Publication Items

How Muzzling Scientists Helps the Chemical Industry [1]

A Chicago Tribune investigative series on flame retardant chemicals helps illustrate how federal agency control of what scientists say to reporters can help the chemical and tobacco industries. By reporter Michael Hawthorne.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Wildlife [3]
Science [4]
Pollution [5]
People & Population [6]
Health [7]
Environmental Politics [8]
Environmental Health [9]
Chemicals [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about How Muzzling Scientists Helps the Chemical Industry [1]
TOOLBOX: Data Journalism Handbook Released [12]

Environmental reporters with ambitions to do investigative projects using databases will find an enormously rich collection of ideas, tips, examples, and tools in the new book released by the Open Knowledge Foundation and the European Journalism Centre.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Technology [13]
Journalism & Media [14]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about TOOLBOX: Data Journalism Handbook Released [12]
Trans-Pacific Partnership Secrecy: Is US Negotiating Sell-Out on Environmental Issues? [15]

Various citizen groups have protested the lack of transparency as negotiators meet for the 12th time in Dallas May 15-18. The 26-chapter draft treaty includes provisions on the environment. But nobody on the outside knows what they are.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [8]
Economy & Business [16]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Trans-Pacific Partnership Secrecy: Is US Negotiating Sell-Out on Environmental Issues? [15]
Fracking Disclosure: Is the Data Half-Disclosed or Half-Hidden? [17]

After backroom lobbying by gas and oil industry groups, the Obama White House watered down the promised fracking-fluid disclosure requirement promised earlier this year — imposing it only after completion of the fracking operation, when the information may have little effect (such as public pressure on BLM to deny a drilling permit).
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [18]
Pollution [5]
Energy & Fuel [19]
Chemicals [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Fracking Disclosure: Is the Data Half-Disclosed or Half-Hidden? [17]
CRS Reports: You Paid for Them — You May As Well Read Them [20]

Here are some recent reports by the Congressional Research Service related to the environment/energy beat. Congress does not release them to the public. We again thank the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for doing so.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Natural Resources [21]
Government [22]
Food [23]
Environmental Politics [8]
Energy & Fuel [19]
Climate Change [24]
Agriculture [25]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about CRS Reports: You Paid for Them — You May As Well Read Them [20]
Dark Hand of OMB Lifted from FOIA Recommendations — Or So They Say [26]

OMB sat on the Office of Government Information Services recommendations for over a year, until a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in March 2012 demanded OMB release the recommendations, which finally happened April 24th. However, no recommendations for legislative change were included. Nobody knows what, if any, legislative recommendations OGIS may have originally proposed.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Policy [27]
Laws & Regulations [28]
Government [22]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Dark Hand of OMB Lifted from FOIA Recommendations — Or So They Say [26]
Sad But True: Many Agency Press Offices Stifle Reporter Contact with Employees [29]

Now there is research proving what reporters have known all along, thanks to a survey from the Society of Professional Journalists. SPJ commissioned work by survey research professionals who canvassed newsgatherers during January-February 2012. Here are some of the findings and a link to the full report.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [14]
Government [22]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Sad But True: Many Agency Press Offices Stifle Reporter Contact with Employees [29]
Cool Data Tools: EPA Releases NEPAssist Mapper [30]

For reporters wanting to pry open the worm-cans of local environmental stories, EPA's new GIS tool lets you map Environmental Impact Statements project information against a rich backdrop: layer after layer of geographic, demographic, environmental, and economic context. And, it can be used in conjunction with EJView, EPA's environmental justice online mapping tool.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Technology [13]
Policy [27]
People & Population [6]
Government [22]
Economy & Business [16]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Cool Data Tools: EPA Releases NEPAssist Mapper [30]
BP To Get Gulf Oil Spill Information Withheld from Public [31]

After complaints from BP, the US government agreed to give the company evidence of the basis for its calculation of the flow rate from the stricken Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico. The government will hand over to BP some 100 documents about the size of the 2010 oil spill that have not yet been made public.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [18]
Fish & Fisheries [32]
Environmental Politics [8]
Environmental Health [9]
Energy & Fuel [19]
Economy & Business [16]
Disasters [33]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [34]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about BP To Get Gulf Oil Spill Information Withheld from Public [31]
Data Accumulates Slowly on What's in Fracking Fluid [35]

If you have a fracking story in your beat, getting information about what's in the controversial fracking fluids may be like pulling teeth. But there are a few resources that can help, such as the "FracFocus" chemical disclosure registry.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Water & Oceans [18]
Natural Resources [21]
Laws & Regulations [28]
Energy & Fuel [19]
Economy & Business [16]
Chemicals [10]
Visibility:
Public [11]
- Read more about Data Accumulates Slowly on What's in Fracking Fluid [35]

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