The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "media rights" ...
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Your Right to Know
A reporter for the Columbus Dispatch began publishing a blog designed to educate Ohioans about their rights to access public records and meetings. The blog is also used as a bully pulpit to point out government abuses in withholding records from the public and news media.
Tags: blog; open records; Sunshine Laws; FOIA; Freedom of Information Act; public records
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"Republican Gomorrah"
In this book, Max Blumenthal takes an in-depth look at the Christian Right, and how it took control of the "Republican Party's grassroots base." Blumenthal explains how the Christian Right party is comprised of people "who have experienced profound trauma" and therefore tend toward "rigid religiosity and political authoritarianism."
Tags: Republican Party; Christian Right; authoritarianism; religiosity; right-wing; Council for National Policy; Ralph Reed; Jack Abramoff; Media Matters for America
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Outsourcing Justice? That's Obscene
"The Bush administration has contracted with a Christian right organization, Morality in Media, to receive citizens' complaints about online obscenity. Since the early 1960s, Morality in Media has opposed pornography of all types, including constitutionally protected material. The Justice Department, duty-bound to uphold the Constitution, is thus allying itself with an organization that holds much of today's First Amendment law in contempt."
Tags: justice; freedom of speech; obscenity; religion; separation of church and state; internet
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The Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff examine the press coverage during the civil rights movement. The book is the story of how media members' coverage of the civil rights movement informed people of what was going on, and spurred them to action. It details how the national press picked up on the story, which had initially been reported mostly by black reporters and liberal Southern editors.
Tags: Race relations; civil rights; media; press coverage; Martin Luther King; equal rights; national media
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Former federal agent's spy story pens Pandora's box for FBI; Judge orders previously public records in case of former FBI agent; Media computers are on FBI's radar screen in Lau spy case; Lawyers, civil right group claim government turning up the heat in Lau spy case; LULAC seeks sanctions against government in Lau spy case
This series of articles exposes the story of a former FBI agent who claims he worked as an international spy. Lau claims the FBI refused to provide him with psychological treatment following his stressful assignments abroad and discredited him. This report reveals that many of Lau's revelations were proved to be true by the court documents presented. The follow up stories reveal certain attempts made by the federal agencies to seal the court records and destroy a lot of the evidence.
Tags: FBI; FOIA; international spy; Lok Thye Lau; national security
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Bush, Harken and the Public's Right to Know
National media outlets reported on President George W. Bush's activities as a director with Texas oil company Harken Energy in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The stories referenced documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity during the course of research for the book, "The Buying of the President 2000" and two other Center investigative reports. Now, the Center has released new documents--and a series of stories--that shed additional light on what transpired at Harken while Bush was a director, a chronicle of Bush's Harken tenure, and the close relationship between Harvard Management and Harken.
Tags: IRE FOI AWARD CATEGORY; Bush; George W. Bush; Harken; Harvard; Enron; SEC
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Jackson's protests benefit his family, friends
The Sun-Times reports on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's questionable finances and deals. The investigation reveals that Jackson "has been able to parlay his crusade for minority empowerment into lucrative contracts for his close friends and even members of his family." The main findings are that: Jackson blessed major telecommunications and media mergers after his, as well as his friends' organization received multi-million-dollar contracts from the industry; that Jackson's sons received one of the most lucrative distributorships from Anheuser-Busch, the company that their father boycotted in the 80s for its record on race; that the sons will not say how many minorities work at their business; that Jackson received $50,000 from the state of Illinois for a Civil Right Library that was never built; and that Jackson paid through his nonprofit organizations $110,000 to a mistress who bore him an out-of-wedlock child.
Tags: FOI requests; fund-raising; tax-exempt; nonprofit; charity; civil rights; minorities; affirmative action; Ameritech; Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
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Open Justice
Post-Gazette reporter Barbara White Stack investigates the continuing trend of opening up juvenile court cases to the public, and how the practice is gaining favor in some states. While most states allow the public into juvenile court cases for serious crimes, other areas, such as hearings on child abuse or neglect were closed. Many states that forbid access to juvenile cases have a stipulation in the state constitution stating that all courts shall be open, Oregon was the first state to open the doors to its juvenile cases in 1980. Opponents of open courts argue that parents and victims in child abuse or neglect cases deserve a right to privacy and media coverage could skew public opinion of the legal process.
Tags: Justice system; children; abuse; neglect; juvenile justice
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Secret Justice
ABA Journal investigates how undisclosed settlements to lawsuits and closed-door proceedings shut out public scrutiny. The article finds that this practice reduces accountability and eliminates precedents. The author points to several examples of sealed court files, some of which involving giant corporations and movie stars. The major example is about a reporter, Kristen Mitchell with the Wilmington, N.C., Morning Star, who was fined for obtaining a sealed file inadvertently handed her by a court clerk. The file contained information on a secret settlement of an environmental lawsuit between Conoco Inc. and residents of a mobile home park. The newspaper, also, was ordered to pay Conoco $500,000, the journal reports.
Tags: media rights; legislation; Merrill Lynch; First Amendment; freedom of the press; judges; lawyers; settlement agreements; Sondra Locke; Clint Eastwood; 3M; jurors; business
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Power Struggle: California's Engineered Energy Crisis and the Potential of Public Power
Multinational Monitor investigates how huge oil and gas companies close to George W. Bush have profited from the energy crisis in California. "The blackouts ... have many causes. But neither a shortfall a supply nor a surge in demand for electricity is among them," the magazine points out. The story finds that California's consumers and taxpayers are victims of a massive, complex double-theft, first by the biggest electric power utilities, and second by some of the president's closest associates and contributors. Another finding is that the U.S. barons of fossil and nuclear fuel have used the crisis as " a pretext to declare an all-out assault on environmental protection."
Tags: American Public Power Project; environmental protection; oil; gas; president; utilities; deregulation; power plants; electric market; Public Media Center; Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights; California and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups; American Public Power Project; Concerned Stockholders of California; Dick Cheney; Federal Electrical Regulatory Commission; PG&E Corporation