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TheCenter ForPublicIntegrityTheCenter ForPublicIntegrity

I n v e s t i g a t i v e J o u r n a l i s m i n t h e P u b l i c I n t e r e s t

I am a firmbeliever in thepeople. If giventhe truth, theycan be dependedupon to meet anynational crisis.The great pointis to bring themthe real facts.— Abraham Lincoln

PHOTOGRAPHYKaren Ruckman

DESIGNNancy Saiz

THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY

he Center for Public Integrityopened its doors in downtownWashington, D.C. in 1990. Foundedby former investigative reporter and60 Minutes producer CharlesLewis, the Center is a nonprofit,

nonpartisan, tax-exempt educational organizationsupported by voluntary contributions.

The Center’s mission is to provide the Americanpeople with the findings of our investigations andanalyses of public service, government accounta-bility, and ethics-related issues. The Center’sbooks, studies, and newsletters uniquely combinepolitical science and investigative reporting, unfet-tered by the usual time and space constraints.

This unique freedom and independence — we arebeholden to no one and report without fear orfavor — enables the Center to serve as an honestbroker of information. The result of our effortswill be, we hope, a better informed citizenry. Acitizenry that is in a position to demand a higherlevel of accountability from its government andelected leaders.

THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY 1

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY

The Center for Public Integrity has rescued investigative journalism from the margins and showed us how important

this kind of reporting is to the health of democracy.— Bill Moyers, Journalist

T

to help Chuck Lewis build this organization from a

dream. I can say that initially, out of necessity and

design, we proceeded by the seat of our pants. But our

organizational core values remained constant and are

those to which most good reporters aspire: journalism

of tenacity and vision practiced with honesty, fairness,

and integrity. And to hit hard.

The Center has grown and matured this past decade, gatheringnotable successes. And we’ve gladly taken plenty of heat fromthose rightfully shamed by revelations in our reports. The Centerhas also made mistakes. Board members have shared many doubtsand disagreed among ourselves; we’ve killed projects that didn’tmeasure up and resurrected others whose relevance and impor-tance some of us initially failed to recognize. But I’m proud to saythat the Center has never wavered from our aspirations or thelarger goal to be creative and original enough to have beneficialeffects on the problems of government and society.

Perhaps the truest measure of what has been created at the Center is thatdespite the challenges and difficulty of the work, the rivalries and anxietiesthat ambitious people inevitably encounter, the stress of rapid growth, andthe relentless pressure to raise money, the Center has somehow retained ahuman face. Consider this measure of the organization’s health: Among the100-plus interns, former staff members, and freelancers who have passedthrough over the years, nearly all left exhilarated and as friends. ManyCenter alumni were launched on exciting new careers sparked by theirtraining and experiences.

Many times in the last ten years I’ve found my mind wandering back to thetime when Chuck, Alex Benes, and I, the Center’s original Board of three,sat in our Boardroom — the cheap seats at the Baltimore Orioles game, oneof the last they played at old Memorial Stadium — and speculated about thefuture. We were all thinking big, but Alex and I nearly poured a cold beerover Chuck’s head for what seemed like ludicrously overblown plans forwhere we’d be a decade later. Little did we know.

For the Board of Directors, I offer my heartfelt thanks to the many whosewise counsel, generosity, or simple vote of confidence gave the Center it’sfirst decade. And I offer this prediction: The best is yet to come.

Charles PillerCo-founding member of the Board of Directors

2 Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest


I’VE BEEN PRIVILEGED


JOSIE GOYTISOLO is a co-founder and CEO ofViaMujer, an online women’s network for the UnitedStates, Latin America, and Spain. The four-timeEmmy winner was an executive producer at WPLG-TV, Channel 10 in Miami. Prior to that, she wasnews director of the Miami-based TelemundoTelevision Network.

CHARLES LEWIS is the founder, chairman, andexecutive director of the Center for Public Intgerity.He did investigative reporting for 11 years at ABCNews and CBS News, most recently as a producerfor 60 Minutes. In 1998, Lewis was named a recipientof a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship.

SUSAN LOEWENBERG is producing director of L.A.Theater Works, a program of performance and out-reach for at risk youth. She has produced over 200hours of radio drama programming, broadcast onNational Public Radio, BBC, and other stations.

PAULA MADISON is vice president and news directorof WNBC-TV in New York. She has worked exten-sively in print and television. She is active in the NewYork Press Club and the National Association ofBlack Journalists (NABJ).

CHARLES PILLER is an investigative journalistspecializing in high technology. An author of twobooks, he is currently a syndicated columnist andstaff writer for the Los Angeles Times, based in SanFrancisco.

ALLEN PUSEY is the assistant projects editor of TheDallas Morning News and was one of the firstreporters to uncover the S&L scandal in the early1980s.

BEN SHERWOOD is an author and broadcastproducer of NBC Nightly News in New York, respon-sible for “In-depth” reports. A Rhodes Scholar atOxford University, he worked as an award-winninginvestigative producer for PrimeTime Live from 1989to 1993.

MARIANNE SZEGEDY-MASZAK was a PattersonFellow in 1992. As a Pulitzer Traveling Fellow in1986, she lived in Hungary and covered CentralEurope for Newsweek and ABC Radio. Formerly aneditor of Congressional Quarterly, she now teachesjournalism at the American University in Washington.

ISABEL WILKERSON won the Pulitzer Prize forfeature writing in 1994 when she was the Chicagobureau chief of The New York Times. She also wonthe 1993 George Polk Award for regional reportingand was the NABJ “Journalist of the Year” in 1994.

JAMES MACGREGOR BURNS is a political scientist,historian, and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer.

GUSTAVO GODOY, a broadcast journalist and four-time Emmy Award winner, is the executive publisherof Vista magazine.

HERBERT HAFIF is a lawyer who, in the early 1990shandled a quarter of all the major whistleblowercases involving defense fraud.

REV. THEODORE HESBURGH, President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, has served on 12Presidential Commissions.

KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON is an author and Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

SONIA JARVIS, former director of the National Coalition on Black Voter Participation, is now a professor of communications at George Washington University.

BILL KOVACH, former Washington bureau chief of The New York Times and editor of The Atlanta

Journal-Constitution, is curator of the NiemanFoundation at Harvard University.

CHARLES OGLETREE is a professor of law and director of the Criminal Justice Institute at HarvardLaw School.

ARTHUR SCHLESINGER, JR., an author and professor, hastwice won the Pulitzer Prize for history and biography.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER is a political scientist, CNNpolitical analyst, and Resident Fellow at the AmericanEnterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

PEARL STEWART is the editor of the Black Collegianmagazine and former editor of the Oakland Tribune.

WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON is an author and theMalcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy atHarvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.


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IN 1990, CHARLES LEWISauthored the Center’s premiere study, America’s Frontline Trade Officials.

In addition to prompting a General Accounting Office investigation and a

Justice Department ruling, the study was used by four presidential candidates

in 1992. The Center has published over 60 investigative reports, and

Lewis has been the author of several of them, including The Buying of the

President, The Buying of the Congress, and The Buying of the President

2000. Since 1992, Lewis has spoken at international conferences on corrup-

tion or on journalism in Russia, Hungary, Belarus, France, England, Ireland,

South Africa, Sweden, and in March 1997 he was part of a fact-finding

conflict prevention delegation to Central Asia sponsored by the Council on

Foreign Relations. From 1977 to 1988, he did investigative reporting at ABC

News and CBS News, most recently as a producer for 60 Minutes assigned

to correspondent Mike Wallace. In 1998, the John D. and Catherine

T. MacArthur Foundation awarded Lewis a MacArthur

Fellowship. He is a native of Newark, Delaware, and

holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University

School of Advanced International Studies and a

B.A. in political science with honors and distinction

from the University of Delaware.

I’ve never liked either clichés or self-promotion but somehow anniversariesmake both seem, if not inevitable,awfully tempting. It would be so easyto focus on the earliest days of theP.O. Box and the audacious namewhen I began the Center for PublicIntegrity ten years ago and then line

up our 60-plus studies, books, and newslettersand say, “Wow!” It would be so easy to pretendthat there was a clear and uncomplicated trajecto-ry from being just a name and a letterhead — witha very impressive Advisory Board — to being aunique combination of journalism and politicalscience with projects ranging from those intimate-ly concerned with national and state politicalprocesses in the United States to groundbreaking,collaborative, international, investigative reportingefforts drawing on the talents of 75 journalists in39 countries.

And the tricky part is that there certainly issome truth to this easily romanticized picture ofour work and our progress. As Bill Kovach, thedistinguished curator of the Neiman Foundationonce said, we “created an institution out of thinair.” With paid interns from America’s universi-ties, to some of the country’s premier investiga-tive journalists writing Center studies on a con-tract basis, to a core staff composed of some out-standing former journalists and other remarkableprofessionals, the Center has been a repository ofintelligence, perseverance, adrenaline, drive, anddedication. Led by a Board of, with one excep-tion, working journalists and an Advisory Boardfeaturing the likes of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., JamesMacGregor Burns, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, PearlStewart, Hodding Carter, and others, the organi-zation has been taken seriously over these last ten years, in large part because it is comprised ofrespected individuals. We did not create this insti-tution out of thin air, actually, but out of incrediblyhard work from incredibly talented people.

For ten years. But this is a time to reflect and not simply

record a facile history of this strange, wonderful,paradoxical organization that I have had the honor

to found and lead. It is time to linger a bit, to lookat where we came from and how we got to wherewe are. It is time, yes, to celebrate our achieve-ments and even indulge in a small bit of publicastonishment at what we have managed to do dur-ing our brief existence. It is time to publicly thankthose who have made such a difference in the lifeof this organization and to point out a few of therealities of this place to set the record straight. Andto do that, I have to start at the beginning.

When we were just a P.O. Box and I wasworking out of my house, I had been a televisionjournalist for 11 years at two networks. As MikeWallace’s producer for 60 Minutes, my profes-sional life was ostensibly one of prestige andaccomplishment. Yet I was frustrated; I had a feel-ing that investigative reporting was not particularlyvalued at the national level. Of course, one onlyhad to look around and see that this was thecase. In America, in 1989, it appeared as if publicservice had gone to hell. From the Iran-Contrascandal to the S&L scandal, from the HUDscandal, to the resignation of the Speaker of theHouse, from the Keating Five scandal to theCongressional check-bouncing scandal — the arro-gance, the systemic corruption in Washingtonseemed to me to be worse than Watergate. Herewere amazing, appalling, stunning disorders ofdemocracy to cover. But they weren’t being wellcovered. They weren’t being investigated andexplained. The media may not have been asleep,but it was certainly turning a blind eye to someserious problems.



LOOKING BACK ATTHE FIRST TEN YEARSBY CHARLES LEWIS

On this 10th yearanniversary of The

Center for PublicIntegrity, I want

to congratulate theCenter for its strongand persistent effort

to clean up Americanpolitics. What has long

impressed me aboutthe Center in particular

is its combination ofrealistic militance and

fine scholarship. And may we see abreakthrough long

before another ten years elapse!

— James MacGregor BurnsPolitical Scientist and Historian

So I left 60 Minutes and I knew that I was notleaving to continue to work in conventional journal-ism. But leaving a secure job was only the first phaseof this process. The second was much more impor-tant and it resonated from a single question thatpartly involved having a mortgage and a family tosupport, and partly from a basic human need. “Whatdo I do now?” There was a very strong motivation tofind a world or create a world in which it was possi-ble to take several months, even a year, to really lookat an issue that needed to be investigated. I was notout to change the world. I don’t and didn’t have anagenda. The idea behind the Center was quite sim-ple: What needs to be investigated? What hasn’t beenreported? What is significant to our society?

Gradually, I realized that I could not do thiswithin another organization, and I couldn’t do thiswithin a profit-making entity. I needed to start anonprofit and try to raise money. The groupwould do major investigations and announce theirfindings to the world and do it the way it shouldbe done: pure investigation. If it had to take ayear, it would take a year. Six months, then wewould give it six months. I asked two trustedfriends, journalists Charlie Piller and Alex Benes,to serve on the Board of this organization andthey agreed. But we needed a name.

Initially the idea of having “investigative report-ing” in the name appealed to me. But the landscapewas crowded with groups having those words intheir names: the Center for Investigative Reportingin San Francisco, Investigative Reporters andEditors (IRE) in Missouri, the Fund for InvestigativeJournalism in Washington. It was not just that figur-ing out a way to include investigative and reportingin a memorable name without repeating all theother memorable names was going to be a prob-lem. The whole reputation of investigative reporterswas not exactly at its highest point at the time. Wasthis really how I wanted this group to be identified?

So I asked a friend who was not a journalist,“What should this be called?” We tried to comeup with the central theme to our discussions andwe realized that the theme was integrity. And thenwe refined that theme to public integrity. I wentto my new Board members and suggested thename. We knew that it sounded a little pompous.A little pretentious. A little strange. But it endedup being a very useful name because when any-thing arose remotely involving ethics, or impropri-ety anywhere, any time, in any field of endeavor,we would get the call.

By adopting that name we immediately entereda non-linear existence. The process by which wewould function would essentially be journalism,but by being a nonprofit group, right off the bat,we entered the public interest realm. We were ahybrid that helped us to become what we are today.

First I worked out of my house, then, with myhouse as collateral, I rented our first, 1800 square

foot office in May 1990. The furniture came later.I hired a good-natured college intern who had tosit on a window sill for one full week until I even-tually rented tables and chairs that one usuallyfinds in church basements, not on K St. inWashington. I had my old typewriter from CBS; Ilater splurged and bought a computer. While Iwas still working out of my house, I knew that Ineeded a legal incorporation mechanism that wasthe Board of Directors, and then I needed anAdvisory Board that had no legal standing butwould give us greater credibility. I used to havelunch with friends and we would come up with20 names, 30 names, analyzing the good and thebad, the pros and cons, the ideology, the geogra-phy, the demographics, every possible thing youcould imagine.

Our first big name from a prestige standpointwas Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winninghistorian and Kennedy White House aide. I wroteto him in New York about this idea to establish anew organization to study public service andethics-related issues, and to my surprise, I heardback from him. He said he had gotten my letterand had called Mike Wallace. This was under-standable of course, but since I had just quit at thebeginning of a TV season with him, I was not surethat my stock there was very high. But Mike hadapparently said nice things about me and Arthursaid, if this is what you want to do and my namewould help, go right ahead and use it. And fromthat, other people followed. James MacGregorBurns, Father Hesburgh, and Hodding Carter,among others, joined our excellent adventure.

It was a brick-by-brick undertaking, but wewere making progress. We had a name. We wereincorporated and seeking tax-exempt status fromthe Internal Revenue Service. We had a Board ofDirectors. We had an Advisory Board. We had anoffice. We had a small consulting contract with ABCNews. We had some funds from a foundation,some companies, and some labor organizations.And in the beginning we had three simultaneousprojects, two of which actually came to fruition:an investigation of the “revolving door” of WhiteHouse trade officials leaving government andbecoming foreign lobbyists, and an analysis of thepost-employment practices of EPA Superfund offi-cials. By mid-1990, we existed.

And gradually the momentum increased. I wrotea piece for the IRE Journal in the spring of 1990which described what we were setting out to do.Little did I know we were actually going to succeed.

Slowly, painstakingly, relentlessly we churnedout our reports. Our first Center study, “America’sFrontline Trade Officials,” was presented to thenational news media at a well-attended NationalPress Club news conference, and was covered byC-SPAN, CNN, and the ABC News program20/20. The Center’s approach of investigation




and announced findings thus was affirmed. Otherreports followed — “Saving for a Rainy Day: HowCongress Turns Leftover Campaign Cash Into‘Golden Parachutes’”; “Short-Changed: HowCongress and Special Interests Benefit at theExpense of the American People”; “Buying theAmerican Mind: Japan’s Quest for U.S. Ideas inScience, Economic Policy, and the Schools”; and“Under Fire: U.S. Military Restrictions on theMedia from Grenada to the Persian Gulf.” By thetime of the presidential election of 1992, we werebeing called daily for quotes about the candidatesand ethics-related situations. Two election-yearreports, identifying the unpaid policy advisers tothe presidential candidates and investigating theconflicts of interest of the major political partychairmen, made major headlines around thenation. The first three years, we prepared andreleased 13 Center studies with only three full-time employees, including myself.

The prototypical Center study made its debutin July 1994, “Well-Healed: Inside Lobbying forHealth Care Reform,” during the heat of the battle

In a political culture without apparent guidingprinciples, in a time when those who own our greatmedia conglomerates stress markets abovejournalism, the Center for Public Integrity has offeredan increasingly potent antidote for 10 years. It digsdeep to uncover facts, figures and patterns of behaviorthat directly affect the nation’s political health. CharlesLewis and the Center are exemplars of public interestjournalism, reflecting and promoting the bedrockvalues that spring from the First Amendment.— Hodding Carter, President, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

over the Clinton administration’s health care legis-lation. More than 200 pages long and taking 17researchers to complete, it exhaustively trackedthe activities of 662 health care interests. Thefindings included everything from privately fund-ed trips and “revolving door” examples to cam-paign contributions, personal investments, andother massive data. More than 50 reporters plusseven cameras covered our news conference.ABC’s Nightline and World News Tonight, NBC’s Today Show, CNN’s Inside Politics andNewsmakers, The New York Times, and manyother news organizations presented the findings.

The breakthrough year was 1996. In January,Avon published The Buying of the President, thefirst book ever written tracking the relationshipsbetween the major presidential candidates andtheir “career patrons.” Released weeks before theIowa caucuses, it received substantial news cover-age in hundreds of broadcast and print news sto-ries and also was the basis of a PBS Frontline doc-umentary entitled, “So You Want to Buy aPresident?” A month later, our Under the Influencereport about the unpaid advisers to the major 1996presidential candidates revealed that the co-chair-man of the Pat Buchanan campaign had taughthate groups how to develop militia capabilities.The Associated Press issued an “Urgent” bulletinabout the Center’s report, the news conferencewas packed, and within two hours Buchanan wasforced to remove the official from his campaign.

Weeks later, National Press Club presidentSonia Hillgren observed at a nationally televised“Newsmaker” luncheon that the Center for PublicIntegrity had become “a significant force in thenation’s capital, a new government watchdog . . .[that has] developed a reputation for being toughbut fair . . . a conscience for the news media andpoliticians alike.” The New Yorker referred to usas “the center for campaign scoops.” And monthslater, in August 1996, the Center’s newsletter, ThePublic i, profiled 75 donors to the Clinton cam-paign and the Democratic Party who had stayedovernight at the Lincoln Bedroom and elsewhereat the White House. The highly-publicized reportby Margaret Ebrahim, entitled “Fat Cat Hotel,”later won a Society of Professional JournalistsPublic Service award.

Since then, the Center has continued torelease highly acclaimed, commercially-publishedbooks. Indeed, for each of the past four years,Center exposés have been recognized among thebest investigative books in the United States byInvestigative Reporters and Editors (IRE); noauthor or organization has been so consistentlyhonored (The Buying of the President, 1996;Toxic Deception, 1997; The Buying of theCongress, 1998; Animal Underworld, 1999). Butfor the first time, in March 2000, a Center bookactually took the top prize. Animal Underworld:

Inside America’s Black Market for Rare andExotic Species, by Alan Green and the Center forPublic Integrity, has in fact won the IRE bestbook award. This year, we have produced TheBuying of the President 2000 (Avon), CitizenMuckraking: How to Investigate and Right Wrongsin Your Community (Common Courage), andThe Outlaw Class (Avon, due out in early 2001).That is eight books commercially published inseven years, four of them edited by Bill Hogan,three of them edited and co-written by Bill Allison.

Since 1995, the Center has been investigatingpolitical corruption in state legislatures inunprecedented fashion. Between 1995 and 1997,Center researchers developed databases of statelegislative campaign contribution records inIndiana and Illinois, working with more than twodozen news organizations. The resultant satura-tion news coverage in those two states promptedlawmakers to enact new reform laws. Now, Centerresearchers led by Diane Renzulli have just con-cluded a two-year investigation of conflicts ofinterest by lawmakers; with 50 state reports and allthe available personal financial disclosure recordsfor America’s state legislators displayed on theCenter’s Web site (www.publicintegrity.org). Themassive data was given weeks earlier to a consor-tium of over 50 leading newspapers in all 50states, in addition to some of America’s largestlocal TV stations. All of this remarkable informa-tion — which we will continue to develop — createsa new architecture redefining how Americans andjournalists look at their state legislatures.

For years, we have recognized that no circum-stance or investigative situation exists in a vacuumdefined by nation-state boundaries. From corrup-tion to violations of basic human rights, from envi-ronmental degradation to arms proliferation, weare reminded daily of our global interconnectednessand interdependence. Fortunately, the capacity forgathering information has increased exponentiallybecause of new technologies. For nearly threeyears we have been assembling the world’s firstworking network of premier investigative reporters.The International Consortium of InvestigativeJournalists (ICIJ) now consists of 75 world-classinvestigative reporters in 39 countries. We havehad two successful member conferences at Harvardand Stanford Universities, at which we have givenout a $20,000 prize for outstanding internationalinvestigative reporting, the only award of its kindin the world. In early 2000, led by ICIJ directorMaud Beelman, four reporters in four countrieson four continents published the results of theirsix-month investigation into cigarette smuggling inthe Center’s online publication, The Public i. Thereport revealed that executives for the world’s sec-ond largest cigarette company, British AmericanTobacco, have been involved for years in smug-gling billions of cigarettes into countries around


the world without paying customs duties. Thefindings prompted more than 40 news stories in10 countries, and three government inquiries ontwo continents. Once again, the Center approachof investigation and announced findings wasaffirmed, but this time globally. Future ICIJ proj-ects abound.

As we all find ourselves transformed by theInternet age, the Center for Public Integrity hasadapted to the new exigencies and opportunities.Since October 1999, the Center’s award-winningperiodical newsletter, The Public i, has become aweekly, online publication and broken a numberof national and international stories, under theoverall leadership of managing director PeterEisner and its editor, Richard Prince. The Public iand our various Web sites have increasinglybecome our calling cards to the wired world.People become members or purchase Center pub-lications every day via the Web. Since 1996, withthe assistance of development director BarbaraSchecter, the size of the Center budget and staffhas roughly quintupled, to about $3 million and35 full-time employees.

People sometimes ask me what I am mostproud of and I have to say that overall, I am mostgratified that we have defied all the odds and arehere today at all. In consistently presenting correct,inaccessible, inconvenient information about themost powerful corporations and governments ofour time, mere survival is no small accomplishmentfor a watchdog group. To paraphrase SupremeCourt Justice William O. Douglas, we are all “afragile bark on a stormy sea.”

From an investigative reporting standpoint, Imust point to two specific achievements of theCenter. The first has to do with logistics, the secondwith content. We have created a congenial atmos-phere in which 36 researchers, writers, and editors

can write a monumental book on Congress. We havehad 24 reporters, researchers, writers, and editorswork on a first of its kind book on the presidentialrace. No news organization can afford to have adozen researchers, or a dozen interns, or a dozenreporters on any single subject. Even if they couldafford it, they would never do it. One quality thatis so unique about the Center, and one of itsachievements that provides enormous personal sat-isfaction, is this collaborative, “Gone with theWind” cast of thousands (almost) approach to ourwork. What this has required is an almost selflesscommitment to the importance of the story, arejection of cutthroat competition in favor of col-laboration, the rejection of the compulsive needfor a daily byline (everyone, of course, does receiveformal credit in any Center work). This all maysound obvious, but if it does, you probably neverworked in a news room.

The sheer, eclectic range of our work is a greatsource of pride. We have undertaken broad sub-jects: trade officials, Congress, torturers’ lobbies,human rights abuses, state legislators, the healthcare debate, presidential elections, privacy, pesticideregulation, and international tobacco interests. Wehave always researched and written about ridicu-lously, audaciously broad subjects that will resonatewith a larger audience. Millions of Americansrelate to our findings and we know that they willunderstand what we are saying. We don’t go forisolated little vignettes. We don’t believe that weare talking to a limited group of insiders. We gofor the big picture. And we can credibly paint itbecause we are perceived as an honest broker ofinformation, standing astride a public policy issueand getting that information to the public withhonesty and, yes, integrity.

We are far from perfect, certainly, and whilesome of our findings have provoked new laws, we



The revolution in communications technology and the economic organization of the press are causing journalists everywhere to lose confidence in themselves and their work.

If journalism based on the principles of independence and integrity are to survive we need renewed inspiration and new role models. Chuck Lewis and the journalists he has

assembled to work for the Center for Public Integrity have been offering that renewedinspiration and those new role models as proof that quality journalism can still be done.

I want you all to know that I count my association with the Center’s work among the mostimportant to me. More than that I want to thank you all as a citizen for the energy,

dedication, and intelligence you have brought to the Center’s work.Bill Kovach, Curator, The Nieman Foundation, Harvard University

harbor no illusions that either the extent of politicalcorruption or the quality of news media reportagehave measurably improved since the Center forPublic Integrity began operation. But as a necessaryinstitution with national and international reach,so many more exciting and daunting challenges lieahead. To those people who have provided thecrucial funding to enable our work at the Center,to anyone who has ever worked at the Center dur-ing the past decade, in any capacity, at any level,and finally, to the hundreds of citizens who havequietly, sometimes quite courageously, provided uswith important public information, I say a heart-felt, humble thank you.

To a growing number of people, the Center forPublic Integrity has come to represent hope thatgovernment can and should serve the interests ofthe public, competently, objectively, accountably.And to many journalists, the Center is seen as anoasis of pure, substantive, investigative reporting inthe current desert of tabloid sensationalism,celebrity pap, and superficial content. This is allvery flattering and inspiring and, of course, quitean overwhelming responsibility each day.

Nothing is more emblematic of our approachand our ambitious aspirations at the Center forPublic Integrity than the straightforward sentimentonce expressed by Abraham Lincoln, “I am a firmbeliever in the people. If given the truth, they canbe depended upon to meet any national crisis.The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

That is what we have tried to do these past tenyears, no more, no less. And it is what we will tryto continue to do.


In Washington, D.C., a city that is home to a surplus of committees and organizations withnames that suggest they are pursuing worthy causes on behalf of all Americans — when infact they are not — there is one group that lives up to its name: The Center for Public Integrity.

With a dedicated and incredibly talented young staff, the Center and its principled andunwavering founder, Charles Lewis, have provided a desperately needed ethical compass in the nation’s capital.

The Center has no axe to grind, except to look out for the best interests of all citizens. In so doing, it has turned out one thought-provoking, fact-filled, nonpartisan study afteranother on the major issues of the day — all required reading for those who are committed to good and honest government. — Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Journalists

1989March

The Center for Public Integrity is incorporatedin the District of Columbia, with CharlesLewis, Alejandro Benes, and Charles Pillercomprising the Board of Directors, as chair-man, treasurer, and secretary, respectively.

OctoberCharles Lewis begins working

full-time as executive director,from his northern Virginia

home. The Center’sfirst address is a

P.O. Box inWashington

D.C.

1990May

A Center office is leased in downtown Washington,at 1910 K Street, N.W., roughly 1,800 square feet.A two-year, $60,000 lease is signed, with Lewis’house as collateral; the Center has $2,000 in itschecking account and no furniture. At the time,there is only one full-time employee. The grouphas an Advisory Board of distinguished Americans,including Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Hodding Carter,James MacGregor Burns, Kathleen Hall Jamieson,and Bill Kovach. $200,000 is raised in 1990 froma consulting contract with a TV network, a foun-dation, companies, labor unions, and individuals.

DecemberAmerica’s Frontline Trade Officials, the Center’sfirst study, is released at a National Press Clubnews conference. The report prompts a JusticeDepartment ruling, a General Accounting Officereport, a Congressional hearing, is cited by fourpresidential candidates in 1992, and is partlyresponsible for an Executive Order in January1993 by President Clinton, placing a lifetime banon foreign lobbying by White House trade officials.It is heavily covered by the national news media,including CNN, C-SPAN, and the ABC News

program 20/20.

ChronTHE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY

n,

ology1991

MarchSaving For A Rainy Day: How Congress Turns Leftover Campaign Cash Into “GoldenParachutes.” This and its update report in 1994describe how cumulatively, since 1979, 112 formermembers of Congress had converted over $10million in leftover campaign funds to personal use.

JulyShort-Changed: How Congress and SpecialInterests Benefit at the Expense of theAmerican People. This campaign finance study byJean Cobb dissects six broadly relevant areas —the price of sugar, fuel efficiency standards, utilitycustomer rebates, insurance premiums, savings-and-loan regulation, and tobacco price supports.

NovemberBuying the American Mind: Japan’s Quest forUS Ideas in Science, Economic Policy, and theSchools. This report, by Stephanie Epstein, findsthat taxpayer-supported, high-tech universitylaboratory research is being sold for a song toJapanese and other non-U.S. corporations. It isthe subject of an ABC News 20/20 segment.

1992January

Under Fire: US Military Restrictions on theMedia from Grenada to the Persian Gulf. This110,000-word study by Jacqueline Sharkey and10 researchers in three cities is issued on the one-year anniversary of Operation Desert Storm and to date, is the most comprehensive investigationinto U.S. military restrictions on the media fromGrenada to the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon,according to the Center, “has tried to hide the trueface of war by controlling the images of the con-flict, frequently with the cooperation of the media.”

FebruaryUnder the Influence is the first systematic look atunpaid policy advisers to the presidential candi-dates and is released less than two weeks beforethe critical Super Tuesday primaries. The Centerfinds that the vice chairman of the Bush-Quaylecampaign, James Lake, is also a registered “foreignagent” on behalf of the owners of the Bank of Creditof Commerce International (BCCI), the subject ofseven federal criminal grand jury investigations.


For 10 years the Center for Public Integrity has been doing the hard work that too many journalists have been unwilling to do. In the process, Chuck Lewis and

his colleagues have revealed to the rest of us what our political system really looks like.Deservedly, the Center is now recognized as a powerful and essential part

of our political culture. Congratulations.— Carl Bernstein, Author

1992June

Silence of the Laws: How America’s LeadingDefense Companies EmployWomen and Minority Executives.Written by Encarnacion Pyle, thisreport begins with a 1965 LyndonJohnson Executive Order requiringfederal government contractors toabide by certain “equal opportunity”standards. The Center finds that aquarter century later, an extraordi-narily low number of women andminorities — two percent or less— are employed in the upper

management ranks of the twenty largestdefense contractors.

JulyFor Their Eyes Only: How PresidentialAppointees Treat Public Documents asPersonal Property. Steve Weinberg investigatesthe practice in which former U.S. officials takeclassified documents with them after leaving pub-lic service, use the materials to write lucrativememoirs, and then seal off these documents fordecades from historians, journalists, and otherresearchers. The Center finds that formerSecretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger kept1,700 pages of personal notes at the Library ofCongress, sealed away from the public, theGeneral Accounting Office, and, at least initially,federal prosecutors.

SeptemberPrivate Parties: Political Party Leadership inWashington’s Mercenary Culture. The Centerfinds that between 1977 and 1992, half of thenational political party chairmen had conflicts ofinterest, simultaneously receiving fees from corpo-rations, law firms, and other sources. In January1993, Bob Woodward of The Washington Postreports that Democratic National Committeechairman and Secretary of Commerce-designateRon Brown was questioned for five hours by FBIagents, who asked “detailed questions based ona highly critical report on political party chairmenby the Center for Public Integrity.”

DecemberThe Torturers’ Lobby: How Human Rights-AbusingNations Are Represented in Washington iswritten by Pamela Brogan. It finds that U.S. tax-payers were indirectly subsidizing the activities oflobbyists, lawyers, and public relations firms thatwere paid more than $30 million in 1991–92 torepresent foreign interests that have been persistentabusers of human rights. Collectively, they helptheir clients procure billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

1993April

Biohazard: How the Pentagon’s BiologicalWarfare Research Program Defeats Its Own Goals.Written by Seth Shulman and edited by Charles Piller,this study reveals that the Army’s biological defenseresearch program is “misguided in its aims andpoorly managed.” The Center finds serious prob-lems of low productivity, poorly conceived researchthat concentrates on marginal or trivial problems,a lack of legitimate peer review of research, and acomplete absence of coherent policy.

AprilToxic Temptation: The Revolving Door, Bureau-cratic Inertia, and the Disappointment of theEPA Superfund Program is written by EricGreenberg. It finds that of the top EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) officials who haveworked with toxic waste cleanups and who haveleft government since 1980, at least 80 percenthave gone to firms holding Superfund cleanupcontracts or have consulted with or given legaladvice to companies regarding Superfund.

MayThe Trading Game: Inside Lobbying for theNorth American Free Trade Agreement ispraised by the Columbia Journalism Review asthe definitive investigation into lobbying for andagainst NAFTA. The Center finds that the Mexicangovernment and business interests waged thelargest foreign lobbying campaign in U.S. history,spending at least $30 million to promote thedevelopment and enactment of NAFTA. Besideshiring a phalanx of Washington law firms, lobby-ists, public relations companies, and consultants,Mexican interests took 83 Congressional staffmembers on all-expense-paid trips to Mexico.The findings are simultaneously published as acover story in The Nation, written by MargaretEbrahim and Charles Lewis.


The Center hasmade an

indelible markon Washingtonand the nationby proving that

there are nosacred cows

and thatgovernment

needs to be kepthonest by

outside entities.— Pearl Stewart

Editor — Black Collegian

magazine

1994January

The Center for Public Integrity is the last tenant inits first D.C. office before it is demolished, andmoves to a larger office on Farragut Square, at1634 I Street, N.W., Suite 902, in Washington. Alater expansion brings the total square footage toabout 4,300. At the time of the move, the Centerhas four full-time employees.

AprilSleeping with the Industry: The U.S. ForestService and Timber Interests examines the U.S.Forest Service under the Clinton Administration,and its relationship to Congress and the privatesector. Written by Steven T. Taylor, the report isbased on extensive field research in Alaska,Colorado, California, and Washington, D.C.

JuneSaving For A Rainy Day II: How CongressSpends Leftover Campaign Cash by KevinChaffee updates a March 1991 study which foundthat since 1979, 112 former members of Congressused an estimated $10.5 million in unspent cam-paign donations for non-election-related purposes.It is based upon Federal Election Commissionrecords of more than 200 members of Congresswho left office between 1979 and 1993.

JulyWell-Healed: Inside Lobbying for Health CareReform is researched and written by 17 peoplewho examined the Washington lobbying activitiesof 660 interest groups for over a year. It is regard-ed as the only authoritative guide to the lobbyingaround the 1993–94 Clinton health care reformlegislation. The report is heavily covered by thenational news media, including The New YorkTimes, NBC’s The Today Show, and the ABCNews program Nightline.

JulyLobbying — The Fastest Growing Health CareIndustry is the first issue of the new Centernewsletter, The Public i, and the founding editor isMarianne Szegedy-Maszak. This report is based onthe Well-Healed study. (Subsequent “derivative”Public i reports are not listed in this compilation of original Center reports and major chronologicalevents.)

OctoberGoldman Sachs and the White HouseConnection is written and reported by RebeccaBorders and new Center managing directorAlejandro Benes in The Public i. This report exam-ines the close ties of current and former GoldmanSachs executives and lobbyists to the ClintonPresidential Legal Expense Trust.

1995January

Beyond The Hill: A Directory of Congress from1984 to 1993. Where Have All The MembersGone? is the Center’s first commercially-publishedbook (the University Press of America). Written byRebecca Borders and C.C. Dockery, this reportreveals the post-employment practices of 350 for-mer members of Congress who left office from1984 through 1993.

March Contract with an American is written by CharlesLewis and Margaret Ebrahim in The Public i. Itinvestigates how Marianne Gingrich, the wife ofNewt Gingrich, became vice president of theIsrael Export Development Company. She had noprevious international business experience, andher previous job had been selling cosmetics fromher home. The job was arranged by former Rep.Vin Weber (R-Minn), a registered lobbyist for thecompany.

JuneTripping with the Secretary is written by RebeccaBorders and Alejandro Benes in The Public i andis one of the first U.S. investigative reports aboutthe trade missions of the late Secretary of CommerceRon Brown. It examines the confluence of corpo-rate executives on the trips with contributions tothe Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign.

DecemberSteve Forbes and the Flat Tax is a Public i reportby Margaret Ebrahim and Alejandro Benes whichreveals that the flat tax so strongly advocated bypresidential candidate Steve Forbes would in factcut his own annual tax liability in half. The analysisis made with the assistance of an accounting firmretained by the Center which studied public finan-cial disclosure records. The report receives majorcoverage, especially in New Hampshire before thenation’s first primary. Forbes is asked about ourfindings on NBC’s Meet the Press. The issue —and Forbes’ candidacy — fades within weeks.


The Center forPublic Integrity

has shaped and enrichedthe nationaldialogue on

topics of public

importance with

provocativeresearch.

Chuck Lewis is a national

treasure.— Kathleen Hall

JamiesonDean,

The Annenberg Schoolfor Communication

Director, the Annenberg

Public Policy Center

1996January

The Buying of the President by Charles Lewisand the Center for Public Integrity, published byAvon, is the first investigative book ever writtentracking the relationships between the major pres-idential candidates and their “career patrons.”Released weeks before the Iowa caucuses, thebook is cited in hundreds of broadcast and printnews stories, parts of it are syndicated by TheNew York Times, and it is the basis of a PBSFrontline documentary, “So You Want to Buy aPresident?” The Buying of the President is chosenas a finalist for the Investigative Reporters andEditors best investigative book in the United States.

FebruaryUnder the Influence: The 1996 PresidentialCandidates and Their Advisors identifies thepaid and unpaid advisors to all the major presi-dential candidates. The Center reveals that theco-chairman of the Pat Buchanan campaign,Larry Pratt, taught white supremacist groups howto develop militia capabilities. The AssociatedPress issues an “Urgent” bulletin about theCenter’s report. Within two hours of the Center’sWashington news conference, Buchanan, reachedin New Hampshire by CNN, removes Pratt fromhis campaign. This is the top story in the U.S. forone day. Within weeks, journalists discover otherextremists in the Buchanan organization.

AprilPower and Money in Indiana. Led by DianeRenzulli, Center researchers develop a databaseof Indiana state legislative campaign contributionrecords, coded by interest groups. This largelyinaccessible data is given to a dozen news organ-izations and eight political science professors inthe state, and the result is massive, investigativenews coverage throughout the Hoosier state. TheIndianapolis Star-News (“Statehouse Sellout: HowSpecial Interests Have Hijacked the Legislature”);WTHR-TV Channel 13, the NBC affiliate inIndianapolis; the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette; andthe Evansville Courier all develop stories and seriesexamining the state legislature. Within weeks, 2,500angry citizens contact the Star-News, the state’slargest newspaper, and within weeks, reform leg-islation becomes law mandating that all contribu-tion records be made available to citizens online.

AprilCharles Lewis is invited to speak at a NationalPress Club “Newsmakers” lunch, broadcast nation-wide by National Public Radio and C-SPAN. In theintroduction, with Center Advisory Board membersHodding Carter and Pearl Stewart seated on thedais, National Press Club president Sonia Hillgrenobserves that the Center has become “a significantforce in the nation’s capital, a new governmentwatchdog . . . [that has] developed a reputation forbeing tough but fair . . . a conscience for the newsmedia and politicians alike.”

JunePlace Your Bets: The Gambling Industry andthe 1996 Presidential Election, written byMeredith O’Brien, documents the gambling indus-try’s extensive ties to the two political parties andto Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, the two major partypresidential nominees. This Center study findsthat since 1991 gambling interests poured morethan $4.5 million into campaigns for the WhiteHouse and Congress and into the soft-moneyaccounts of the Democratic and Republican Parties.

AugustFat Cat Hotel: How Democratic High-RollersAre Rewarded with Overnight Stays at theWhite House is a Public i report written byMargaret Ebrahim that breaks the “LincolnBedroom” story by profiling 75 fund-raisers/donors who had stayed overnight in the ClintonWhite House. Half a year later, the White Housefinally honors the Center’s request for the names

of all overnight guests — thefirst time a sitting President hasever released such information.This newsletter report laterwins the Society of ProfessionalJournalists’ (SPJ) PublicService award.

OctoberLimited Partners: AnExamination of Elizabeth andRobert Dole’s Investment inthe Altenn Associates TaxShelter caps a three-monthinvestigation by Ted Gup and

Meredith O’Brien into a taxshelter investment by Elizabeth andSenator Robert Dole. The Public ireport places this investment in the

context of the GOP presidential candidate’spublic statements and legislative actions opposingreal estate tax shelters. It is based in part onfinancial documents that have never before beenmade public and on interviews with some of theDoles’ partners in the venture.


DecemberPresidential Frequent Fliers: The HiddenSubsidies of the 1996 Campaign is a compre-hensive examination of the use of corporate andgovernment aircraft in a presidential campaign byRobert Dole and Bill Clinton. This Public i reportby Meredith O’Brien is based on a review of thou-sands of pages of federal campaign spendingdocuments and dozens of interviews.

1997January

Squeeze Play: The United States, Cuba, andthe Helms-Burton Act is a study written byPatrick J. Kiger and investigated by John Kruger.It analyzes the forces behind the U.S. economicembargo against Cuba, particularly the CubanAmerican National Foundation (CANF). TheCenter finds, among other things, that SenatorRobert Torricelli (D-NJ) completely reversed hisposition on Cuba after receiving $120,000 fromdirectors and trustees of CANF and the FreeCuba PAC. The report is requested by theEuropean Commission.

FebruaryToxic Deception: How the Chemical IndustryManipulates Science, Bends the Law, andEndangers Your Health is published by BirchLane Books and written by Dan Fagin, MarianneLavelle, and the Center for Public Integrity. Thisbook is the product of a three-year investigationinto the federal government’s regulation of toxicchemicals. Praised by reviewers, it draws on morethan 200 interviews and thousands of once-secretgovernment and industry documents, offering an

exhaustive look at how manu-facturers have influenced thefederal government’s regulationof four toxic chemicals that arewidely used in products inhomes, on farms, and bybusinesses. Toxic Deceptionis later chosen as a finalist by Investigative Reportersand Editors for bestinvestigative book in the United States.

SeptemberThe Center launches the International Consortiumof Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an attempt toenlist the world’s most respected reporters to dosystematic investigative journalism across nation-state borders. Maud Beeman is hired as ICIJdirector. Within months, a special Web site(www.icij.org) is created, featuring password onlyaccess to ICIJ members and encryption technology.

OctoberPower And Money In Illinois. Led by DianeRenzulli, Center researchers, and with the assis-tance of University of Illinois political scientist KentRedfield, develop and provide in-depth campaignfinance computer research to the Chicago Tribune,Tribune Broadcasting (WGN News and WCL-TV),and eleven other newspapers across the state.This project involves five times more data than inIndiana. On October 5, all thirteen members of theconsortium produce prominent stories and serieson how money affects Illinois politics. Politicalreform legislation passes and is signed into law inthe months following the saturation news coverage.

1998February

Safety Last: The Politics of E. Coli and OtherFood-Borne Killers is the first of four “Congressand the People” studies. It findsthat Congress has consistentlyignored the growing threat to thepublic health posed by theslaughter and meatpackingindustry, meat producers, anddistributors. Meanwhile, overthe preceding decade, thefood industry gave $41 millionto the campaigns of mem-bers of Congress, who man-aged to kill every bill thatpromised meaningfulimprovement. Secretary ofAgriculture Dan Glickman calls theCenter to explain Clinton administration policiesafter receiving press inquiries.


Ethics must bereintroduced

to public serviceto restore

people’s faith ingovernment.

Without such faith,democracy

cannot flourish.Your ambitiousagenda is filling

a desperateneed.

— Walter CronkiteJournalist

1998April

(Almost) Anything Goes. The Center examinesthe financial disclosure forms filed by all 178members of the Illinois Assembly, augmented byinterviews with scores of lawmakers and a reviewof thousands of bills and amendments. Thisinvestigation finds that the current system ofdisclosure doesn’t adequately identify potentialconflicts between a legislator’s official duties andhis or her personal financial interests. And sinceno one enforces the Illinois Governmental EthicsAct, legislators can — and do — ignore it withimpunity. The Chicago Sun-Times, The New YorkTimes, and The Economist publish stories aboutthe Center’s findings.

MayIn The Unlikely Event. . . The Politics ofAirline Safety is the second “Congress andthe People” study. Although the United Stateshas the safest commercial airline system in theworld, each year there are preventable deathsand injuries from air travel. Congress hasimportant oversight responsibilities over theFederal Aviation Administration and theNational Transportation Safety Board. TheCenter finds that Congress is sometimes moreresponsive to the economic interests of the air-line industry than to the public interest. Afterpublication, FAA Administrator Jane Garveycontacts the Center about the report’s chapterregarding airline wiring insulation.

JuneCenter founder and executive director CharlesLewis is awarded a MacArthur Fellowship by theJohn D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundationin Chicago. In the highly publicized announce-ment, the Foundation cited the Center for PublicIntegrity for producing “high quality, high impact,public service journalism.”

JuneUnreasonable Risk: The Politics of Pesticidesis the third “Congress and the People” study. Itexplores the potential dangers associated withpesticide use and analyzes why lax regulation ofthese dangerous products continues to exist.Among other things, the study shows how thepesticide industry is seeking to weaken the FoodQuality Protection Act.

JulyNothing Sacred: The Politics of Privacy is thefourth and final “Congress and the People”study. It explores how sensitive financialinformation and personal data are bought andsold by scores of companies, often without thesubjects’ knowledge or permission. Health carerecords are similarly available to prying eyes. Inthe workplace, telephone conversations oftenare monitored. This study investigates howCongress has put big-money corporate interestsahead of the basic privacy interests of theAmerican people.

SeptemberThe Buying of the Congress: How SpecialInterests Have Stolen Your Right to Life,Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, by

Charles Lewis and the Center for PublicIntegrity, is published by Avon. It describesprecisely how the powerful money interestsand their hold on elected officials affect thedaily lives of every American. Thirty-sixresearchers, writers, and editors investigatesuch issues as the cost of groceries, airlinesafety, nursing home regulation, and cable TVrates, and scrutinize the legislative record juxta-posed with campaign finance data. A spokesmanfor House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls the book“ridiculous.” Brian Lamb interviews CharlesLewis on the C-SPAN program, Booknotes,and months later National Public Radio broad-cast an hour-long documentary based on thebook’s chapter on children. Acclaimed by theWashington Monthly, The New York Review ofBooks, and others, Investigative Reporters and

Editors’ later selects this book as a finalist for bestbook in the United States.

OctoberThe Center for Public Integrity moves its office to910 17th Street, N.W., 7th Floor, Washington,D.C. Under the careful direction of director offinance and administration Ellen McPeake, the8,400 square foot space is specially designed,wired, and renovated to accommodate theneeds of 23 full-time employees.

NovemberThe Center’s new International Consortium ofInvestigative Journalists (ICIJ) holds its first annualconference at Harvard University, co-hosted thereby the Nieman Foundation, headed by CenterAdvisory Board member Bill Kovach. Forty-sevenof the premier investigative reporters in the world

attend this first-ever, three-day meeting. The first$20,000 ICIJ Award for Outstanding InvestigativeReporting is given to ICIJ member Nate Thayer ofthe Far Eastern Economic Review. The award ismade possible by a grant from The John and


Florence Newman Foundation. Thayer survived 16bouts of malaria and a land mine explosion overmany years trying to find and interview formerKhmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, blamed for the deathsof more than one million Cambodians. It was thefirst interview with Pol Pot in 18 years and the onlyone before his death.

1999February

Hidden Agendas: An Analysis of Conflicts ofInterest in State Legislatures. In the first phaseof a multi-year project, the Center methodicallyevaluates financial-disclosure components andaccess to public records, all on the Center’s Website. The Center finds that nearly half of the states’disclosure systems fail to provide the public withbasic information on state lawmakers’ private

interests. This first-ever elec-tronic release of a Centerreport receives intense mediacoverage nationwide.

SeptemberAnimal Underworld:Inside America’s BlackMarket For Rare AndExotic Species, writtenby Alan Green and theCenter for PublicIntegrity, is published byPublic Affairs. This bookculminates four years of

unprecedented researchinto the exotic animal trade in the United

States, and exposes the underground trade inrare and endangered animals. AnimalUnderworld documents how these creatures are moved from respected zoological parks andresearch institutions through a network of shady,but often federally licensed, dealers to private petowners, roadside attractions, and even “cannedhunts.” Publisher’s Weekly calls the book “a majorfeat of investigative reporting.” The NBC Newsprogram Dateline features a segment. And ulti-mately it is chosen as the best investigative bookin the United States by Investigative Reporters and Editors, the fourthstraight year a Center book has won or been afinalist for an IRE book award.

OctoberNew Center managing director Peter Eisner devel-ops an online version of the Center’s award-win-

ning newsletter, The Public i. The concept is togive the Center a faster mechanism to present itsinvestigative findings, using the Internet.Investigative reports will appear at least once aweek, and the first months are to be a “prototype”period. The maiden voyage of the online Public ifeatures a breaking, high profile, national and inter-national story. In October and every month since,The Public i site averages more than 100,000 hitsper month (www.public-i.org). Richard Prince ishired as the editor of The Public i.

OctoberVice President Al Gore’s Campaign ChairmanTony Coelho is the subject of three Public i sto-ries by Center director of investigative projects BillHogan in less than a week (Investigation, AuditReveal Mismanagement by Gore’s CampaignManager; Coelho Tapped GovernmentResources to Repay Personal Loan; and CoelhoFailed to List $300,000 Loan on FinancialDisclosure). The reports detail irregularities aboutCoelho’s management at the last world’s fair ofthe 20th century, the Lisbon ’98 Expo, as the U.S.commissioner general. Coelho leased a condo-minium for $18,000 a month, hired relatives, andraised more than $6 million in federal funds for anevent that was not supposed to be taxpayer sup-ported. The Center finds he is the subject of a verycritical State Department Inspector General report.The first Public i online report is covered by TheNew York Times, The Washington Post, and othernewspapers including Page 1 stories in Portugal.The Vice President is asked about it directly in alive CBS News Face the Nation interview.

NovemberHow U.S. Policy On Marketing TobaccoOverseas Fell Through The Cracks In Malawi,written by ICIJ director Maud Beelman and ZoëDavidson, appears in The Public i. It reveals howthe U.S. Agency for International Development(USAID) has been helping the economically impov-erished country of Malawi in southern Africaimprove the way it grows and markets tobacco. Itis a finalist for Investigative Reporters and Editors’best investigative online story of 1999.

NovemberSan Francisco Bank Linked to LaunderingProbe at Bank of New York is a Public i reportby senior fellow Knut Royce. It finds that theCommercial Bank of San Francisco has becomeintertwined in the massive federal money-launder-ing investigation of the much larger Bank of NewYork. This report explores the phenomenon of badmoney coming out of the former KGB, sometimesfrom Russia’s hard-core Mafiya, sometimes fromthe corrupt bureaucracy, and sometimes from allof them acting in concert.


The last 10years have been

marked byachievement,and in light ofthe continuedproliferation oflobbyists and

soaringcampaign

contributions,the demands ofthe next decade

will be evenhigher —

and I am sureyou will

measure up. — Kevin Phillips

Author

NovemberThe second annual International Consortium ofInvestigative Journalists (ICIJ) conference is heldat Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, co-hosted by the John S. Knight Fellowship programand its director James Risser. The second annualICIJ award is given for Outstanding InternationalInvestigative Reporting to Steve Bradshaw andMike Robinson of the BBC for their TV documen-tary exposing deliberate international inaction tostop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Bradshaw,who produced “When Good Men Do Nothing”while working for the program Panorama, accept-ed the check for $20,000 and an engraved crystalobelisk. The annual award is made possible by agrant from The John and Florence NewmanFoundation.

DecemberFederal Elections Panel Too Swamped ToCheck Campaign Finance Abuses, written byMarianne Holt in The Public i, finds that the FederalElection Commission is mired in an investigationbacklog and is swamped by thousands of cases,giving it little chance for enforcement or for regu-lating campaign spending abuses. The Centeranalysis of FEC records finds that many of thepresidential candidates have been investigated forcampaign finance abuses, but little to no actionhas been taken against them. In fact, only one-quarter of those cases was acted upon by theagency.

DecemberBelying His Rhetoric, McCain Worked forMegamerger Sought by Campaign PatronAT&T is written by Nathaniel Heller and AnnysShin for The Public i. It examines the relationshipbetween campaign finance reformer and GOPpresidential candidate John McCain and AT&T.Senate Commerce Committee chairman McCain,the report reveals, introduced a bill that would clearthe hurdles for the company’s proposed acquisi-tion of MediaOne Group, Inc. Meanwhile, AT&T isMcCain’s No. 3 career patron, with its politicalaction committees, employees, and their spousesgiving him more than $75,000 since 1982.

DecemberVice President’s Quarters Draw Fund-Raisers’Bucks is written by Russ Tisinger in The Public i.It discloses that during Al Gore’s tenure as VicePresident, the Residence Foundation — a non-profit, tax-exempt organization created in 1991 tofund improvements to the Vice President’s resi-dence — has raised $1,067,610. The Center findsthat many of the donors are Gore and DemocraticParty donors. The report is covered by The NewYork Times and others.

DecemberFBI Tracked Alleged Russian Mob Ties OfGiuliani Campaign Supporter is written by KnutRoyce in The Public i. This report reveals that aprominent commodities trader who acknowledgesa business history with a reputed Soviet Bloccrime figure and notorious arms dealer has beenone of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s top cam-paign supporters. He also contributed toDemocratic New York Senator Charles Schumer,the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, and oth-ers. The report, based on law enforcementagency information and FBI internal documents, iscovered by the Financial Times in England and theMoscow Times, among others.

2000January

Major Tobacco Multinational Implicated inCigarette Smuggling, Tax Evasion, DocumentsShow is written by ICIJ director Maud Beelman,Duncan Campbell, Maria Teresa Ronderos, andErik J. Schelzig for The Public i. A follow-upreport, Global Reach of Tobacco Company’sInvolvement In Cigarette Smuggling Exposedin Company Papers, appears days later. It is thefirst project of the International Consortium ofInvestigative Journalists, now up to 75 reporters in39 countries. Reporters in four countries on fourcontinents [Colombia; England; Australia; UnitedStates] worked together for half a year, obtainingand analyzing 11,000 pages of internal documentsfrom British American Tobacco, the world’s sec-ond largest tobacco company. The documentsconfirm what tobacco companies have beendenying publicly for years: direct involvement bycorporate executives in smuggling billions of ciga-rettes into countries around the world to avoidpaying customs duties. The report prompts 40media stories in 10 countries, including the LosAngeles Times (Page 1), The Washington Post,and USA Today in the U.S.; and in the U.K., TheGuardian (Page 1) and Channel Four Television.Three government investigations are launched ontwo continents. The pre-publication libel reviewprocess involves four lawyers on two continents.The BBC and The Guardian do stories about ICIJ itself because of the unprecedented nature of the collaboration.


Investigativereporting is thebone structurewithout whichthe journalisticbody collapses.

The Center for PublicIntegrity’s

constant andconsistentlyenterprisinginvestigativework is aninvaluable

contribution not only tojournalism,

but to societyand to a healthy

democracy.— Alma

GuillermoprietoJournalist

JanuaryThe Buying Of The President 2000, by CharlesLewis and the Center for Public Integrity, is pub-lished by Avon and released at a well-attendednews conference at the National Press Club. It is

the definitive and only investigativebook about the 2000 presidentialcandidates. Twenty-four researchers,writers, and editors worked for 18months pulling tens of thousandsof federal and state records,analyzing thousands of newsarticles and interviewinghundreds of people. It has30,000 more words than the1996 book, and the CenterWeb site has comprehensivepresidential candidate pro-

files. It is the fourth Center bookedited by Bill Hogan. The book is covered by

C-SPAN (the news conference “live” and WashingtonJournal), CNN Inside Politics, National PublicRadio, the CBS Evening News, The WashingtonPost, The Associated Press, and many others.Lewis goes on a 12-city book tour. Among others,it is favorably reviewed by The Washington Post,the online publication Salon, and The Economist,which calls the book “a gloriously detailed accountof the candidates’ finances and friendships.”

JanuaryBradley Was Driving Force Behind Biggest TaxGiveaway is written by chief of research Bill Allison,Derrick Wetherell, and Annys Shin in The Public i. Twodays after presidential candidate Bill Bradley attackscorporate tax shelters and special interest provisions,the Center points out that he helped give away bil-lions of dollars in hundreds of special breaks forwell-connected individuals and corporations. It wasall buried in obscure passages of the Tax ReformAct of 1986, which are excerpted in this report.

FebruaryMcCain Tax Bill Would Save CorporateContributors Millions by Derrick Wetherell in ThePublic i examines McCain’s TelecommunicationsOwnership Diversification Act, which would givelarge telecommunications firms a tax incentiveworth millions of dollars for selling subsidiaries tominority-owned firms by deferring the taxes oncapital gains earned in those sales for two years.

FebruaryCandidates’ Positions on Rwanda Genocide:Should U.S. Intervene? analyzes in The Public ithe past statements of the presidential candidatesas to whether or not the U.S. should, in the future,intervene to prevent genocide such as the 1994Rwanda tragedy. In that instance, the U.S. andthe United Nations did nothing.

MarchUnder The Influence: Party Machines, Lobbyists,and Special Interests presents via The Public idetailed descriptions of the many policy advisersto the major presidential candidates. This exten-sive report — a reprise of the 1992 and 1996studies — includes a searchable lobbying data-base identifying the interests behind the unpaidpolicy advisers.

MarchOvernight Guests at Governor’s MansionAdded $2.2 million to Bush Campaign finds that60 of George W. Bush’s overnight guests at theTexas Governor’s mansion have collectively givenand raised more than $2.2 million to further Bush’spolitical career. This Public i report by NathanielHeller, based upon Texas records, reveals that atleast 15 of Bush’s guests are members of his elitefund-raisers known as the “Pioneers,” who eachbring in at least $100,000. The Bush campaignimmediately issues a press release countering thisreport, characterizing the guests as “friends,”attempting to refute any suggestion that suchextensive hospitality for financial supporters is simi-lar to the Clinton Lincoln Bedroom scandal.

March$5,000 Buys Companies Access to GOPAttorneys General, written by Marianne Holt andKathryn Wallace in The Public i, investigates anew group called the Republican AttorneysGeneral Association (RAGA), financed by unlimitedand undisclosed soft money contributions fromindividuals, corporations, and political action com-mittees who join the group. It was created by thenation’s 12 elected Republican attorneys generaland operates out of the Republican NationalCommittee. Corporations that join RAGA securepotential allies in the White House and advocatesin the offices of attorneys general who coulddiscourage state-prosecuted lawsuits againstindustry. A week later, The Washington Post doesa story on Page 1 about RAGA.


For the past ten years,

The Center forPublic Integrityhas been a lightin the darkness.The Center has

illuminated,through its

studies, a widevariety of

important publicissues that

rarely have beenassessed in apublic way.

The fact that the work of the

Center is alwaysaccurate andfair makes its

ultimatejudgment

very compelling.— Rev. Theodore M.

HesburghPresident Emeritus

University of Notre Dame

2000March

Loophole Allows Donors To Give WithoutLeaving A Trace looks at the growing phenome-non of murky organizations that take advantage ofSection 527 of the Internal Revenue Code. Theloophole allows “issue ads” by groups that arefree to collect contributions from any source andinvest unlimited resources into campaigns, skirtingall donation limits and disclosures. This Public ireport by Marianne Holt and Kathryn Wallacedescribes a new 527 group in California with tiesto former California Governor Pete Wilson.

MarchPentagon Trained Troops Led By OfficerImplicated In Colombian Massacre is written byFrank Smyth and Maud Beelman of the Center’sInternational Consortium of Investigative Journalists.Pentagon officials, under pressure to investigatealleged links between elite U.S. military trainers andColombian forces implicated in a 1997 civilian mas-sacre, admit that they trained soldiers commandedby Colombian Army Colonel Lino Sánchez. Theleader of Colombia’s right-wing paramilitary forcescurrently is in prison, awaiting trial for allegedly mas-terminding a massacre of 49 residents of Mapiripán.The U.S. training story was first broken by ColombianICIJ member Ignacio Gómez in El Espectador,based on a review of 4,500 pages of Colombiangovernment documents. But until this Public i report,no U.S. official had confirmed the U.S. traininginvolvement. Once again, the collaboration acrosslanguage, cultural, and geographic borders, as inthe tobacco smuggling report, produces importantnew information about a vital public issue.

AprilCitizen Muckraking. The idea that one person orone community can make a difference was the

basis for Citizen Muckraking.Published by CommonCourage Press and released inApril 2000, the book showshow to be an effective muck-raker. Along with it’s practicalstep-by-step information, itreveals the incredible storiesof ordinary American citi-zens like Linda King andRon Hayes who turned thespotlight on the ethicallapses of corporate andgovernment groups andrighted wrongs in theircommunities. The act of

gathering information and asking officialdominconvenient questions — the bedrock of inves-tigative reporting — done by everyday people whoare not journalists or lawyers, is, of course, thefirst seed of citizen involvement, empowerment,and activism.

AprilBush’s Insider Connections Preceded HugeProfit on Stock Deal by Knut Royce in ThePublic i reveals new details about how TexasGovernor George W. Bush served on an energycorporation’s board (Harken Energy Corp.) andwas able to realize a huge profit by selling hisstock in the corporation. An accounting sleight-of-hand concealed that the company was losinglarge sums of money; shortly after he sold, thestock price plummeted. That profit helped makehim a multimillionaire.

April Army General Had Business Deal with Clinton-Gore Money Man, written by Nathaniel Heller forThe Public i, reveals that Lt. General ClaudiaKennedy, nominated by President Clinton to bethe first female three-star general in the history ofthe U.S. Army, had been a business partner fortwo years with controversial Democratic Partyfundraiser Terence McAuliffe. Within four hours ofits release, the story prompts an official responsefrom the Pentagon, and is picked up by TheWashington Post and Newsweek.

May Our Private Legislatures — Public Service,Personal Gain. The Center releases an unprece-dented, state-by-state report chronicling the con-flicts of interest in America’s state legislatures.According to an analysis of financial disclosurereports filed in 1999 by 5,716 state legislators,Center researchers found that more than one infive sat on a legislative committee that regulatedtheir professional or business interest; at least 18percent had financial ties to businesses or organi-zations that lobby state government; and nearlyone in four received income from a governmentagency other than the state legislature, in manycases working for agencies the legislature funds.The Center’s Web site now houses financial dis-closure forms filed by every state lawmaker in thecountry. And for the first time ever, the Center cre-ated a nationwide media consortium of more than50 of the country’s most important newspapersand television stations to use the Center’sresearch as a springboard to investigate theirstate legislatures.


No one shouldbe in doubt as tothe value of the

work of theCenter for

Public Integrityor the sufferingthat it causes.

For muchmodern politicaland economiclife and also,

alas, for much mediaexpression,

nothing is soinconvenient, so

unwelcome and often

so powerful as the cold truth. This, the CPI

for our pleasureand for our

benefit provides.

— John Kenneth Galbraith

Author, Economist


SO WHERE IS THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITYTODAY AS AN ORGANIZATION?Today, the Center Board of Directors has nine members, five women, four men. They are, in alphabetical order: Josie Goytisolo, Charles Lewis, Susan Loewenberg, Paula Madison, Charles Piller, Allen Pusey,Ben Sherwood, Marianne Szegedy-Maszak, and Isabel Wilkerson.

The Center Advisory Board has twelve members, nine men, three women: James MacGregor Burns, Gustavo Godoy, Herbert Hafif, Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Sonia Jarvis, Bill Kovach, Charles Ogletree, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,William Schneider, Pearl Stewart, and William Julius Wilson.

Brief biographies of each staff, Board, and Advisory Board member are on the Center’s Web site,www.publicintegrity.org. Other information, from IRS Forms 990 to a list of financial supporters, is also there.

On the occasion of the Center for Public Integrity’s 10-year anniversary, below are the unvarnished facts about the organization today:

Number of full-time employees: 35

Percent of women and minorities: 54%

Percent of women and/or minorities at senior staff level: 71%

Number of paid intern researchers since 1990: 100+

Center investigations to result in public findings since 1990: 60+

Commercially published books since 1995: 7

Number of consecutive years Center books honored by IRE: 4

Number of National Press Club news conferences since 1990: 28

Lexis-Nexis citations of the Center since 1990: 4,575

Countries in which Center founder Charles Lewis has spoken: 10

White House dinners to which Center employees have been invited: 0

Total income in 1999: $2,821,768.00

Total anticipated revenue in 2000: $3,035,000.00

Total income 1989 through 1999: $10,943,836.00

Total income from government grants and contracts: 0

Total income from Internet or other advertising: 0

Total contributions from corporations: $277,100*

Total contributions from labor unions: $224,500*

Percent of total income (1989–99) from business and labor donations: 4.6%

Total of dues-paying members of the Center: 9,390

Average individual contribution: $33.16

Number of billionaires pledging to build the Center endowment: 0 (so far)

Number of downtown Washington offices since 1990: 3

Number of career journalists on the Center Board: 8 out of 9

Number of career journalists on the Center Advisory Board: 3 out of 12

“Hits” on The Public i Web site in its first six months: 1,000,000+

*In 1996 the Center stopped accepting money from corporations and labor unions.

he International Consortium ofInvestigative Journalists was createdin 1997 to extend globally the Center’sstyle of “watchdog journalism” in thepublic interest.

ICIJ marshals the talents of the world’s leadinginvestigative journalists to produce collaborative,multinational reports on issues that transcend borders,such as organized crime, political corruption, inter-national security, and environmental degradation.

ICIJ’s hand-picked, invitation-only membershipcurrently includes 75 journalists in 39 countries. In addition to regular meetings, ICIJ memberscommunicate and collaborate through secure e-mail and a members’ listserv.

ICIJ also recognizes annually the best internationalinvestigative journalism with the ICIJ Award forOutstanding International Investigative Reporting.The award — a $20,000 first-place prize and up to five$1,000 finalist honors — is the only one of its kindin the world and is made possible through thegenerosity of The John and Florence NewmanFoundation.



INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUMOF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS

They are the kind of tenacious, often-obsessive reporters who, when they hear that eight million documents have to be combed through, do not rush for the exits,

but reach for their highlighter pens. What their work shows is that, in an era of celebrity profiles and PR puffery, there is still room for journalism of the classic sort:

inserting uncomfortable facts into the public realm.— The Guardian

[ICIJ] affords me the opportunity to join a noble global effort to produce internationalinvestigative reports whose work can enrich the lives of peoples of the world.

— Kabral Blay-Amihere, Ghana, ICIJ member

For me, the Center has always been a model of independent journalism and I’m glad you are taking your efforts international.

— Ying Chan, Hong Kong, ICIJ member

T

motivating factor for our internshipprogram is to make a significant andpositive impact on the decline in thequality of investigative journalismaround the country. A majorportion of the Center’s energy

is devoted to working with the next generation of investigative reporters.

Ten years ago the Center had one intern — ColinMcLaren, a University of Southern Californiastudent — whose desk was a windowsill. Duringthe last 12 months, aspiring journalists and politicalscience majors came to the Center from suchinstitutions as the University of Delaware, theUniversity of Notre Dame, Marquette University,the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School,Princeton University, and Shaw University. Besidesworking on specific investigative research projects,they were introduced to the “nuts and bolts” ofinvestigative journalism: everything from on- andoff-the-record interviews with government officials,academics, economists, activists, whistleblowers, andordinary Americans, to poring through govern-ment reports, records, and statistics. Their assign-ments took them to the Library of Congress, theFederal Election Commission, the Securities andExchange Commission, the EnvironmentalProtection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission,and Senate and House hearings, among others.


UNDERSTANDING HOW WASHINGTON WORKS

An Internship in Investigative Journalism

A REGULAR AND HIGHLY REGARDED ASPECT OF THE PROGRAM IS

EXPOSING THE INTERNS TO A VARIETY OF “INSIDE AND OUTSIDE

THE BELTWAY” SPEAKERS. AMONG THEM ARE:

JILL ABRAMSON, The New York Times

JODIE ALLEN, Slate (at the time)

CARL BERNSTEIN, author

BEN BRADLEE, The Washington Post

DAVID BURNHAM, author

JAMES CARVILLE, campaign consultant

PAT CHOATE, author and economist

SAM DONALDSON, ABC News

ELIZABETH DREW, author

MARGARET ENGEL, Executive Director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation

ED FOUHY, Pew Center for Civic Journalism (at the time)

JEFF GERTH, The New York Times

PAMELA GILBERT, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

FLORENCE GRAVES, journalist

WILLIAM GREIDER, journalist

TED GUP, journalist

SEYMOUR HERSH, journalist

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, journalist

ISSAC HUNT, SEC Commissioner

SONIA JARVIS, George Washington University professor

MARIA JIMENA DUZÁN SÁENZ, Colombian journalist

SHEILA KAPLAN, US News & World Report

TED KOPPEL, ABC News

MARTY KOUGHAN, documentary producer

JIM LEACH, Chairman, House Banking Committee

PAULA MADISON, Vice President, WNBC

JANE MAYER, The New Yorker

COLMAN MCCARTHY, The Washington Post

RUSSELL MOKHIBER, Corporate Crime Reporter

RALPH NADER, consumer advocate

ROSS PEROT, presidential candidate

CHARLES PILLER, Los Angeles Times

MARIA TERESA RONDEROS, La Nota (Colombia)

TIM RUSSERT, NBC News

ARTHUR SCHLESINGER, JR., historian

JIM SCHWEITZER, Washington lawyer

BEN SHERWOOD, NBC News

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, Clinton White House (at the time)

RAY SUAREZ, NPR (at the time)

MARIANNE SZEGEDY-MASZAK, journalist

ISABEL WILKERSON, The New York Times (on leave)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN

BOB WOODWARD, The Washington Post

A

When you join the

Center with a gift of

$35 or more, you

will receive a one-year

subscription to

The Public i, the

Center’s investigative

newsletter. You will

also enjoy savings of

30% on all Center

studies. Plus, you

will receive updates

on the Center’s

projects and activities

from the Center’s

executive director,

Charles Lewis.

How great it is that we start the new millennium with a Center for Public Integrity that is,in fact, a center for public integrity — a place with a growing reputation, with management

prepared to invest in investigative reports about how the public is being served by its servants, and where ethics are being stressed.

— Ben BradleeVice President, The Washington Post




DONORS

DAVID BRAYBROOKE

CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK

DAN DOERNBERG

EDITH AND HENRY EVERETT

THE FLORENCE AND JOHN SCHUMANN

FOUNDATION

THE FORD FOUNDATION

FREEDOM FORUM

ANDREW AND JAMIE GAGARIN

THE GILES W. AND ELISE G. MEAD

FOUNDATION

LUCY GONDA FOUNDATION

HAFIF FAMILY FOUNDATION

ADAM HOCHSCHILD

INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

THE JOHN AND FLORENCE NEWMAN

FOUNDATION

THE JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR

FOUNDATION

JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION

THE JOYCE FOUNDATION

MICHAEL R. LAPHAM

THE LEAR FUND OF THE PROTEUS FUND

ALIDA R. MESSINGER

THE NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST

MARTHA P. NEWELL

FRANCES C. NYCE

THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE

PARK FOUNDATION, INC.THE CISSY PATTERSON TRUST

THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS (through the

Annenberg Public Policy Center of the

University of Pennsylvania)

PRINCETON CLASS OF 1969ROCKEFELLER FINANCIAL SERVICES

THE RUBEN AND ELISABETH RAUSING TRUST

THE SCHERMAN FOUNDATION, INC.THE DANIEL SOLOMON TZEDAKAH FUND OF

THE SHEFA FUND

TOWN CREEK FOUNDATION, INC.TRACEY HUGHES AND DAVID STERN

THE WHITEHEAD FOUNDATION

he Center for Public Integrity is supportedby contributions from foundations, indi-viduals, revenue from the sale of publica-tions, and editorial consulting with newsorganizations. The Center does not acceptadvertising or contributions from corpora-

tions, labor unions, and governments. CurrentIRS guidelines do not require nonprofit organi-zations with 501(c)(3) filing status to publiclydisclose their sources of support. In the interestof public disclosure, the Center has chosen toprovide the following list of institutions and indi-viduals that contributed more than $500 in 1999.

T

3,000,000

2,750,000

2,500,000

2,250,000

2,000,000

1,750,000

1,500,000

1,250,000

1,000,000

750,000

500,000

250,000

0’89 ’90 ’91 ’92 ’93 ’94 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99


JOHN DUNBAR

BOB FAGEN

ERIN GALLAVAN

MARY HARRILL

NATHANIEL HELLER

MATT HOENCK

HIMA JAIN

JAVED KHAN

ALEX KNOTT

SHAWNA MALACHI

ROBERT MOORE

RUPA PATEL

LEAH RUSH

HELEN SANDERSON

ERIK SCHELZIG

PETER SMITH

MELANIE STRONG

MEGAN VAUGHAN

KEN VOGEL

KATHRYN WALLACE

DERRICK WETHERELL

CENTER STAFF

CHARLES LEWIS

Executive Director

[LEFT TO RIGHT]

BARBARA SCHECTER, Director of Development

MAUD BEELMAN, Director of the International

Consortium of Investigative Journalists

PETER EISNER

Managing Director

DIANE RENZULLI

Director of State Projects

DEBORAH SHERER

Office Manager

BILL ALLISON

Senior Editor

ALAN GREEN

Senior Associate

MARIANNE HOLT

Senior Associate

RICHARD PRINCE

Editor, The Public i

KNUT ROYCE

Senior Fellow

REGINA RUSSELL

Office Assistant

INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM

OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS

A Project of The Center for Public Integrity


he International Consortium of Investigative Journalists wascreated in 1997 by the Center for Public Integrity to extendglobally its style of “watchdog journalism” in the public interest.

ICIJ marshals the talents of the world’s leading investigativejournalists to produce collaborative, multinational reports on

issues that transcend borders, such as organized crime, political corruption,international security, and environmental degradation.

ICIJ’s hand-picked, invitation-only membership currently includes 75 journalistsin 39 countries. In addition to regular meetings, ICIJ members communicateand collaborate through secure e-mail and a members’ listserv.

ICIJ also recognizes annually the best international investigative journalismwith the ICIJ Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting.The award — a $20,000 first-place prize and up to five $1,000 finalist honors — is the only one of its kind in the world and is made possible through thegenerosity of The John and Florence Newman Foundation.

T

The ICIJ will be of tremendous value. . . There’s still so much to learn and so much

to write about! And, in this era of globalization,many issues are no longer just domestic.

— Marites Dañguilan Vitug, Phillipines, ICIJ member

ICIJ: REPORTING BEYOND BORDERS

ICIJ Member Nate Thayer, winner of the 1998 ICIJ Awardfor Outstanding International Investigative Reporting forhis exclusive reports on former Khmer Rouge leader PolPot, with John E. Newman, Jr., president of The John andFlorence Newman Foundation, which funds the annualICIJ Award, at the 1998 members’ meeting at HarvardUniversity.

Gwen Lister, an ICIJ member in Namibia, speaks with Bill Kovach, curator of theNieman Foundation at Harvard University and chair of the ICIJ Advisory Committee,and Catherine Gicheru, an ICIJ member in Kenya, during the 1999 members’ meeting at Stanford.

The Belgian crystalobelisk ICIJ Award for

Outstanding International Investigative Reporting.

Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest

I have followed your organization with interest and believe there is a strong need for a reliable, professional investigative journalist network and international research effort.

This is something I support one hundred percent.— William Marsden, Canada, ICIJ member

Elizabeth Ohene, the ICIJ Advisory Committee representative for Africa; ShabbirSafdar, founder of mindshare Internet Campaigns and former ICIJ electronic securityconsultant; Kabral Blay-Amihere, ICIJ member in Ghana; and Joseph Thloloe, ICIJmember in South Africa, share a laugh at the 1998 members’ meeting.

Maud S. Beelman, ICIJ director, presents the 1998 ICIJ Award for Outstanding International InvestigativeReporting at the members’ meeting at Harvard University.

Steve Bradshaw receives the 1999 ICIJ Award forOutstanding International Investigative Reporting for hisand Mike Robinson’s BBC documentary, exposingdeliberate international inaction to stop the 1994genocide in Rwanda.

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists • [email protected] • www.icij.org


910 17th Street, N.W.7th FloorWashington, D.C. 20006

202-466-1300

www.publicintegrity.org