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ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We do this by producing pieces that shine a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them. Located in Manhattan and led by some of the nation’s most distinguished editors and reporters, ProPublica is staffed at levels unprecedented for a non-profit organization. Indeed, we believe, this is the largest, best-led and best-funded investigative journalism operation in the United States. Click here to find out more about our staff and our work.

Blog Entries by ProPublica

More Prose Than Poetry in Obama's 2nd Inaugural Address

(0) Comments | Posted January 22, 2013 | 10:51 AM

By Richard Tofel

As we did four years ago, we asked Richard Tofel, ProPublica's president and author of a book on President Kennedy's inaugural address, to provide instant analysis of today's speech. Here are his thoughts:

In 2009, in the flush of his first election, Barack Obama declared...

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Mexico's Papers Shy From Covering the Drug Gangs Behind Continuing Violence

(0) Comments | Posted December 17, 2012 | 5:42 PM

By Stephen Engelberg

Mexico's regional newspapers are publishing more stories about murders linked to the drug trade, but they remain reluctant to write what they know about the organizations responsible for the killings.

A new study by our colleagues at Fundación MEPI, an investigative journalism center...

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Veterans' Day Video Reports

(0) Comments | Posted November 13, 2012 | 12:56 PM

By Mike Webb, ProPublica.

Yesterday, Peter Sleeth was a guest on PBS NewsHour to discuss his ProPublica/Seattle Times investigation into how the U.S. military mismanaged crucial war records from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and why that makes it more difficult for veterans to collect disability...

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Why Don't Patients Report Medical Errors?

(1) Comments | Posted September 25, 2012 | 2:59 PM

By Marshall Allen, ProPublica.

I was recently browsing through the nearly 200 stories we've compiled with our Patient Harm Questionnaire, when I was reminded again of a troubling truth. Many of the people who suffer harm while undergoing medical care do not file formal complaints with regulators....

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Citizens United and the Rise of Secret Campaign Cash

(1) Comments | Posted August 27, 2012 | 12:00 PM

By Stephen Engelberg and Kim Barker

The emergence of nonprofits as the leading conduit for anonymous spending in this year's presidential campaign is often attributed to the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, which opened the money spigot, allowing corporations and unions to...

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Why Medicine Can't Seem to Fix Simple Mistakes

(56) Comments | Posted July 20, 2012 | 12:54 PM

By Tracy Weber, Charles Ornstein and Marshall Allen

NYU's Langone Medical Center announced this week that it was adopting new procedures after the death of a 12-year old boy from septic shock. The hospital's emergency room sent Rory Staunton home in March and then failed...

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The New 'Dallas': Sex, Scandal and Energy Policy!

(7) Comments | Posted June 15, 2012 | 4:04 PM

By Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica.

Did the fracking debate dredge up 'Dallas' -- the redux -- or was this soap opera's resurgence just another convenient mirror in which to reflect how central the nation's debate over energy has now become in our culture?

Either way, the show's creators seem...

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Help Us Track How Politicians Target Voters

(0) Comments | Posted May 31, 2012 | 7:05 PM

By Jeff Larson and Al Shaw, ProPublica.

Political campaigns are using increasingly sophisticated methods to target messages to voters, methods that are not at all transparent. We need your help to uncover and understand them.

Back in March, we noticed that the Obama campaign was sending out

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How to Win FB Friends and Influence People

(0) Comments | Posted March 13, 2012 | 4:25 PM

By Lois Beckett, ProPublica.

Instead of picketing outside company headquarters, an advocacy group is using Facebook ads to try to influence people whose profiles identify them as employees of Freddie Mac or JPMorgan Chase.

The anti-foreclosure ad campaign, which launches today, asks Freddie and Chase employees...

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Foxconn by the Numbers

(2) Comments | Posted January 27, 2012 | 3:08 PM

By Lois Beckett, ProPublica

An investigative series [1] by the New York Times and a performance piece by Mike Daisey [2] featured on This American Life [3] have put the spotlight on Foxconn [4], the Taiwanese company whose massive Chinese factories manufacture some of...

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Join Robert Redford in Supporting ProPublica

(1) Comments | Posted November 30, 2011 | 1:59 PM

By Richard Tofel, ProPublica

Holiday time is the season for giving of all sorts -- including supporting organizations and causes that make a difference. We hope that, as the end of the year approaches, you'll consider a tax-deductible donation to ProPublica.

There are lots of ways we...

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When Is a Scoop Ready to be Published?

(0) Comments | Posted November 1, 2011 | 1:09 PM

By Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica

Politico's story on possible sexual harassment [2] by Herman Cain may be the biggest investigative scoop of the campaign season. But it would be hard to deduce that from the facts as published.

The story lacks the key details needed to judge whether the...

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Patients Deserve to Know

(1) Comments | Posted September 9, 2011 | 12:10 PM

By Tracy Weber, and Charles Ornstein, ProPublica

Your doctor gives you an expensive new drug to control your cholesterol, or recommends a certain brand of artificial hip, or says you need a stent to open a clogged artery.

He's the expert. But how do you know his...

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America's Top 10 Gas Drillers

(2) Comments | Posted September 6, 2011 | 2:13 PM

By Nicholas Kusnetz, ProPublica

Natural gas - often touted as an abundant, comparatively clean source of domestic energy - has come under intensifying public scrutiny in recent months, with federal regulators and reporters challenging some of the industry's rosy business projections.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing...

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Find Out How To Use Our Education Data For Your Reporting

(0) Comments | Posted August 1, 2011 | 1:52 PM

By Sharona Coutts, and Al Shaw, ProPublica

The U.S. Department of Education recently released the largest and most comprehensive snapshot of the educational opportunities afforded to millions of students across the country. The new data include information on which students are taking advanced courses often tied to...

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FDIC Chair: Mortgage Industry 'Didn't Think Borrowers Were Worth Helping'

(1) Comments | Posted July 13, 2011 | 6:11 PM

By Lois Beckett, ProPublica

Outgoing Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairwoman Sheila C. Bair's revealing exit interview by the New York Times' Joe Nocera [1] has generated plenty of buzz. But while the interview provided a comprehensive look at Bair's role from 2006 to 2011, what caught our...

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Bank Mistakes Continue to Cause Wrongful Foreclosures

(0) Comments | Posted June 27, 2011 | 1:05 PM

By Paul Kiel, ProPublica

Four years into the foreclosure crisis, banks say they've made major improvements in how they handle struggling homeowners. They've promised, for example, not to foreclose on homeowners who are being considered for mortgage modifications. But that's still happening.

Consider the cases of Laurie Pinkerton and...

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The Heroes Are Really Zeroes in HBO's Too Big To Fail

(18) Comments | Posted May 25, 2011 | 3:25 PM

By Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica

HBO's Too Big To Fail -- I just caught up with it last night, thanks to HBO On Demand -- is extraordinarily revealing about the financial crisis. Only its revelations are almost entirely inadvertent.

The movie is set up in the Hollywood conventional way: A...

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When Powerful Men Cross Lines: Schwarzenegger and DSK

(70) Comments | Posted May 18, 2011 | 7:09 PM

By Tracy Weber, ProPublica

The week's news about the sexual conduct of politically powerful men gives me a queasy feeling of déjà vu.

As the French agonize over whether Dominique Strauss-Kahn's star power quashed past allegations, I can respond cynically: Yes, that probably happened. But we should not...

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ProPublica Editor's Note on Nuclear Plant Fire Risks

(0) Comments | Posted May 11, 2011 | 2:55 PM

By Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica

Today's publication of our story on the threat posed by fire to nuclear power plants offers readers a rare opportunity. Two excellent journalists, working independently of each other, have produced a detailed investigative story on the same subject.

Susan Q. Stranahan, a former...

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