Publication Items

Here are some starting points for covering the science of how we're changing the Gulf, our semi-enclosed sea, from Randy Lee Loftis, environmental writer for The Dallas Morning News: orientation, geography and population; commerce; oil, gas and chemicals; marine life and fisheries; and the dead zone. Photo: Creolefish at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Credit: IFE/URIIAO.

It's not like you can't figure these things out. Trains full of explosive crude oil, for example, may be obvious as a string of 100-odd identical black tankers rolls through populated areas. The number on the DOT-required diamond-shaped flammability placard on each car probably has the number 1257 on it. But it's not just crude oil that's an issue.

SEJ is hardly alone in complaints about EPA's press office gagging agency employees who might talk to reporters. In a July 8, 2014 letter, 38 journalism groups called on President Obama to stop the political spin of information at many federal agencies. Reminding Obama of his still-unkept promise to run the most transparent administration in history, the groups complained about widespread "politically driven suppression of news and information."

Dear Senator,

As the Senate considers S 2363, the Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2014, we want to express our grave objections to inclusion of Section 108 ("Annual Permit And Fee For Film Crews Of 5 Persons Or Fewer.") This provision directly threatens the Constitutionally protected First Amendment right of a free press to gather news.