Center for Independent Media » Impact

Weekly Update

paul — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:25:12 +0000

The last two weeks delivered massive audience numbers across the Center’s news network: nearly 400,000 people in the last two weeks alone. This is a reflection of the strong coverage delivered by our 60 reporters in the field, including reports from the Democratic National Convention, the Republican National Convention, the campaign trail, Wasilla Alaska (home to Sarah Palin), and numerous Congressional races. Our capacity truly spans the globe: as I write this one CIM reporter is in Alaska, while another is in Afghanistan reporting from the frontlines with US forces.

Some standouts to pay particular attention to: our reporting on Gov. Palin, investigations of the New Mexico and Michigan Secretaries of State revealing grave election preparedness problems, and covert attempts by oil and gas interests in Colorado to elect far right legislators in favor of unimpeded oil and gas exploitation.

The highlights are below.

Best,

David

TWI attracted a record number of 114,000 unique visitors in a single day on Tuesday Sept. 2, with close coverage of the Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin.

One key was managing editor Laura McGann, an experienced hand at covering Alaskan politics, who went to Palin’s home state and quickly outpaced most of our competitors. McGann was among the first to question Palin’s self-styled image as a reform candidate, noting that her first efforts as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, were to fire the city’s police chief and librarian and then hire a lobbyist (with ties to Jack Abramoff) to bring in federal earmark funds. Her reporting was picked by New York Times columnist Frank Rich, among others.

In Washington, congressional reporter Mike Lillis pored over documents that McGann sent back and discovered evidence of then-Mayor Palin crowing about her city’s success at winning federal earmarks. “We did well!” she trumpeted, just as Sen. John McCain was criticizing the small town’s “objectionable” earmarks. The revelation drew hundreds of comments from readers in a matter of hours.

Arizona correspondent John Dougherty, meanwhile, took a revealing look at Sen. John McCain’s “deep and complex” ties to indicted former congressman Rick Renzi this week. Before Renzi was charged on 35 counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering, McCain backed legislation pushed by the Congressman that doomed a wild Arizona river - and also directly benefited Renzi’s family, Dougherty reported.

David O. Williams pulled the curtain back from a mysterious conservative advocacy group known as the Western Skies Coalition, which has been sponsoring ads to portray pro-oil Republicans in state Senate races as champions of alternative energy. Williams went on to report that the organization’s executive committee includes former Colorado governor Bill Owens and President George H.W. Bush’s drug czar,((added comma)) Bill Bennett.

Jason Kosena captured how GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin energized a crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 people in Colorado Springs during her first visit to the state just two days after the close of the Republican National Convention (RNC).

TCI’s coverage of the oft-neglected campaigns for the state Legislature continued with a look at the seesaw contest in suburban Fort Collins’ House District 52 between incumbent Democrat John Kefalas and former incumbent Republican Bob McCluskey.

Iowa Independent was recognized for its prescience, as fellow Douglas Burns won readers’ attention for predicting back in June that Sarah Palin would become the GOP vice presidential nominee. Burns’ commentary brought in a wave of new readers in a matter of hours.

Jason Hancock pointed out a little noticed feature of the Republican Party platform: a call for an end the federal government’s mandate that gasoline contain ethanol - a stance that puts nominees John McCain at odds with both the Bush administration and Iowa Republican leaders.

Dien Judge followed up with an interview of State Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey who said the issue wasn’t even discussed at the party’s convention.

Lynda Waddington continued her groundbreaking coverage of the investigation of Agriprocessors, the kosher meatpacking company that is under federal investigation for employing and exploiting undocumented immigrant workers. Federal agents, she reported, have executed another search of Agriprocessors offices.

Eartha Jane Melzer reported on concerns being raised by voting-rights advocates about Secretary of State Teri Lynn Land’s harsh voter-ID restrictions, which could suppress voter turnout, particularly among minorities and the poor. Melzer went on to document Land’s previous rulings - such as attempts to close registration offices in minority neighborhoods in 2004, when Land was Michigan co-chair of the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign.

Michigan Messenger laid out the story of John McCain’s landlord in Michigan: the law firm of Trott and Trott, which specializes in housing foreclosures. From people forced out of their homes, complaints abound about the firm’s hardball tactics.

Ed Brayton responded swiftly to the addition of Gov. Palin to the GOP ticket by pointing out that she advocated the instruction of creationism in Alaska’s public schools. Readers responded in high volume to Brayton’s dissection of Palin’s argument that both creationism and evolution should be taught out of “fairness.”

Minnesota Independent also generated record traffic with its close multimedia coverage of protests in the streets outside the Republican convention. Highlights include Andy Birkey’s report on the arrest of 102 people after a rock concert, Birkey’s video on why gay Republicans endorsed John McCain, Paul Schmelzer’s video of the brief detention of three antiwar activists and a week’s worth of dramatic photographs.

Trip Jennings reported that New Mexico election officials are still scrambling to repair broken voting machines with just 60 days left until the presidential election.

NMI also broke the news that Tom Noel, newly appointed state elections director, was quitting his post, after a flurry of Republican complaints of a conflict of interest because Noel’s father-in-law is Democratic Congressman and senatorial candidate Tom Udall.

Joel Gay filed a timely and revealing portrait of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin whom he knew from his days in the Alaska fishing business.

On the eve of the Republican National Convention (RNC), Marjorie Childress reported that leading Hispanic national organizations were going after Sen. John McCain about his party’s platform on immigration.

Department Of Good News

New Mexico Independent: Atrisco out to prove cynics wrong

Iowa Independent: Iowa praised for work toward new energy economy

Weekly Update

paul — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:19:03 +0000

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT (TWI)

Washington Independent got a nod from The New York Times this week, when Times columnist Frank Rich referred to — and drove traffic to — John Dougherty’s article from last week about John McCain’s flagging popularity in his home state.

That synergy continued with the TWI debut of James Risen, the Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, who wrote about neoconservatives’ renewed efforts to spin the handling of the Iraq War with their revisionist memoirs.

Spencer Ackerman provided some much-needed analysis for one of Washington’s other major stories this week, the testimony on Capitol Hill about how senior Pentagon officials transformed a program for troops to resist torture into a blueprint for torturing terrorism suspects.

COLORADO INDEPENDENT

New fellows Jason Kosena and Naomi Zeveloff both made auspicious debuts at Colorado Independent this week.

Kosena made his mark with a three-part series on Colorado’s water wars, detailing controversial plans for new reservoirs that critics say could deal a death blow to northern Colorado’s river ecosystem, possibly causing the Poudre River to all but disappear.

Zeveloff, meanwhile, turned to the plight of Denver’s homeless during the upcoming Democratic National Convention (DNC), a story that snared the attention of The Huffington Post.

Erin Rosa also continued her aggressive coverage of the DNC with a report that Denver police have purchased 88 rifles as part of a “less lethal” weapons system to be used for convention security.

MICHIGAN MESSENGER

Fellows at the Messenger launched the week with an enlightening statewide survey of how skyrocketing gas prices are affecting the lives and livelihoods of Michiganders — from Detroiters who are willing to give up food to pay for gas, to state officials who are thinking about unpaving roads in order to cut costs.

The MM team also provided live coverage of Barack Obama’s appearances in Flint and Detroit, as well as Al Gore’s endorsement of the Democratic nominee-in-waiting.

Meanwhile, Ed Brayton wrapped up his three-part series on fundamentalist Christians in the military and soldiers who evangelize during their tours of duty.

And finally, Alexa Stanard reported on new University of Michigan research concerning the misuse of Misoprostol, a companion drug to RU-486, shedding light on the deaths of eight women who may have died from the abortion drug.

MINNESOTA INDEPENDENT

In the second week of its new incarnation, Minnesota Independent broke two important stories about one of the biggest loopholes in American politics — corporate sponsorships of the national political conventions — with an analysis of what the sponsors’ lobbying and campaign contributions say about their influence.

Editor Steve Perry also conducted a revealing interview with Jeff Sharlet, author of a new book about the Family, a network of Christian political and business leaders that holds surprising and unsuspected sway over foreign and domestic affairs.

Meanwhile, political writer Paul Demko was the first to get Jeff Blodgett, former aide to the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, on record as saying that he’ll be running Barack Obama’s Minnesota campaign.

Finally, praise keeps coming from unexpected places, as MnIndy’s Andy Birkey was awarded a 2008 Sex-Positive Journalism Award, in recognition for his June 2007 commentary on how TV news colludes with law enforcement in its coverage of sex stings.

IOWA INDEPENDENT

Iowa fellows continued their coverage of the state’s extensive flooding, reporting on the damage revealed by receding waters with photos and video.

Lynda Waddington kept a vigilant eye on the Iowa meatpacking firm, Agriprocessors, whose Postville plant was the target of the largest immigration raid in American history last month. This week, Waddington broke the exclusive news that one of the plant’s supervisors, who had forced employees to buy used and often defective cars from him, has fled the country.

Douglas Burns and Jason Hancock further explored lawmakers’ plans to help citizens rebuild. As Dien Judge discovered from Sen. Charles Grassley, however, farmers won’t see any federal aid for their damaged crops until late 2009.

NEW MEXICO INDEPENDENT (NMI)

John Arnold garnered reader attention this week with his post-mortem of a failed plan to protect a large swath of northern New Mexico as a national wilderness. Arnold found that a botched public-relations campaign has left Sen. Jeff Bingaman scrambling to get support from landowners who were kept out of the loop when the conservation bill was put together.”

Also on the environmental beat, Gwyneth Doland went behind the controversy surrounding the reintroduction of the gray wolf to find that most New Mexicans actually want the wolves to come back.

Finally, NMI editor Trip Jennings maintained the site’s focus on the corrections industry, reporting that private-prison firm GEO Group has ceased operating the troubled Fort Bayard Medical Center, deemed one of the worst-run nursing homes in the country.

DEPARTMENT OF GOOD NEWS

It hit him in a dream: Use Mother Nature to cleanse water runoff by Todd A. Heywood

Cedar Rapidians: Battered and Soiled, But Far From Beaten by Lynda Waddington

Healthy progress by Marjorie Childress

Weekly Update

paul — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:38:00 +0000

Weekly Update

paul — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:50:52 +0000

On Sunday, our site in Minnesota — the Minnesota Monitor — was renamed the Minnesota Independent. The new site has an enhanced platform for audio and video, social-media tools for getting the word out and commenting that allows readers to have their say on that site as well as all the others in the Center for Independent Media network. Please check out our new look.

And in other Minnesota news… The Minnesota Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will be honoring the Minnesota Independent (formerly Minnesota Monitor) with three awards at its June 12 banquet, including one for best independent website. Rankings for the 2008 Page One Awards won’t be announced before the event, but Minnesota Monitor is placing for “Best Web Site (Independent)” as well as best independent online news story for Paul Schmelzer’s news analysis piece, “Annarama! Anna Nicole Smith and the Experience Newspaper.” And former senior fellow Eric Black won a “best independent newsroom” award for his first-rate coverage at Minnesota Monitor of last year’s scandal and eventual resignation in the office of Minnesota’s US Attorney Rachel Paulose.

Best,
David Bennehum, CEO

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT (TWI)

Spencer Ackerman covered the visit of two Iraqi parliamentarians to call for U.S. withdrawal, a story that many news organizations ignored.

David Axe expanded his probe into the military’s use of social networking sites with an investigation into the U.S. Coast Guard publishing phony blog posts about fictional at-sea rescues to bolster its image online.

Matthew Blake, meanwhile, exposed conflicts of interest and growing partisanship in the newly re-staffed Federal Elections Commission, and looked into whether the Bush administration has stacked it with members sympathetic to John McCain -or at least willing to look the other way on his fast-and-loose campaign-finance plans.

Suemedha Sood investigated one of America’s most serious, but least understood, ecological threats — the mysterious, widespread disappearance of honeybees — and its potential effects on the nation’s economy and food supply.

COLORADO INDEPENDENT

TCI proved this week that it commands the respect not only of its colleagues but also of its competitors. CIM Fellow Wendy Norris reported that, at a panel on technology and political reporting hosted by PRNewswire in Denver, Chuck Plunkett of The Denver Post and Adam Schrager of 9News, Denver’s NBC affiliate, “were effusive in their praise” of TCI’s coverage of the upcoming Democratic National Committee (DNC) convention. Case in point: Erin Rosa this week exposed Denver’s serious lag behind St. Paul in its disclosure of security plans for the upcoming political convention. New Mexico Independent also picked up this story.

The local praise for the Independent represents no small compliment, considering the source: Plunkett went after The Center for Independent Media (CIM) in one of his columns last summer, and Schrager had a hand in a recent campaign to keep nonprofits like TCI from obtaining state Capitol press credentials.

Rosa also outpaced the Rocky Mountain News in her coverage of the meteoric rise and fall of a challenge to plans to expand a for-profit immigration detention center in Aurora.

MICHIGAN MESSENGER

No one else in the mainstream press had Eartha Jane Melzer’s exclusive news that Nestle is petitioning to drill under miles of Michigan wetlands to extract water for its Ice Mountain bottled water brand.

She was also alone in reporting on the last, and somewhat ominous, testimony in the case of a controversial sulfide mine proposed in the Upper Peninsula, which a company expert acknowledged had no remediation plan intended to last for the long term.

MINNESOTA INDEPENDENT

Paul Demko blanketed the DFL convention with stories on DNC Chair Howard Dean’s speech, the debate between comedian Al Franken and professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and Franken’s nomination as the party’s U.S. Senate candidate.

Chris Steller outflanked both the Pioneer Press and the Star-Tribune with his exclusive on a country club that is illegally draining its dirty pool water into Lake Calhoun.

Tom Elko, meanwhile, compiled compelling audio from an interview with Josh Silver, at the National Conference on Media Reform held in Minneapolis, which includes a shout-out to Minnesota Independent.

IOWA INDEPENDENT

Lynda Waddington pressed on with the most aggressive coverage out there on last month’s immigration raid in Postville. This week, she offered an exclusive interview with the town’s mayor who says the town will need years to recover and a profile of St. Bridget’s, a small church that took in more than 400 wives and children of detained workers after the feds’ sweep.

Political reporter Jason Hancock continued his strong debut with his scoop that William Meyers, who placed third in the Democratic primary in the 4th Congressional District, is continuing his bid for office as an independent. This has been a closely watched issue in the local blogosphere.

NEW MEXICO INDEPENDENT (NMI)

In perhaps the most crucial week of the primary season, NMI rose to the occasion with a suite of stories that put both local and national races in context.

Heath Haussamen got New Mexico’s most famously undecided superdelegate, Congressman Tom Udall, on record endorsing Obama in an interview.

John Arnold showed more mastery of multimedia with his coverage of Ben Ray Lujan’s victory in the 3rd Congressional District. The text addressed both Lujan’s win and the general election ahead, and his video of Lujan’s primary-night event in Santa Fe delivered footage with a handsome opening bumper and a watermarked logo that reinforced the NMI brand.

Barbara Armijo, meanwhile, made sense of Linda Lopez’s unlikely retention of her state Senate seat, talking to her about how she survived the anti-incumbent groundswell - without the support of Bill Richardson.

DEPARTMENT OF GOOD NEWS

‘Shattered’ but ‘Strengthened,’ Postville Church Continues Caring for Those Affected by the Raid - Lynda Waddington, Iowa Independent

Good Night for Women Candidates in Iowa - John Deeth, Iowa Independent

Green jobs coming to Albuquerque - Marjorie Childress, New Mexico Independent

Truckers and cops says Norwegian AutoSock will rock - David O. Williams, Colorado Independent

Weekly Update

paul — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:35:47 +0000

Top news this week: Michigan Fellow Eartha Jane Melzer has won an honorable mention for excellence in political journalism in the National Press Club’s annual awards program for her 2007 investigation of the private security firm, Sovereign Deed.

Her reporting is a case study of the positive impact investigative reporting can have on public debate.

More top news below…

Best,
David Bennehum, CEO

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT (TWI)

TWI stayed on the cutting edge of coverage of America’s economic woes with two penetrating pieces about what’s gone wrong.

Mary Kane explained why the foreclosure crisis is swelling the rate of bank failures with giants like Wachovia and Washington Mutual now in danger. In “The Perils of Regional Protectionism,” as the auto industry’s woes mounted this week, Mike Lillis traced how the Michigan congressional delegation’s 30-year-long defense of Detroit’s demands actually accelerated the decline of America’s biggest manufacturing sector. (Lillis’s story also ran in Michigan Messenger.)

Political writer Sridar Pappu, formerly of The Washington Post, made his TWI debut with a timely look at how presumptive Republican nominee John McCain still inspires mistrust in the party’s conservative base.

COLORADO INDEPENDENT

The Independent’s thorough and fair yet irreverent reporting on the national Libertarian convention in Denver won praise from a tough critic. Editor Cara DeGette’s prolific coverage (five stories in two days) outshone the Denver dailies,” said conservative columnist Dave Kopel of The Rocky Mountain News. One highlight was DeGette’s dispatch, “Libertarians battle over the evolution of the revolution.”

Erin Rosa covered Barack Obama’s campaign visit to a Denver school with close attention to his support for bilingual literacy and federal financial aid for undocumented immigrant students.

Managing Editor Wendy Norris gave a fair and balanced presentation of diverse religious perspectives on the ballot initiative to amend the state constitution with a provision conferring “personhood” on embryonic human life.

MICHIGAN MESSENGER

Melzer continues to follow the deadly trail of dioxin contamination in central Michigan left by Dow Chemical. She filed a report on the EPA’s belated decision to test 10 homes in Saginaw, with the timely reminder that regional EPA administrator Mary Gade said she was forced to resign last month because of her efforts to hold Dow responsible for the cleanup.

From a conclave of the state-elected leadership, Todd Spencer reported that state Senate Majority leader Mike Bishop was booed for criticizing the state’s much-delayed ban on smoking in public places.

With remarkable fidelity (and a few wisecracks), Managing Editor Rayne Apo-Joynt liveblogged the critical May 31 meeting of the Democratic Party officials in Washington that resolved the question of whether and how to seat the Michigan delegation at the party’s presidential nominating convention this summer.

Now that Todd Heywood is reporting Barack Obama is due back in the state on June 1 - his second visit in less than month - the presidential battle has come to Michigan.

MINNESOTA MONITOR

The Monitor finished May with its best month ever in terms of viewership, and its sixth straight month of growth in site traffic. Driving the surge? Thorough and interesting news coverage.

News editor Steve Perry and reporter Paul Demko kept readers current on the increasingly turbulent state of affairs in comedian Al Franken’s bid to win the Democratic senatorial nomination.

Molly Priesmeyer covered the new phenomenon known as “condo-cide,” i.e., downtown construction projects dying off in the wake of the housing bust.

Andy Birkey told the unlikely story of a Minnesota man arrested at a military recruiting station. The problem: He’s gay and he wants to fight for his country.

And Chris Steller made news out of history with his video interview of retired Minneapolis congressman Don Fraser. A liberal warhorse (and later mayor of Minneapolis), Fraser helped rewrite the Democratic Party rules in 1968, creating new primaries and caucuses and opening up the party to insurgent candidates like Barack Obama.

IOWA INDEPENDENT

While the national media has forgotten the May 12 raid at a kosher food factory in the northern Iowa town of Postville, the Independent continues to report on the stories behind the story.

Lynda Waddington reported on the routine sexual harassment that female employees at the Agriprocessors plant faced. Jewish groups, Waddington notes, are calling for changes at Agriprocessors, the company that employed - and exploited - hundreds of undocumented workers arrested in the raid. Doug Burns and guest writer Lorena Lopez reported that so-far unfounded fears of a similar raid have frightened the local Latino population in western Iowa.

NEW MEXICO INDEPENDENT (NMI)

Accountability reporting is fast becoming NMI’s signature.

Managing editor David Alire Garcia excavated a previously unknown story: Conservative Republican congresswoman and U.S. Senate hopeful Heather Wilson was once a youthful liberal foreign-policy thinker who defended the “right to fight” of people seeking national self-determination.

The official release of an audit of the state’s voter-education confirmed the revelations in Trip Jennings’ May 19 scoop: that $6 million of $19 million in federal funds provided under the Help America Vote Act was misspent or is unaccounted for.

Marjorie Childress illuminated the chummy relationship between developers and the State Land Office, which controls millions of acres of coveted property. And Heath Haussamen followed up with the news that the Office has been targeted for a special audit.

Weekly Update

paul — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:14:21 +0000

Last week we had our first video report, in partnership with the American News Project (ANP), investigating so-called “clean coal” and its effect on the local population in Pennsylvania. We’re looking forward to doing more with ANP — a link to the video is in the Washington Independent highlights.

Colorado Confidential became The Colorado Independent last week, a rebranding that’s flowing through the entire CIM news network. All our sites will use the word “Independent” in their names. Minnesota and Michigan are next to rebrand.

And in Iowa, we welcomed Jason Hancock as a Senior Fellow. Hancock most recently wrote for Cityview, Des Moines’s alternative weekly paper. He has also written for the Des Moines Business Record and the New Albany Tribune in New Albany, IN. For the Iowa Independent, Hancock will cover politics and government with an emphasis on accountability.

Read on for highlights from the week.

Best,
David Bennehum, CEO

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT (TWI)

TWI’s budding partnership with the American News Project (ANP), a non-profit video news startup, is starting to flourish. ANP’s producer teamed with TWI fellow Suemedha Sood to produce a compelling video inquiry, “How Clean is Clean Coal?”

Mike Lillis chronicled the mass abandonment of President Bush by panicky Republican senators and representatives unwilling to reject popular legislation aimed at helping farmers and soldiers.

Art Allen exposed the dispiriting tale of how an inventive West Coast firm that developed the best anthrax vaccine was driven out of business by a company distinguished mostly by its Washington connections.

COLORADO INDEPENDENT

Colorado Confidential became Colorado Independent the evening of May 19, adopting the latest variation of the classy contemporary site design already adopted by Washington Independent and New Mexico Independent.

Cara Degette reiterated the mission of the site in her editor’s note, and the site quickly lived up to its goal of “lively, intelligent, investigative and enterprise reporting” with two pieces from David Williams. First Williams interviewed Jerry Springer, the flamboyant TV talk-show host with the soul of a Democratic politico. Then Williams examined the spread of newspaper chains — and small town blogs — in mountain communities.

“Colorado Confidential” is now the name of the site’s blog.

MICHIGAN MESSENGER

Eartha Melzer uncovered another environmental threat to Michiganders: More than 9,200 underground fuel storage tanks are leaking cancer-causing chemicals into the state’s groundwater — and the state doesn’t have the money to clean them up.

New fellow Todd Spencer explained how presidential politics will shape the results of the state’s medical-marijuana ballot initiative.

Capitol reporter Jim Fordyce reported the preliminary finding of the Secretary of State that a right-wing activist’s campaign to recall House Speaker Andy Dillon failed to secure enough valid signatures to force a special election.

MINNESOTA MONITOR

MinMon continued to supply readers with broad and deep reporting on state, local, national and even international politics.

City Hall reporter Chris Steller broke the story that the city is going to spend $180,000 to tout its tap water over bottled water.

Political reporter Paul Demko illuminated “Ron Ehrardt’s political dilemma,” the story of a moderate Republican legislator forced out of his own party by conservatives. That right-wing influence was further detailed by Andy Birkey in his thorough accounting of the veto power that the reactionary Minnesota Family Council wields over Republican (and shortlisted McCain vice presidential contender) Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Demko sketched the challenges facing Iraq war vet Steve Sarvi as he seeks to unseat Republican incumbent John Kline in the 2nd Congressional District.

And Paul Schmelzer offered an audio interview with filmmaker Errol Morris about his new documentary on the horror of Abu Ghraib.

IOWA INDEPENDENT

Lynda Waddington kept readers current on the aftermath of a national story: the May 12 immigration raid on a food-processing factory in the northern Iowa town of Postville where 389 workers were arrested. She contrasted the response of the two local congressmen: Democrat Bruce Braley, who questioned the employment practices of Agriprocessors, which has not been charged with anything; and Republican Rep. Tom Latham, who is keeping quiet. She reported on actions taken by the governor’s office and brought to life the legal proceeding that resulted in guilty pleas from 297 of 302 detainees.
NEW MEXICO INDEPENDENT (NMI)

Only a month old, NMI already leads the state’s news outlets in keeping up with leading political personalities.

David Alire Garcia, managing editor of NMI, scored an exclusive interview with Tom Udall, the Democratic congressman who is now running for a seat in the Senate. The versatile John Arnold delivered both written and video reports on former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias talking about the Justice Department scandal that rocked the Bush administration and the various Republican power brokers he clashed with along the way.

Heath Haussamen revealed the campaign donations that may have shaped Republican Congresswoman (and senatorial hopeful) Heather Wilson’s stand on the farm bill. Haussamen also called out the state’s ethically challenged political culture.

DEPT. OF GOOD NEWS

“Prisioners plant food for the hungry” (Eartha Melzer in Michigan Messenger)

Weekly Update

paul — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:16:54 +0000

The Center for Independent Media network had its best week of journalistic performance ever with a solid and consistent mix of investigative scoops, timely breaking news, and penetrating analysis of the both state and national news.

CIM would like to congratulate the Minnesota Monitor for being nominated for two awards at the annual state Society of Professional Journalists awards banquet next month. The site has been nominated for the best independent Web site award, and Paul Schmelzer’s February 2007 piece, “Annarama! Anna Nicole Smith and Experience Newspaper,” has been nominated for the Best Single News Story to appear on an independent Web site.mThe awards will be announced June 12.

Read on for highlights from the week.

Best,
David Bennehum, CEO

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT (TWI)

WashIndy had three strong pieces of accountability reporting this week.

Mary Kane explained why Fannie Mae’s practice of sticking “declining market designations” on zip code areas with lots of housing foreclosures could amount to return of redlining — and how fair-housing advocates persuaded the mortgage giant to alter its practices.

In “Big Ag Sway Clear in Senate Farm Bill,” Mike Lillis sketched how big agriculture prevailed on the farm bill, maintaining subsidies for the richest farmers and food-processing interests.

Suemedha Sood’s piece, “Dow Cleans Up Image, Not Practices,” showed how the chemical firm dominates the regulatory process at the expense of the public’s health.

COLORADO CONFIDENTIAL

While preparing for next week’s transition to Colorado Independent, the CoCo staff managed to blanket the state Democratic convention with two comprehensive reports and kept up with the hotly contested race for the Democratic nomination in the 2nd Congressional District.

Wendy Norris analyzed the legal and political forces in conflict over a proposed constitutional amendment that would codify personhood for a fertilized egg cell.

Erin Rosa reported how unions and businesses, not individuals, are putting the most money into a “right to work” ballot initiative.

MICHIGAN MESSENGER

Eartha Melzer showed how Dow prevailed in a dispute between the state of Michigan and the Army Corps of Engineers about how to clean up the dioxin contamination caused by the chemical company’s factory in Midland.

The Messenger blanketed Barack Obama’s visit to the state with reports from both Macomb County and Grand Rapids, focusing not on the horse race but on what people at the events thought of the Democratic frontrunner.

MINNESOTA MONITOR

Andy Birkey’ scoop that Sen. Norm Coleman took $6,000 in contributions from lobbyists for the outlaw government of Burma lobbyists forced Coleman to say publicly that he would not return the money. The Monitor also pointed that Rep. Michelle Bachmann also took money from the same firm.

Guest analyst Dave Schultz provided the context for Paul Demko’s report that Democratic senatorial hopeful Al Franken has a new campaign manager: National party leaders think the comedian has run a joke of a campaign so far and needs help.

Media critic Paul Schmelzer made news with his report that Pulizer Prize-winner Dave Hanners had signed a petition calling for the firing of conservative columnist Katherine Kersten because of her incendiary and erroneous column on an Islamic charter. The story was picked up by national journalism blogger, Jim Romenesko.

IOWA INDEPENDENT

Lynda Waddington reported on the aftermath of the biggest anti-illegal immigrant raid in American history in Postville with vivid snapshots of the assembly-line legal process and the legacy of fear left by the raid.

NEW MEXICO INDEPENDENT (NMI)

NMI also made news with its well-documented scoop, “Audit raises (millions of) questions,” which revealed a federal audit showed that $6.3 million in voter education expenditures, approved by former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, could not be accounted for. Vigil-Giron, now a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District, disputed the audit but not the accuracy of the story. The Santa Fe New Mexican picked up on the story.

Denise Tessier reported on the effort of the Mobile Food Pantry to reach poor rural New Mexicans hit by a perfect storm of high gas prices, high food prices and limited grocery story options.

DEPT. OF GOOD NEWS
“New Mexico’s Sustainability Summit” by Joel Gay (New Mexico Independent)

“Bike Wins Bike-Bus-Car Race,” by John Deeth (Iowa Independent)

“North Minneapolis residents toast demolition of troubled Big Stop Foods,” by Anna Pratt (Minnesota Monitor)

Quarterly Update (January 1 to March 31, 2008)

paul — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:47:46 +0000

OVERVIEW

The Center has had a terrific first quarter. Some highlights:

On January 28, our national program covering Congress and federal government went live at The Washington Independent, with a superb team of reporters including Spencer Ackerman, formerly of the New Republic and The Nation, covering national security; Holly Yeager, formerly of the Financial Times covering the 2008 presidential election; and Mary Kane, of Newhouse Newspapers, covering middle-class economics.

Our direct online audience has boomed. In the last quarter of 2007, our sites recorded 392,000 readers. In the first quarter of 2008 we welcomed 788,000 readers, an increase of 101%. This was a function of two events, the Iowa caucuses, which drove enormous traffic to our Iowa site, and the launch of the The Washington Independent (TWI). TWI has quickly seized public attention, due to the quality of its stories: it welcomed 347,000 readers in its first 60 days.

All these stories translated into strong earned media, as television, radio, and newspapers picked up the stories emanating from our network: 38 million impressions were generated offline in the first quarter.

Consistent with our commitment to building the nation’s premier independent online news network in the public interest, we’re well on the way to recruiting seasoned editors to helm our news sites: We welcomed Steve Perry, formerly of Minneapolis’ City Pages, to edit Minnesota Monitor, and Cara DeGette, a founding editor with the Colorado Springs Independent to edit Colorado Confidential.

CIM Fellows in Colorado received nine awards for excellence in reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

The Center laid the ground for its newest program, in New Mexico. Details on that program, which launched in April 2008, will be forthcoming in our second quarter’s report.

The New Yorker magazine published a story on the future of the news business as newspaper revenues collapse, and cited the Center as a promising nonprofit solution to the problem of shrinking news sources.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

CIM Fellows produced 2,483 items in the first quarter of 2008; these were a mix of re-ported stories, blog posts, and expert commentary. Every week, a certain number of these stories stand out for breaking original news. Starting on February 5 of this year, the Center began collecting these stories into weekly reports. Rather than reproduce them all here, we invite you to click and follow the links to each week’s report:
• February 5 update.
• February 12 update.
• February 20 update.
• February 26 update.
• March 4 update.
• March 11 update.
• March 19 update.
• March 26 update.

EARNED MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

The 38 million media impressions on TV, radio and newspapers included a mix of local media in the states where we operate (Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and New Mexico) and national media. Our Fellows were cited 100 times in the media; an additional 54 times our Fellows’ stories were cited without attribution (a common practice); our Fellows appeared on TV and radio 33 times. Outlets included:

Albuquerque Tribune, Al Jazeera English, American Journalism Review, Bemidji Pioneer, BBC Evening News, BBC World Service Radio, CBS4 Denver, Cedar Rapids Gazette, CNN International, Colorado University Advocate, Colorado Springs Independent, Denver Post, Des Moines Register, Dickinson Press, The Economist, Fort Collins Coloradoan, Fort Collins Now, Fox 5 Las Vegas, Grand Forks Herald, Grand Junction Sentinel, Greeley Tribune, Harper’s Magazine, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Jamestown Sun, KBDI-TV, KCRG, KOA-AM Steve Douglas Show, KWWL, Lansing State Journal, Minnesota Matters on Air America Minnesota, Metro Magazine, Minneapolis Star Tribune, MinnPost, The Nation, The New Yorker, The New York Times, North Denver News, Petoskey News-Review, Reason Magazine, Rocky Mountain Chronicle, Rocky Mountain News, Sky News, The State News (Michigan State University), Univision, Washington Note, West Central Tribune, Wired Magazine, Wisconsin Public Radio, WJML, WMKT, Worthington Globe.

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