{"id":2000,"date":"2009-07-23T13:07:32","date_gmt":"2009-07-23T18:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/?p=2000"},"modified":"2022-06-29T12:45:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T17:45:10","slug":"texas-tribune-stakes-claim-for-watchdog-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2009\/07\/23\/texas-tribune-stakes-claim-for-watchdog-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Tribune stakes claim for watchdog journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Evan
Evan Smith (left) on Texas Monthly Talks, interviewing John Edwards.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Texas Monthly’s<\/a> Evan Smith<\/a>, who is leaving the “national magazine of Texas” to launch the nonprofit Texas Tribune<\/a>, is swiftly staking a claim for watchdog journalism<\/a> by hiring reporters with a strong track record of digging up important stories.<\/p>\n

The Tribune, a fledgling Web publication, is going to cover state government and politics. It announced today that it acquired the Texas Weekly<\/a> newsletter and hired its first batch of five reporters. A common thread connecting each hire is how they’ve spent years aggressively covering state politics and government in Austin.<\/p>\n

Related: Contact a reporter in Texas<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I’m most familiar with the work of Emily Ramshaw<\/a> and Matt Stiles<\/a>. Emily is a Dallas Morning News<\/a> reporter who uncovered abuses in the Texas state school system, which serves people with mental retardation. Emily broke the story<\/a> about state school workers in Corpus Christi who organized fight-club style matches between vulnerable residents. There were even cell-phone videos of the fights.<\/p>\n

Matt worked at the Houston Chronicle’s<\/a> Austin Bureau and often produced interesting, computer-driven stories based on data analysis. (He describes himself on Twitter<\/a> as a “data monkey.”) Earlier this year, he analyzed a database of lobbyist spending kept by the Texas Ethics Commission and found lobbyists spent<\/a> $12 million wining and dining state politicians.<\/p>\n

Texas Tribune is funded<\/a> by venture capitalist John Thornton.<\/p>\n

The hirings indicate the Tribune is making good on its promise to publish original news online. Phillip Martin at Burnt Orange Report<\/a> says: “The Texas Tribune is going to make a big, big splash when they launch in November.” <\/p>\n

(Photo credit:<\/em> http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mattwright\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Monthly’s Evan Smith, who is leaving the “national magazine of Texas” to launch the nonprofit Texas Tribune, is swiftly staking a claim for watchdog journalism by hiring reporters with a strong track record of digging up important stories. The Tribune, a fledgling Web publication, is going to cover state government and politics. It announced … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[318,526,587],"class_list":["post-2000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","tag-media","tag-texas-tribune","tag-watchdog-journalism","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Tribune stakes claim for watchdog journalism | John Tedesco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2009\/07\/23\/texas-tribune-stakes-claim-for-watchdog-journalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Tribune stakes claim for watchdog journalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Texas Monthly’s Evan Smith, who is leaving the “national magazine of Texas” to launch the nonprofit Texas Tribune, is swiftly staking a claim for watchdog journalism by hiring reporters with a strong track record of digging up important stories. 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