"ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We 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."
This is how the ProPublica website describes itself, and it really is a great media source. That is, if you're into that whole "social responsibility" thing. I read an article the other day on their site that had to do with new federal rules for natural gas companies to disclose information about the chemicals they use for hydraulic-fracturing. The article laid out the Bureau of Land Management's draft of proposed rules regarding fracking, and went in to detail as to how certain loopholes may be used to go around these rules. While the article was informative and the issue responsibly addressed, what impressed me most was one of the comments underneath. In class, we talked about how the comments section can be a very informative collection of diverse opinions. Many different types of comments had to do with the content of the article of course, but there was one comment that caught my eye. 'John' commented not only on what the article had to say, but also on the quality of the article itself. He noted that the article formed one side of the argument pretty informally. I would say that given past articles about fracking, we can let this detail slide. But it really said something about the quality of discussion on this site. The readers are concerned about the state of journalism itself, and want to hold ProPublica to the high standards they expect. It's worth looking at this article, and I recommend looking around at different articles. Many of them are boring and simply lay out facts for the good of the public, which is something that our media could use a bit more of.
http://www.propublica.org/article/federal-rules-to-disclose-fracking-chemicals-could-come-with-exceptions
Oh wow, I really like this website. That their front page story is on the foreclosure crisis (which everyone seems to be ignoring!) is already a sign of their integrity and commitment to informing their readership. The "Pac Track", "Much Reads", and "Officials Say the Darnest Thing" sections have also caught my eye.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this website, Kai!