Patriot Act II
• Power Trips
• Silent Partners

Honors

Since 1990, the Center for Public Integrity has released dozens of investigative reports and books. Its work has been honored by journalism awards from PEN USA, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Association of Capital Reporters and Editors, the National Press Foundation, the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and others^[13]. A full listing may be found here. Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. ... SPJ logo, taken from a cropped photo of a sign at the Region 10 SPJ Conference, March 2006 The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States, debuting in 1909. ... The National Press Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides training for journalists and awards excellence in journalism. ...

Spinoffs

Created in 1997, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists network includes 92 leading investigative reporters and editors in 48 countries. The group has collaborated on numerous online and printed reports on corporate crime, arms trafficking, terrorism, U.S. military policy and human rights issues. Global Integrity, another international project, was launched in 2001 to systematically track and report on openness, accountability and the rule of law in various countries.

Funding

The Center for Public Integrity is supported by individual contributions and grants awarded by charitable foundations. A list of the Center's funders may be found on its official Web site. Donations are tax-deductible. The Center ceased accepting contributions from corporations and labor unions in 1996^[3]. In it's first year, the Center's budget was reported to be $200,000^[5]. According to its annual report, the Center's 2005 budget was $4.4 million, which outpaced its revenues for the year by $350,000. Fundraising and administration accounted for 28 percent of the expenses^[5]. A tax deduction or a tax-deductible expense, is an item which is subtracted from gross income in order to arrive at the taxable income. ...

Praise

Criticism

Sources of Funding

Criticism of the Center frequently addresses the source of its financial support. Despite its claims to be a nonpartisan news organization and profession of the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics^[14], the Center has been accused of bias towards left-wing political causes because it has accepted money from organizations and individuals that favor liberal policies and/or actively oppose right-wing political causes. In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ...

Such criticism typically focuses on funding the Center has received from philanthropic organizations founded by two high-profile supporters of the Democratic Party, Barbara Streisand and George Soros. Barbra Streisand on the cover of her album Higher Ground Barbra Streisand (born April 24, American singer and film actress, producer, and director. ... George Soros (pronounced ) [Shorosh] (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, as György Schwartz) is a American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist. ...

In a 2007 essay, the Center's founder Charles Lewis offered this about the Center's fundraising habits: Charles Lewis is the founder of the Centre for Public Integrity. ...

The issue of perceived financial “purity” and exactly from whom the Center should seek and accept money from has been an introspective feature of nearly every board meeting since 1989. Eventually, beginning in 1995, for example, we stopped raising funds from companies and labor unions because of their direct economic interests in influencing public policy; the nonpartisan Center has never accepted money from government, advocacy organizations, paid advertising or anonymous donors.^[5]

Funding from George Soros

George Soros is a Hungarian billionaire^[15] who has supported an array of political causes active in reforming the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe, including the Solidarity labor movement in Poland, the Czechoslovakian human rights organization Charter 77, the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, the opposition to the Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic^[16] and the Republic of Georgia's Rose Revolution^[17]. In 2004, he asserted himself in American politics by donating millions of dollars to groups opposing the election of President George W. Bush^[18]. George Soros (pronounced ) [Shorosh] (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, as György Schwartz) is a American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist. ... Soviet redirects here. ... Solidarity (Polish:  ; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity — Niezależny SamorzÄ…dny ZwiÄ…zek Zawodowy Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards, and originally led by Lech WaÅ‚Ä™sa. ... The Charter 77 (Charta 77 in Czech and in Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in Czechoslovakia from 1977 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. ... Andrei Sakharov, 1943 For the historian, see Andrey Nikolayevich Sakharov. ... Slobodan Milošević. Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević  listen (Serbian Cyrillic: Слободан Милошевић, pronounced ; born 20 August 1941) is a former President of Serbia and of the Federal... Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო Sakartvelo), known from 1991 to 1995 as the Republic of Georgia, is a country to the east of the Black Sea in the southern Caucasus. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ...

Soros himself has become a public critic of Bush and the Republican Party, speaking out in books published under his name and in interviews with journalists. Republican activists have responded with strong criticism of Soros and the causes he supports. Conservative television host Bill O'Reilly has identified Soros as a leader in what he calls "the secular-progressive cause^[19]." O'Reilly alleges that Soros exerts a destructive influence indirectly through groups his foundations fund. In October of 2006, O'Reilly commented: The Republican Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

He's given money to some of the worst people in United States of America. ... He wants radical change in this country. ... [H]e's damaging the country. He is the single most dangerous individual in the United States of America. And his assassins, the people he hires to harm the people with whom he disagrees. And he sits back and he goes, "Oh, I don't know what they're doing." Bull.^[20]

O'Reilly and other critics point to Soros' support of groups whose agenda many conservatives oppose, such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Moveon.org^[21]. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a major American non-profit organization with headquarters in New York City, whose stated mission is to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.[1] It... A group of MoveOn volunteers helped the get-out-the-vote drive in Cincinnati in the run-up to the 2004 U.S. presidential election. ...

Conservatives have used the Center's connections to Soros in efforts to discredit its journalism^[22]. The Web site of one of Soros' organizations, The Open Society Institute, discloses four grants to the Center, all made before his entry into the 2004 presidential contest. They are:

• A $72,400 one-year grant in 2000 supporting "an investigative journalism series on prosecutorial misconduct."^[23]

• A $75,000 one-year grant in 2001 supporting "an examination of wrongful convictions resulting from prosecutorial misconduct."^[24]
• A $100,000 one-year grant in 2002 "to investigate the political spending of the telecommunications industry on the federal, state and local levels."^[25]
• A $1 million three-year grant in 2002 "to support the Global Access Project."^[26]

The first two grants funded what eventually became the "Harmful Error" report, which was headed by Steve Weinberg. Weinberg is a professional journalist and former director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. ...

The telecommunications grant supported the launch of the Center's ongoing "Well Connected" project. According to the Center's site, other funding for that endeavor has been provided by The Ford Foundation^[27]. The project has won an Online News Association award for enterprise reporting^[28] and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in Online Journalism^[13]. The Ford Foundation is a charitable foundation based in New York City created to fund programs that promote democracy, reduce poverty, promote international understanding, and advance human achievement. ...

According to its Web site, the Global Access project -- now known as Global Integrity -- seeks to "collect and disseminate trustworthy, credible, comprehensive and timely data and information on governance and corruption trends around the world." It publishes the Global Integrity Index, "an annual ranking of 50-100 diverse countries in more than 290 indicators of openness, governance, and anti-corruption mechanisms^[29]."

Despite their previous connections, the Center documented Soros' political donations during the 2004 political elections as a part of its "Silent Partners" project, which won an Online Journalism Association award for enterprise reporting for its reporting on the "527" groups that bypassed campaign finance disclosure regulations to funnel millions of dollars to both candidates^[13]. A 527 group, named after a section of the United States tax code, is a tax-exempt organization that is created primarily to influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office. ...

Funding from Bill Moyers and the Schumann Foundation

A 1999 report in the Seattle Times raised questions about the ethical behavior of PBS journalist Bill Moyers by documenting examples of his work that featured sources whose organizations have been funded by the Schumann Foundation, a philanthropic group he heads^[30]. Among the recipients of Schumann grants featured in Moyers' journalism has been the Center's founder Charles Lewis^[30]. The daily Seattle Times is the leading newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. ... Not to be confused with Public Broadcasting Services in Malta. ... The Schumann Foundation (formerly the Florence and John Schumann Foundation) was established in 1961, by Florence Ford and John Schumann. ...

Foundations Providing Support^[31]

Management and Staff

Reports and Filings

Annual Reports^[31]

• 2005 (PDF File: 738 KB)
• 2004 (PDF File: 1587 KB)
• 2003 (PDF File: 1264 KB)
• 2002 (PDF File: 508 KB)
• 2001 (PDF File: 584 KB)
• 2000 (PDF File: 1503 KB)

Annual Returns^[35] (IRS Form 990)

• 2005 (PDF File: 2.2 MB)
• 2004 (PDF File: 1.9 MB)
• 2003 (PDF File: 3.1 MB)
• 2002 (PDF File: 3.3 MB)

Further reading

• Glaser, Mark. "Center for Public Integrity Leading the Way for Serious Online Journalism", Online Journalism Review, 25 February 2004.
• Lewis, Charles. "Expanding The Definition of News Media Trust, A Jay Rosen-Led Conversation" San Antonio, Texas (August 9, 2005).
• Lewis, Charles. "Digging Where Journalists Don't Dig".
• Lewis, Charles. "Are We Better Off: This is Reform?", Mother Jones, May 3, 2004.
• Lewis, Charles. Interview with Ken Adelman. Stories from a Watchdog Journalist. Washingtonian. February 1, 2006.

• Lewis, Charles. Interview with Bob Garfield. The Digging Life. On The Media. WNYC. March 4, 2005.

• Lewis, Charles. Interview with Brian Lamb. The Buying of the Congress. Booknotes. C-SPAN, Washington, DC. November 1, 1998.

• Lewis, Charles. Interview with John McQuaid. Charles Lewis on the Future of Investigative Journalism on the Web. NewAssignment.Net. November 20, 2006.

• Keiger, Dale. "An "i" Toward Tough Journalism", Johns Hopkins Magazine, November 2000.

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References

October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Spring is one of the four seasons of temperate zones, the transition from winter into summer. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... National Journal is a weekly magazine about American politics and government, published by National Journal Group, Inc. ... February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... June 2 is the 153rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (154th in leap years), with 212 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 4th redirects here. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Screenshot from Media Matters for America (Jan 6, 2006) Media Matters for America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2004 by formerly conservative (now liberal) journalist and author David Brock; it is an organization that hosts a website featuring watchdog journalism. ... October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Screenshot from Media Matters for America (Jan 6, 2006) Media Matters for America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2004 by formerly conservative (now liberal) journalist and author David Brock; it is an organization that hosts a website featuring watchdog journalism. ... October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Screenshot from Media Matters for America (Jan 6, 2006) Media Matters for America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2004 by formerly conservative (now liberal) journalist and author David Brock; it is an organization that hosts a website featuring watchdog journalism. ... The Seattle Times is the leading daily newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. ... October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years). ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

External links

• The Center for Public Integrity's official Web site (publicintegrity.org)
• The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' official Web site
• Global Integrity's official Web site
• Charles Lewis's official Web site
• The Center's Charity Navigator Rating