Independent WatchDogs - Digging Deep
TRUTH TO POWER
If you live around Douglas County, the work of independent watchdog/investigative reporting organizations takes on an importance beyond providing alternative perspectives and uncovering truths. That is, the same people, organizations and institutions tracked by national and regional watchdogs can often be connected to local developments impacting our way of life.
For example, the Douglas County School District (DCSD) has long been targeted by the powerful Koch Network. For decades, the Koch Network has fueled DCSD Board candidates and policy with financial and organizing support. Koch funded think-tanks such as Americans for Prosperity, Independence Institute and Leadership Program of the Rockies have served money and tools for "reforming public education".
For more than 70 years, Douglas County has been a national leading-edge of right-wing thinking and libertarian philosophy. The foundations of local right-wing ideology and action are most often tied to well-financed outside influencers looking to test their narrow theories on our community. The critical role of independent watchdog/investigative reporting organizations has been accentuated by the internet and constant streams of information, stories and data from sources of varying degrees of truth and trustworthiness.
Over decades, Watchdogs continue to break critical stories and provide deep-dive investigations and data related to American society, culture and politics. That these organizations are regularly criticized by their targets – wealthy oligarchs, ideologues, extremists – is a sure sign of their veracity. “It’s a good thing.”
This section identifies prominent Watchdog and Investigative Reporting organizations with earned reputations for taking truth to power, as well as relevance for our community.
Independent WatchDogs - Diligence and Details
Center for Media & Democracy
"The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a nationally recognized watchdog that leads in-depth, award-winning investigations into the corruption that undermines our democracy, environment, and economic prosperity. CMD’s investigations, public information requests, and lawsuits have ignited national conversations on money in politics and the distortion of U.S. law and democracy — at every level of government and in every region of the country."
STATE POLICY NETWORK THINK-TANKS
Center for Public Integrity
"The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to cause them to operate with honesty, integrity, accountability and to put the public interest first." With over 50 staff members, the CPI is one of the largest nonprofit investigative centers in America.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
"Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) and nonpartisan U.S. government ethics and accountability watchdog organization. Founded in 2003 as a counterweight to conservative government watchdog groups.
DeSmog
"DeSmog was founded in January 2006 to clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science and solutions to climate change. Our team quickly became the world’s number one source for accurate, fact-based information regarding global warming misinformation campaigns.
DeSmog continues to expand our focus to other areas where misinformation has eroded public understanding and political action to address critical societal challenges, such as meeting the world’s energy needs, confronting environmental racism, and ensuring a just transition to a sustainable economic paradigm.
Documented
"Documented is an investigative watchdog and journalism project committed to holding the powerful interests that undermine our democracy accountable.
We believe that hard-hitting, investigative journalism is needed now more than ever.
Corporations and wealthy donors have far too much power and influence in our political and justice systems. Profits and shareholders are too often put ahead of everyday people. The very real and urgent dangers of climate change are being downplayed or ignored. Our democracy itself is under attack.
None of us are neutral in these fights, and we don't pretend to be.
InfluenceWatch
"Capital Research Center (CRC) is an American conservative non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C. Its stated purpose is "to study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism." According to The Washington Post, it also discourages donations by corporations and non-profits supporting what it sees as liberal or anti-business policies. It monitors the giving of major liberal donors in the U.S."
Topics: monitors liberal charities
IREHR
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
"Since 1983, the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR) has served as a social justice organization dedicated to standing against bigotry and defending democracy and human rights. We unmask movements, organizations, and individuals that threaten democracy and human rights. We support movements advancing human rights. We use investigative research and strategic organizing to counter racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, nativism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry."
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
Civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. founded the SPLC in 1971 to ensure that the promise of the civil rights movement became a reality for all. Since then, we’ve won numerous landmark legal victories on behalf of the exploited, the powerless and the forgotten.
ProPublica.org
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.
OpenSecrets.org
OpenSecrets.org
OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP)."
Topics: candidates and office holders, elections and fundraising, industries and interest groups, news and reports, research toolset access to Just Say No to Extremism's free resources, including social media templates, guides, and checklists. These resources will help you improve your content, optimize your profiles, and attract more followers.