Watchdog blog roundup for 8-5-09

Printing Press

What others are saying about watchdog journalism: SF Weekly: The Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle has lost its last full-time investigative reporter, Lance Williams. Temple Talk: Former Rocky Mountain News Editor John Temple continues his profiles of Pulitzer-prize winning journalists who lost their jobs. Columbia Journalism Review: Bill Grueskin examines whether Gawker’s quick-hit blog posts are …

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Public litter data: Don’t Mess with Texas

Even people living outside Texas have heard of Don’t Mess with Texas, the public relations campaign by the Texas Department of Transportation. TxDOT wants to persuade litter bugs to stop throwing trash out of their cars. Buy what exactly do people tell TxDOT when they report a litterer? In her newspaper column today, Peggy Fikac …

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EMS scanners to fall silent to the public

The crackly radio chatter of police, firefighters and paramedics doing their jobs has always been a lively soundtrack in the newsroom. But Columnist Scott Stroud explains how the scanner traffic in San Antonio is about to grow quieter: Related: Fake Steve Jobs misses the real point Starting today, reporters at the Express-News and other local …

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How Investigative Reporters and Editors shaped my first investigative story

IRE Conference 2013

Investigative Reporters and Editors is in the middle of a fundraising campaign. If you care about watchdog journalism, you might want to think about helping the cause. I first heard about IRE from Ken Dilanian, who was an investigative reporter for the San Antonio Express-News in the mid-1990s. I was a skinny dude with a …

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Government Accountability Office now on Twitter, YouTube

GAO CNN Video July 2009 YouTube

If you’re researching a topic related to the federal government, chances are the Government Accountability Office has already looked into the issue and published a detailed report about it. Now the GAO, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, is going all social media on us by setting up accounts on Twitter and YouTube. Related: A …

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How journalists can be better bloggers

blogger

News University gave a recent Webinar hosted by Matt Thompson about effective ways to design and write a successful blog with a robust community. Thompson offered key tips for reporters, who are often told to go forth and blog but don’t receive much guidance about what makes a good blog. Many journalists, who have spent …

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Search a Bexar County database to learn who’s disputing their property appraisals

Using the Texas Public Information Act, reporter Karisa King obtained a huge database that tracks property tax protests in Bexar County and San Antonio. She analyzed the data and here’s what she found: Everybody wants lower property taxes. But those with the least ability to pay rarely protest their appraised values, while owners of upscale …

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Perry’s perks, tax protests, and bad PR

Today’s front page of the San Antonio Express-News was dominated by stories that all relied on public records: Karisa King analyzed a public database that tracks property tax disputes in Bexar County. “Everybody wants lower property taxes. But those with the least ability to pay rarely protest their appraised values, while owners of upscale homes …

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