The SEJ WatchDog Alert

The WatchDog Alert (formerly WatchDog TipSheet from 2008-2019) was a regular source of story ideas, articles, updates, events and other information with a focus on freedom-of-information issues of concern to environmental journalists in both the United States and Canada.

WatchDog was compiled, edited and written by Joseph A. Davis, who directs the WatchDog Project, an activity of SEJ's Freedom of Information Task Force that reports on secrecy trends and supports reporters' efforts to make better use of FOIA.

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Latest WatchDog Alert Items

June 27, 2012

Group Sues Interior for Failure to Disclose Correspondence with Wind Industry

The American Bird Conservancy has gone to court after the Interior Department stonewalled its Freedom-of-Information-Act requests for correspondence between feds and the wind industry on how potential wind projects in 10 states might affect birds and bats.

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TOOLBOX: EWG Ag Subsidy Database a Tall Silo of Environmental Stories

One starting point to covering agriculture — and the health implications of land and water use — is to follow the money using Environmental Working Group's major database tool. Any reporter covering the ag-environment link should know about it.

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Senate Stifles Amendment on Crop Insurance Disclosure

That left journalists and the taxpayers — for now — at least partly in the dark about where tax dollars subsidizing agriculture are really going. But disclosure advocates think they may get another opportunity when the House takes up its own version of the Farm Bill.

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June 13, 2012

COOL TOOL: Poligraft Helps Journos Sniff out Slanted Sources

The system was developed by the Sunlight Foundation, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, and the Center for Responsive Politics. Just paste in some text or the Web address of an online article, and within seconds Poligraft supplies much of the missing context.

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Directory of Open Access Journals a Boon for Environmental Reporters

The rebellion against commercial and subscription-only publishers over public access to articles based on taxpayer-funded research is gaining ground. The Directory — free, searchable and online — already includes some 819742, full-text, scientific or scholarly articles in 7885 journals.

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E-Mail Disclosure Could Play Role in BP Gulf Spill Case

A federal judge has denied BP's bid to see 21 e-mails and other documents sent between the White House and other federal agencies. More chilling, perhaps, was BP's effort to get e-mails sent by two private-sector scientists in an apparent effort to discredit their work.

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International Energy Agency Calls for Fracking Transparency

A new report from the IEA includes guidelines emphasizing transparency and the monitoring of environmental and social impacts. That includes full disclosure of fracking fluid ingredients and testing of baseline water and air conditions before drilling begins.

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Enviros Challenge Transparency of Virginia Uranium Mining Deliberations

A company wants to mine Virginia's major uranium deposit so the state formed a multi-agency panel to study ending the three-decade ban on uranium mining. That panel hired a consulting firm that critics say was stacked with experts affiliated with the nuclear industry.

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May 30, 2012

Data.gov Keeps on Giving Gifts to Gumshoe Reporters

The federal Data.gov, while not perfect, has grown over three years especially strong in datasets from federal agencies that deal with the environment, energy, natural resources, health, and science. Many of them are downloadable, so that you can crunch them on your own computer. Several are map layers or geo-tagged in some way. See a few randomly chosen examples here.

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New Ohio Law Limits Disclosure of Fracking Fluid Ingredients

The Ohio legislature cleared a fracking bill May 24, 2012 that increases inspections of wells and requires drillers to hold liability insurance. But Reuters reports: "Many Democrats said the bill paves the way for the industry to hide information about toxic chemicals that could contaminate groundwater."

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The SEJ WatchDog Alert

Latest WatchDog Alert Items

June 27, 2012

Group Sues Interior for Failure to Disclose Correspondence with Wind Industry

TOOLBOX: EWG Ag Subsidy Database a Tall Silo of Environmental Stories

Senate Stifles Amendment on Crop Insurance Disclosure

June 13, 2012

COOL TOOL: Poligraft Helps Journos Sniff out Slanted Sources

Directory of Open Access Journals a Boon for Environmental Reporters

E-Mail Disclosure Could Play Role in BP Gulf Spill Case

International Energy Agency Calls for Fracking Transparency

Enviros Challenge Transparency of Virginia Uranium Mining Deliberations

May 30, 2012

Data.gov Keeps on Giving Gifts to Gumshoe Reporters

New Ohio Law Limits Disclosure of Fracking Fluid Ingredients

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