Publication Items

NO QUESTIONS: Hill Reporter Detained After Questioning McCarthy [1]

For decades reporters have staked out doorways in the U.S. Capitol in hopes of shouting questions at emerging bigwigs. But last week Bloomberg BNA energy reporter Ari Natter, trying to question EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, was briefly detained by Capitol Police. McCarthy declined to answer his question.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [3]
Region:
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about NO QUESTIONS: Hill Reporter Detained After Questioning McCarthy [1]
"For God, Country & Coca-Cola" [6]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [8]
Consumer [9]
Economy & Business [10]
Forests [11]
Pollution [12]
Water & Oceans [13]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [14]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about "For God, Country & Coca-Cola" [6]
"State of the Heart: South Carolina Writers on the Places They Love" [15]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [7]
Topics on the Beat:
People & Population [16]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [14]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about "State of the Heart: South Carolina Writers on the Places They Love" [15]
"Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth" [17]

SEJ Publication Types:
BookShelf [7]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [18]
Climate Change [19]
Environmental Health [20]
Food [21]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about "Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth" [17]
Calls for More Sunshine Strike Wide Media Response [22]

An extensive Associated Press analysis of Freedom of Information Act performance, based on legally required FOIA reports and statistics, was just one of many this week. Other Sunshine Week coverage also tried to take a broad view of how the federal government was doing on the openness front. Spoiler alert: not so good.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [23]
Journalism & Media [24]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Calls for More Sunshine Strike Wide Media Response [22]
J-Groups Seek Coalition To Address Press-Office Obstacles [25]

Some major U.S. journalism organizations are increasingly fed up with federal public affairs offices acting "more like prison guards than gate-keepers." The latest outbreak of frustration was at a March 19, 2014, panel discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Read comments by panelists — who agreed that the situation would not get better without organized and creative pushback from journalists.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [23]
Journalism & Media [24]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about J-Groups Seek Coalition To Address Press-Office Obstacles [25]
SEJ Asks "Who's in Charge?" at EPA [26]

It was a crisis. Charleston, WV, residents had just been told not to drink city water because of a chemical spill upstream of its intake. It would seem routine to call the US EPA and ask for information or comment — and that's just what prize-winning Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward Jr. did. He waited a week for EPA to get back to him on the record. SEJ wants to know why such communication delays at EPA have become the norm.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [3]
Journalism & Media [24]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about SEJ Asks "Who's in Charge?" at EPA [26]
Sunshine Week 2014: Hard Fight for Open Government Far from Won [27]

Spin control and the security state may have taken large bites out of the First Amendment in recent years, but the pushback celebration known as Sunshine Week has never been more robust. Pushing for open government is a trend. Nowhere is this more true than on the environment and energy beats.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [28]
Environmental Politics [3]
Journalism & Media [24]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Sunshine Week 2014: Hard Fight for Open Government Far from Won [27]
Your Guide to e-Book Publishing [29]

Caroline D'Angelo of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting shares some of what they’ve learned about the industry so you can put it to work in repurposing your older, evergreen content and think about new ways to present future work. Photo, by PCCR's Meghan Dhaliwal: Buck Lodge Middle School students read the Center's e-book "In Search of Home."

SEJ Publication Types:
Reporters Toolbox [31]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Your Guide to e-Book Publishing [29]
More CRS Reports on Environment/Energy Leaked by Unknown Source [32]

Congress funds and orders up a great array of non-partisan expert explainers on the issues of the day via the Congressional Research Service. Unfortunately, Congress does not think the voting public can handle the truth, and keeps the reports secret. We thank the anonymous leakers who give them to the Project on Government Secrecy.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about More CRS Reports on Environment/Energy Leaked by Unknown Source [32]

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