Are we really here? Is all this happening? Don’t be surprised. What we’re seeing now is frankly everything we should have expected. If there’s one thing we can say in Donald Trump’s favor, there was no bait and switch. They told us they would do all of this and more. Not everyone believed them. But everyone had fair warning. And here we are.
I’ve told you we are investing big in expanded investigative reporting in TPM’s signature iterative style. We are deep into putting together the different building blocks of our new team and operation. I hope to have some announcements soon.
For now, keep your emails coming. The biggest tips don’t always come from whistleblowers. Just as often they come from people who see information in the public domain but have specialized or inside knowledge which allows them to understand its special significance. Sometimes it’s flagging out of the way reports that others aren’t seeing but you see in your local paper or hear in your neck of the woods. Just one example: some of the most interesting reporting I did with reader tips was during Hurricane Katrina. I didn’t have ‘inside knowledge’. But I had lots of readers from the country’s atmospheric and weather tracking bureaucracies, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, who helped me make sense of what did and didn’t make sense in what we were hearing from the government and the news media. Some very choice sources at FEMA didn’t hurt either.
If you’re inside the government and need to be protected, we have all the security and experience to do so. We’ve been doing this for years. We never burn a source. If you’re in the government with some information that needs to get out, you know where to come. Everyone’s trolling for leakers and iterative reporting/crowd sourcing tips. But we’ve been here doing it since way way before it was cool. But you don’t have to be at the center of the action to help us move the ball forward. Just keep your eyes open. Focus on the areas where you have professional expertise or simple experience. You do that. We’ll start bringing new staff on line. And if you want us to add more, join TPM Prime.
This is why a free press matters. The press is a critical port of the ecology civic freedom, like an independent judiciary, non-governmental organizations and more. Insults from the current occupiers of the White House do not matter. The press remains free from until force is used against it or it cowers on its own. We’ll never do the latter and we have no fear of the former. Let’s do this.
