photo by micora

Today I learned a lot watching Page One, a documentary about the decline of print journalism looking at the New York Times in particular. One of the more interesting things mentioned which I took note to learn more about was an organization called ProPublica. This is a non-profit investigative news organization that operates on the premise that there is value in doing REAL investigative journalism and had brought together a lot of big names in the field to work on stories that are published on their website as well as given free of charge to news organizations. Currently this is primarily funded through private donations. The need grew out of the decline of investment in hard hitting investigative reporting which often takes up a lot of resources and time to hunt down sources and make connections to get at the truth of the matter. Since so many newspapers are losing revenue and trimming staff, it's more rare to find these kinds of stories being pursued. David Simon, former Baltimore Sun reporter, does a great job outlining the value of the profession while testifying before the senate: