ProPublica versus the Grocers

October 18th, 2008

ProPublica.org aims to make up some of the ground lost to journalism by the current crisis of advertising revenues bleeding to the internet. In particular, it seeks to preserve the skills and value of investigative reporting one of the first casualties of cuts by dint of its relative costliness.

Wrote Ed PIlkington and Scott Rosenberg asked

As the business model that supports traditional journalism erodes, with digital distribution dissolving the bonds that held together the elements of the old paper and broadcast product bundles, one refrain has been constant: How, ask the elders of the profession, can we protect the most important work that we do — investigative journalism? It’s costly and politically sensitive and hard to justify on the bottom line; it’s also what gives journalists the right to claim a valued and sometimes privileged spot in the civic landscape.

ProPublica says about themselves

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that will produce investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work will focus exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We will do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.
Investigative journalism is at risk. Many news organizations have increasingly come to see it as a luxury. Today’s investigative reporters lack resources: Time and budget constraints are curbing the ability of journalists not specifically designated “investigative” to do this kind of reporting in addition to their regular beats. This is therefore a moment when new models are necessary to carry forward some of the great work of journalism in the public interest that is such an integral part of self-government, and thus an important bulwark of our democracy.

Pilkington writes

The investigation of Alhurra is a model of how things might go. The first blast of the story on 60 Minutes was sufficiently powerful to catch the attention of Congress, where it was raised in the foreign relations committee. ProPublica then kept the story running through the week with a series of follow-up articles on its site. The editors can even claim their first scalp – by forcing the resignation of a journalist who a year ago had reported for Alhurra from a Holocaust deniers' conference in Tehran, and had himself questioned on camera the existence of the Holocaust. Alhurra managers had told Congress that he had been dismissed a year ago, but ProPublica tracked him down to its US-funded sister radio channel where he was still working.
Almost all its resources will go directly into journalism, compared with a mere 10% of the budgets of the average paper. There will be no editorial pressure from the Sandlers, and no commercial pressure either as all the income will be philanthropic.

The first major investigation by ProPublica was broadcast on 60 Minutes and continued on the website thereafter. It looked at Alhurra, the US-funded Arabic TV station broadcast across the Middle East. The film was made by Dafna Linzer, hired by the site from the Washington Post. It uncovers how a US attempt to put its viewpoint across in the region, as an alternative to al-Jazeera, has been poorly managed and ineffective. The network reaches barely 2% of the population, and has given air time to groups classed by the US government as terrorist.

More from the New York Times

Jeff Jarvis observed

What’s particularly nice is that they will not only investigate on their own — with their staff of 20 journalists so far — but are also aggregating, following, and commenting on other investigative journalism available on the web. This is about journalism’s link layer and sending audience to journalism at its source.

I really hope these guys make it.

Nick Davies in his book Flat Earth News excoriates the owners of newspapers (describing them as Grocers) because their interest its not about community, its not about quality journalism is about one thing and one thing only – MONEY – PROFIT AND SHAREHOLDER RETURN. And that's all well and good until the quality of the product is so inferior it devalues itself. This is life in a news factory says Davies whilst writing about one journalists experience of working for a local news paper. These are corporations that think greatly about commerce and casually about journalism. This is the heart of modern journalism, the rapid repackaging of largely unchecked second-hand material, much of it designed to service the political or commercial interests of those that provide it.

And that is why we need ProPublica

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