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Goal : $2,500. Current status 100%!!!! WE HAVE REACHED OUR GOAL! See the Reporting in Links Below!!!! (if you still want to support journalism - please check spot.us' our other pre-alpha pitch here ). Fact-checking Political Advertisements for the Upcoming Election.REPORTING (also appears on NewsDesk.org and Public-Press )Article 1: Invasion of the Policy PushersArticle 2: San Francisco Voter Propositions for Nov. '08Article 3: The Business of Ballot Booklet BrokeringArticle 4: Prop. H: Energy Measure Spurs Conflicting ClaimsArticle 5: Prop. K: Untested Theories Drive Prostitution DebateArticle 6: Brass Tax: Propositions N and Q Levy Businesses, PropertyArticle 7: Proposition B: 'Chump Change' or 'Massive Budget Hole'?Article 8: Prop L: Political Maneuvering on Community Justice CenterArticle 9: Prop A: The Specter of a City Without a LfelifeArticle 10: Prop M: The Latest Battle in San Francisco's Rent WarsArticle 11: JROTC and Proposition V: Lessons in How Not to ListenOngoing Until Nov 4th: Political flyers - We scan them and leave comments where we see inaccuracies (you are invited to leave comments as well if you have a Flickr account)
CREDITS Reporters L.A. Chung, Matthew Hirsch, Tim Kingston, Greg M. Schwartz, Bernice Yeung Editors Leslie Katz, Michael Stoll/ The Public Press , Josh Wilson, Rene Ciriacruz For KALW 91.7-FM Holly Kernan, Kristi Coale ( Crosscurrents , Evening News for the San Francisco Bay Area) Production David Barreda Saint of Patrons David Cohn/ Spot.Us [Below: Newsdesk.org editor Josh Wilson interviewed by David Cohn of Spot.Us]  Time Period : Labor Day to Election Day (ten weeks) Description : It's election season, and your brain is the target of one of the highest-stakes, most expensive influence campaigns in the world. What's the quality of the information you're getting? Where can you turn for a non-politicized breakdown of the facts, issues and money behind those election advertisements? Not just for the grand-scale national races, but at the local level? Newsdesk.org and The Public Press are teaming up with Spot.Us to connect you with the answers. Outcome : Increased voter awareness in San Francisco, through investigative coverage and fact-checking of local political advertisements (mail, Internet and broadcast), and the issues and money behind them. We plan on targeting a few specific issues and expanding our coverage opportunistically. How It Works : Spot.Us is raising the funds, Newsdesk.org and The Public-Press.org will be producing the coverage. Microphilanthropy uses social networks to aggregate a large amount of small donations to achieve a particular funding goal. Once the funding has been raised, it will be released to the reporter tapped for the job. Disclaimer of Bias : This is not an advocacy project. We will fact-check advertising from both sides of any single issue. Our coverage is nonpartisan and serves the voters, not vested political interests. Deliverables : One succinct, context-rich news article per week from Labor Day to Election Day fact-checking the latest election ads, available for free to all readers and for republication and repurposing to other media (print, online, broadcast), distributed via a Creative Commons open license. Reporting Staff: This reporting project will be researched and produced by a team of editors and reporters working with Newsdesk.org, The Public-Press.org and other partner organizations. Initial potential topics include (but are not restricted to):
The Need : Sadly, there is a historical gap in Bay Area news media's coverage of campaign advertising. During the 2004 elections, for example, GradeTheNews.org found that Bay Area TV news averaged 1minute 24 seconds nightly covering ballot initiatives, but ran 2 minutes 41 seconds of paid advertising for those initiatives. Help Newsdesk.org and The Public Press fill that gap by supporting a weekly investigative report on Bay Area campaign advertisements, to run from Labor Day through Election Day. Our goal is to help Bay Area residents cut through the barrage of influence advertising, and make truly informed decisions at the voting booth -- from the candidates to the ballot initiatives and propositions. About Newsdesk.org : Since 2000, Newsdesk.org has led commercial mass media with groundbreaking, nonpoliticized coverage of veterans' health care and PTSD; the 2004 presidential election and the 2003 San Francisco mayoral runoff; the energy industry in the developing world; genetically engineered agriculture, and much more. Newsdesk also is the producer of News You Might Have Missed , a unique source for important but overlooked news from around the world, published every Wednesday since February 2002. About The Public Press : The San Francisco Public Press is a new nonprofit local news organization whose aim is to increase the coverage of important but under-covered news topics through a daily print newspaper and the Web. The paper will stress government and private-sector accountability, consumer protection and issues of social inequality. We are developing a business model unique in the newspaper world, balancing subscription revenue with public-broadcasting-style pledges and philanthropy. Your donation is an investment in high quality, truly independent coverage of an important issue that has been neglected. Thank you for your support! |
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