News commentary

ProPublica’s Payoff

Columbia Journalism Review · Susie Banikarim · last updated

When Donald Trump unceremoniously fired Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security last week, many observers noted that the key factor in her ouster was pointed questioning from John Kennedy, the senator from Louisiana, about a 220-million-dollar advertising campaign and Noem’s claim that Trump approved it. “I was stunned when Noem answered categorically that the president approved every single bit of it,” Kennedy said of the exchange on Fox News. “Later that day, I got a call from President Trump. He was mad as a mama wasp.”

What many may not have realized was that the substance of Kennedy’s questions drew heavily from an excellent report from ProPublica by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, and Alex Mierjeski. It was a striking example of something that happens more than the public sees: rigorous investigative reporting often arms lawmakers with facts that help them hold officials to account.

View full article

here today, more tomorrow

We’re launching briefing.center with a focus on the press and media.

And we’re adding Citizen Cartwright, a daily quick-read news summary by veteran Washington journalist Linda Cartwright. (Sign-up for a dedicated morning email is available at Citizencartwright.com.)

We’re readying our first policy briefing.center, on energy and climate. We’d love to hear from you in what our other policy priorities should be.

You can use briefing.center as the center of your information management, or just one of your tools. We’re happy to discuss your connectivity needs.

Sign up