Truthout
 | |
| Web address |
www |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | No |
Type of site | News, political analysis & commentary |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 2000 |
Alexa rank |
 16,443,464 (March 2016)[1] |
| Current status | Active |
Truthout is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, progressive news organization in the United States that operates a web site and distributes a daily newsletter. Registered in September 2001, in Sacramento, California, Truthout publishes original political news articles, opinion pieces, video reports and artwork. According to its web site, "As an organization, Truthout works to broaden and diversify the political discussion by introducing independent voices and focusing on undercovered issues and unconventional thinking.
Truthout has featured content from writers Paul Krugman, Dahr Jamail, Henry Giroux, Jason Leopold, Bill Moyers, Andy Worthington, Kathy Kelly, Norman Solomon, William Rivers Pitt, Kelpie Wilson, Ken Morris, Dean Baker, Richard D. Wolff and Noam Chomsky. The organization has reported extensively on the torture policies of the Bush administration, the health care debate, veterans' issues, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the labor movement, prison reform and election politics.
Coverage examples
Safety issues at BP
60 Minutes cited a report published at Truthout as a source for its May 16, 2010 episode about the BP oil spill and the whistleblower who warned about a possible blowout at another BP deepwater drilling site.[2] Digital Journal wrote up the story.[3] CNN's Randi Kaye in an article cited a report by Truthout as the first article on BP Alaska employee Mark Kovac's inside knowledge about the safety concerns at the Prudhoe Bay, Alaska BP oil field.[4] On July 14, 2010, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing in the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. The hearing[5] titled "The Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines (Part 2): Integrity Management", cited an investigative report by Truthout as a document for the committee's investigation.[6]
Veterans' issues
Truthout has closely followed issues affecting Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Coverage has especially focused on veteran health care and post-traumatic stress disorder. An ongoing Truthout investigation has claimed widespread neglect within the Veterans Health Administration of veterans with PTSD.[7][8]
Controversies
On May 13, 2006, after Jason Leopold posted on Truthout that Karl Rove had been indicted by the grand jury investigating the Plame affair, Rove spokesman Mark Corallo denied the story, calling it "a complete fabrication".[10] Truthout defended the story, saying on May 15 they had two sources "who were explicit about the information" published,[11] and confirmed on May 25 that they had "three independent sources confirming that attorneys for Karl Rove were handed an indictment" on the night of May 12.[11] The grand jury concluded with no indictment of Rove.[12]
In his memoir, Courage and Consequence, Karl Rove addressed the Leopold article. Rove writes that Leopold is a "nut with Internet access" and that "thirty-five reporters called [Rove's defense attorney] Luskin or Corallo to ask about the Truthout report." According to Rove, "[Special Counsel] Fitzgerald got a kick out of the fictitious account and e-mailed Luskin to see how he felt after such a long day."[13]
Personnel
Truthout's Board of Directors includes McMaster University Professor and educational theorist Henry A. Giroux.
Truthout's Board of Advisors has included Dean Baker, Robert Reich and the late Howard Zinn.
On August 27, 2009, a member of Truthout's board of directors signed a recognition statement by the organization of The Newspaper Guild/CWA, allowing employed writers for the site to unionize with the Newspaper Guild/CWA as their preferred bargaining representative. The site also held what it called the first-ever "virtual card check", whereby paid writers faxed PDFs of their individual signatures to members of the site's organizing committee (who were based in New York, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Chicago respectively) in order to verify their unionizing authorization cards and establish a bargaining unit of the writers. Writers Maya Schenwar and Matt Renner stated in their article on the event that the organization was "the first online-only news site to successfully unionize".[14]
References
- ↑ "Truth-out.org Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2016-03-23.
- ↑ "Blowout: The Deepwater Horizon Disaster". CBSnews.com. May 16, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
- ↑ "Report: Bush DoJ sheltered BP executives from criminal probe". DigitalJournal.com. May 21, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
- ↑ "BP Alaska: A Ticking Time Bomb?". ac360.blogs.cnn.com. June 23, 2010. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
- ↑ "The Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines (Part 2): Integrity Management". transportation.house.gov. Archived from the original on August 3, 2010. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
- ↑ "The Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines (Part 2): Integrity Management. - Page 6, footnote 17" (PDF). July 14, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 4, 2010. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
- ↑ "Veterans Attest to PTSD Neglect by VA". Scoop.co.nz. January 30, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
- ↑ "PTSD Ignored on Active Duty". Veterans for Common Sense. July 16, 2009. Archived from the original on June 11, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
- ↑ "EXCLUSIVE: From Hopeful Immigrant to FBI Informant - the Inside Story of the Other Abu Zubaidah". Truth-out.org. Retrieved 2013-05-22.
- ↑ "Rove Indictment Report Denied". New York Sun. May 15, 2006. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
- 1 2 "Jason Leopold Caught Sourceless again". Columbia Journalism Review. June 13, 2006. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
- ↑ "Truthout reporter stands by the "Rove indicted"". Salon.com. June 13, 2006. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
- ↑ Karl Rove (2010). "Courage and Consequence". Threshold Editions. p. 438.
- ↑ Maya Schenwar and Matt Renner (8 September 2009). "Truthout Becomes First Online-Only News Site to Unionize". Truthout.