Center for Investigative Reporting

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in Emeryville, California;[1] it has conducted investigative journalism since 1977.[2] It is known for reporting that reveals inequities, abuse and corruption, and holds those responsible accountable.

For the Sarajevo-based center, see Center for Investigative Reporting (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Center for Investigative Reporting
Founded1977
FocusInvestigative journalism
Location
MethodFoundation and member-supported
Key people

Christa Scharfenberg, CEO
Matt Thompson, Editor in Chief
Phil Bronstein, Executive Chair
Websiterevealnews.org
podcast
youtube

In 2010, CIR launched its California Watch reporting project; in 2012, it merged with The Bay Citizen. In 2013, it launched an hour-long public radio program and podcast, Reveal, that airs on 470 public radio stations.[3][4] The budget for the CIR was approximately $9.3 million in 2016. The current business model emphasizes cooperation with partners and other news outlets rather than competition. Phil Bronstein is the organization's executive chair.

History

Beginnings

David Weir, Dan Noyes, and Lowell Bergman founded the Center for Investigative Reporting in 1977.[5][6][7][8] Its offices were located in downtown Oakland, California.[5] This was the first nonprofit news organization in the United States to be focused on investigative reporting.[3] The Center's first large investigation exposed the criminal activity of the Black Panther Party. The organization revisited this subject in 2012.[5]

1980s

In 1982, reporters from the Center worked with Mother Jones magazine to report testing fraud in consumer products.[9] The investigation won several awards, including Sigma Delta Chi and Investigative Reporters and Editors awards.[5]

CIR began producing television documentaries in 1980. It has since produced more than 30 documentaries for Frontline and Frontline/World, dozens of reports for other television outlets, and three independent feature documentaries. ABC’s 20/20 and CBS’s 60 Minutes have featured reporting from CIR. Major investigations in the 1980s resulted in reporting of the toxicity of ordinary consumer products, an exposé of nuclear accidents in the world's navies, and coverage of questionable tactics by the FBI during the administration of President Ronald Reagan.[5]

1990s

In 1990, CIR produced its first independent TV documentary, Global Dumping Ground, reported by Bill Moyers on PBS’s Frontline. The film spurred federal investigations and was rebroadcast in at least 18 nations.[5]

In 1992, CIR produced The Best Campaign Money Can Buy for Frontline, an investigation of the top funders of that year's presidential campaign. It featured correspondent Robert Krulwich, and was produced by Stephen Talbot with reporters Eve Pell and Dan Noyes. The documentary won a DuPont/Columbia Journalism Award.[10]

Other notable CIR reports included an investigation of General Motors, one on the rise of conservative media figure Rush Limbaugh and another on Congressman Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia), as well as a study of education and race in an urban high school, School Colors. An investigation for the New York Daily News and FOX's Front Page revealed lethal dangers in a common diet drug.[5]

2000–present

In 2005, the Center's investigations into wiretapping and data mining stimulated Congressional hearings on privacy issues.[5] The Center also exposed the forensic practices of the FBI that resulted in wrongful convictions and imprisonments.[11]

Robert J. Rosenthal became executive director of the Center in 2007.[5] He had more than thirty years of experience as a journalist and editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, and The New York Times.[12] Rosenthal hired Mark Katches as the editorial director of the start-up news organization called California Watch in 2009. Katches would later be named editorial director for all of CIR, a position he held until 2014, when he left to become the editor and vice president of content at The Oregonian, in Portland Oregon.[13]

In 2010, the Center released the documentary film, Dirty Business. It explored problems with the myth of clean coal and the extensive lobbying tactics of the coal industry.

The organization's reports have been published in news outlets around the country and in California including NPR News, PBS Frontline, PBS NEWSHOUR, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee, The Daily Beast, Salon, Al Jazeera English, and American Public Media's Marketplace.

In April 2012, it partnered with Google to host TechRaking, an informal conference that brought together journalists and technologists.[14] In September 2012, the second TechRaking brought together journalists and gamers, at IGN in San Francisco.

CIR announced a partnership with Univision News in 2012 to bring investigative stories to Hispanic households in the United States.[15]

Amy Pyle became Editor in Chief in 2015 after two decades of award-winning journalism. She had worked at The Sacramento Bee, where she was Assistant Managing Editor/Projects and Investigations, and the Los Angeles Times, where she led coverage of the Northridge Earthquake from the newspaper's parking lot of the quake-damaged San Fernando Valley office.

In February 2019, Matt Thompson was announced as the new Editor In Chief. Thompson was formerly the executive editor of The Atlantic. He oversaw major editorial projects and new initiatives, such as the launch of the magazine's podcasting unit, membership strategy, and talent development teams. During his time as deputy editor of TheAtlantic.com, he helped lead the magazine's digital team through three record-breaking years of audience growth. Prior to The Atlantic, he was director of vertical initiatives for NPR, where he created several broadcast and digital journalism teams, including Code Switch and NPR Ed. He is a former board member of the Center for Public Integrity, where he served for eight years.

Merger with The Bay Citizen

In April 2012 CIR merged with The Bay Citizen, a nonprofit, investigative news group based in San Francisco.[16][17]

California Watch

In 2009, the Center for Investigative Reporting created California Watch, a reporting team dedicated to state-focused stories.[5] Its website launched in 2010.[18] Editorial Director Mark Katches said that the site would act as a watchdog team focusing on government oversight, criminal justice, education, health, and the environment.[19] In 2010, the Online News Association honored California Watch with a general excellence award.[5] In 2012, California Watch won the George Polk Award for its series on Medicare billing fraud. The authors of the series were Christina Jewett, Lance Williams and Stephen Doig. California Watch also was a Pulitzer finalist for its On Shaky Ground series by Corey G. Johnson, Erica Perez, Kendall Taggart and Agustin Armendariz. The series detailed flaws in state oversight of seismic safety at K-12 schools. The On Shaky Ground reporting team won a Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Public Service. California Watch won a second Polk award in 2012, this time for Ryan Gabrielson's series about the failures of a unique police force to solve crimes committed against the developmentally disabled living in state board-and-care hospitals. The series also won an Online Journalism Award from the Online News Association.

I Files

In August 2012, the Center for Investigative Reporting created "The I Files" channel on YouTube.[20] The Knight Foundation provided an $800,000 grant to make the channel possible.[21] The channel, renamed as Reveal, presents investigative videos produced by CIR and from a variety of news outlets, including The New York Times, BBC, Al Jazeera English, ABC News, National Public Radio, and member organizations of the Investigative News Network.[22]

Reveal

Reveal uses multiple digital platforms to publish its information from its website. The radio program, which the website is named after, airs on 470 radio stations in the Public Radio Exchange network, and the show is also available in podcast form.[23] The main website for Reveal contains links to each podcast episode, video, and multimedia story shared by the outlet. Each video is also available on their YouTube channel, and all the podcasts can be subscribed to via the usual podcast outlets. Reveal is active on social media including Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. The outlet also has a blog, Dig, where the staff posts about internal updates and how they created data-driven stories.

All of CIR's digital reporting is now available on Reveal's website where the CIR shares podcasts, videos, and many data-driven investigative projects.[3]

Business model

The Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit; it relies strongly on foundation grants and individual donations to fund its efforts.[8] In addition to publishing reports directly on its site, the Center produces content for a wide range of other news outlets, including local TV affiliates, newspapers, public radio, and PBS.[24] More recently, the Center has invested in multimedia, particularly video, as a means of reaching larger audiences and producing a new revenue stream.[25] In general the CIR accepts donations only from individuals or groups who are not affiliated with government officials or political parties.[3]

Awards and recognition

In 2012, the Center for Investigative Reporting received the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Leadership.[26] The award is a monetary prize from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.[25] The Center received a prize of $1 million.[1] Executive Director Robert Rosenthal explained that the money would go toward new forms of video distribution.[1] The Center also plans to improve its technology and create a fund for future innovative projects.[27]

CIR stories have received numerous journalism awards, including the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton, George Polk Award, Emmy Award, Scripps Howard Award, and numerous Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards. Additionally, it received a Peabody Award in 2013 for the Reveal show, "The VA's Opiate Overload".[28] In 2012, its "On Shaky Ground" investigation was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.. CIR was also finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a piece on drug rehab facilities in Oklahoma.[29] CIR was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the Explanatory Reporting category for a 2019 piece on Redlining in the mortgage industry.[30]

Investigations
  • "The Boomerang Crime," by David Weir, Mark Shapiro and Terry Jacobs. Published in Mother Jones.[5]
  • CIR investigation of a fundraising organization for the UN International Year of the Child found ties to gun and drug trafficking; it aired on.[5][31]
  • Operation Wigwam exposed the cover up of potential ill effects from an underwater nuclear test in the Pacific Ocean.[5]
  • "Citizen Scaife," by Karen Rothmyer, was published in the Columbia Journalism Review and The Washington Post.[5][32]
  • The Illusion of Safety, by Douglas Foster and Mark Dowie. Appears in Mother Jones.[9]
  • "The Bad Drug," a report featured on 60 Minutes about the dangers of blood pressure drug Selacryn.[33]
  • "The Nuclear Navy," a report on the thirty-year history of naval nuclear accidents, made headlines worldwide.[5]
  • "The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed" by Phil Bronstein. Published in Esquire.[34]
  • "The Best Campaign Money Can Buy," an investigation of top donors to the presidential race, produced for Frontline by Stephen Talbot.[10]
  • "The Heartbeat of America," an investigation of General Motors produced for Frontline. Producer: Stephen Talbot.[5]
  • "Who's Watching the Watchdog," a look at the Better Business Bureau, by Richard H.P. Sia.[5]
  • "Hot Guns," a Frontline and CIR report on cheap handguns.[5]
  • "Justice for Sale," explores corruption in America's court system. Producers: Stephen Talbot and Sheila Kaplan.[5]
  • "Tobacco Traffic," by Mark Schapiro and producer Oriana Zill de Granados, explores illegal smuggling. Print story "Big Tobacco" appears in The Nation.[5]
  • "Reasonable Doubt," a CNN documentary on shoddy forensic science at the FBI that resulted in wrongful convictions and imprisonment.[5][11]
  • "No Place to Hide," by Robert O’Harrow Jr., an investigation of government data mining as part of the war on terror.[5]
  • Conflicts on the Bench, a series that revealed ethics violations by nominees to federal judge positions by President George W. Bush. Will Evans partnered with Salon.com in related articles.[5]
  • Banished, an independent film on race relations in small towns, produced by CIR, premiered at 2007 Sundance Film Festival.[5]
  • The Chauncey Bailey Project, a joint investigation of the assassination of editor Chauncey Bailey. The collaboration was supported by the Northern California Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the Newspaper Guild and The California Endowment.[35]
  • "Carbon Watch," a project tracking various aspects of global warming science and policy.[5]
  • "The Civil Rights Cold Case Project," a team effort involving CIR, the Concordia Sentinel, The Clarion-Ledger, the Anniston Star, the Detroit Free Press, hungryblues.net, and Paperny Films of Vancouver, BC.[36][37]
  • Dirty Business, a documentary film narrated by Big Coal author Jeff Goodell.[5][38]
  • Worst Charities, is a series that began with a joint investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and the CIR in 2012 uncovering the worst charities in the US. They expanded their investigation in 2013, reporting "America’s 50 Worst Charities".[39]

The Center co-produces an investigative news radio show called Reveal Weekly with the Public Radio Exchange.[40]

Notes

    References
    1. "Contact Us: Center for Investigative Reporting". Archived from the original on 2015-02-09. Retrieved 2015-02-12.
    2. Drew, Jill. "The New Investogators". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    3. "About Us". Reveal. 2015-01-09. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
    4. "Our History". Reveal. 2015-01-09. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
    5. "CIR History" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 June 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    6. "Our History - The Center for Investigative Reporting". Archived from the original on 2016-10-22. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
    7. "Bergman". Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    8. "CIR Facts" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    9. Dowie, Mark; Foster, Douglas; Marshall, Carolyn; Weir, David; King, Jonathan (June 1982), The Illusion of Safety, retrieved 4 January 2013
    10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-25. Retrieved 2013-01-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
    11. "Encore Presentation: Reasonable Doubt". CNN Presents. 5 November 2000. CNN.
    12. Robert John Rosenthal, The Complete Marquis Who’s Who, 8 August 2012
    13. Oregonian/OregonLive, The (2014-07-02). "Mark Katches named new editor of The Oregonian and VP of Oregonian Media Group". oregonlive. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
    14. Garber, Megan (28 February 2012). "Google and the News, Part 2, 389: The Company Is Co-Hosting a Conference on Investigative Reporting and Tech". Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    15. Sefton, Dru (14 August 2012). "Center for Investigative Reporting, Univision announce partnership". Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    16. Beaujon, Andrew (27 March 2012). "It's official: Bay Citizen, Center for Investigative Reporting will merge". The Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on 26 December 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    17. Fost, Dan (29 March 2012). "Merger Likely to Mean Major Shift in Bay Citizen Coverage". The Bay Citizen. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    18. Basofin, Pete (5 January 2010). "California Watch Launches with Investigations and Data". The Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on 8 January 2010. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    19. Langeveld, Martin (5 January 2010). "California Watch: The latest entrant in the dot-org journalism boom". Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    20. McAthy, Rachel (2 August 2012). "Investigative news channel 'The I Files' launches on YouTube". Mousetrap Media. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    21. Ferenstein, Gregory (1 August 2012). "YouTube Gets An Investigative News Channel". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    22. Walton, Gianna (12 April 2012). "CIR announces new YouTube channel for investigative journalism". World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    23. "PRX » Group » Reveal". PRX - Public Radio Exchange. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
    24. Rauber, Chris (14 April 2010). "Investigative reporting center wins $440K grant for community health coverage". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    25. Beaujon, Andrew (16 February 2012). "CIR's plan for MacArthur million". The Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on 26 December 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    26. Roderick, Kevin (16 February 2012). "Morning Buzz". LA Observed. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    27. Berton, Justin (16 February 2012). "Berkeley group gets $1 million journalism grant". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    28. 73rd Annual Peabody Awards, May 2014.
    29. Finalist: Amy Julia Harris and Shoshana Walter of Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting October 4, 2017 pulitzer.org
    30. Finalist: Aaron Glantz and Emmanuel Martinez of Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, Emeryville, Calif. (in collaboration with Associated Press, PRX and the PBS NewsHour pulitzer.org
    31. "Interview: Dan Noyes, Center for Investigative Reporting". Archived from the original on 17 August 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    32. Rothmyer, Karen (July 1981), Citizen Scaife, 20, p. 41
    33. "Drug maker pleads guilty over lethal side effects". The New York Times. 14 December 1984. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    34. Bronstein, Phil (February 11, 2013). "The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed". Esquire. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
    35. Maynard, Dori J. (14 June 2011). "Chauncey Bailey Project: A Journalistic Collaboration". Maynard Institute. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    36. Nelson, Stanley. "The Team". The Civil Rights Cold Case Project. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    37. Rosenthal, Robert J. "The Enduring Ambition of the Civil Rights Cold Case Project". Nieman Reports. Archived from the original on 8 January 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    38. Carus, Felicity (7 February 2011). "Dirty Business film debunks 'clean coal' myth". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
    39. Hundley, Kris; Taggart, Kendall (June 6, 2013). "America's 50 worst charities rake in nearly $1 billion for corporate fundraisers". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved July 8, 2019. Updated and republished on October 2, 2017
    40. "PRX » Series » Reveal Weekly". PRX - Public Radio Exchange. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
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