\n<\/p>\n
This summer, my colleagues were reporting out a story about the Department of Education\u2019s \u201cfinal mission,\u201d its effort to undermine public education even as the Trump administration worked feverishly to close the agency.<\/p>\n
As we do with all stories, the reporters reached out to those who would be featured in the article for comment. And so began a journey that showed both the emphasis we place on giving the subjects of our stories an opportunity to comment, as well as the aggressively unhelpful pushback we\u2019ve faced this year as we\u2019ve sought information and responses to questions.<\/p>\n
Megan O\u2019Matz, a reporter based in Wisconsin on ProPublica\u2019s Midwest team, first asked the department\u2019s press office for an interview in mid-August. At the same time, we emailed top administration officials who were making crucial decisions within the agency, including Lindsey Burke, deputy chief of staff for policy and programs, and Meg Kilgannon, director of strategic partnerships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In response to the outreach to Kilgannon, department spokesperson Madison Biedermann told O\u2019Matz to \u201cPlease direct all media inquiries to [email\u00a0protected].\u201d Reached on her cellphone that day, Biedermann said she was happy to look into the request. We asked for a response within a week.<\/p>\n
At that time, the published press phone number for the department appeared, at all hours, to be a black hole, with a recorded message saying it was \u201ctemporarily closed.\u201d (It still indicates that.)<\/p>\n
Hearing nothing more, O\u2019Matz emailed the press office again Aug. 18. And again Aug. 28 with detailed questions. She left follow-up messages on Biedermann\u2019s cell. And on Burke\u2019s cell, including once on her husband\u2019s cell as ProPublica tried to find a direct way to contact Burke. To ensure fairness and accuracy, it is our long-standing practice to try to reach those who are part of our stories so that they have an opportunity to respond to them. We\u2019d rather get responses before we publish an article than after.<\/p>\n
Reached on her cell Aug. 29, Kilgannon said she had no comment and hung up before O\u2019Matz could explain what we planned to publish about her and her work. She did not respond to a subsequent email with those details.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Sept. 8, still hearing nothing from Burke, O\u2019Matz reached out to the department\u2019s chief of staff, writing: \u201cWe have been seeking to talk to the secretary and to Dr. Burke. \u2026 Can you help us arrange that?\u201d A week later, ProPublica arranged for a letter to be delivered via FedEx to Burke\u2019s home outlining what our reporting had found so far and to let us know if anything was inaccurate or required additional context. We invited her again to talk with us, to comment or provide any additional information.<\/p>\n
Finally, on Sept. 17, Biedermann wrote: \u201cJust heard from an ED (Education Department) colleague that you sent these inquiries in writing to their home address<\/strong>. This is highly inappropriate and unprofessional. You have also reached out to employees on their personal cell phones, emails, and even reached out to employee\u2019s family members<\/strong>. This is disturbing. Do not use an employee\u2019s home addresses or relatives to contact them.\u201d (The emphasis was hers.)<\/p>\n ProPublica replied the following day that it\u2019s common practice for journalists to reach out to people we are writing about. \u201cIn fact, it\u2019s our professional obligation,\u201d O\u2019Matz wrote.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Biedermann responded: \u201cReaching out to individuals about a work matter at their private address is not journalism \u2014 it is borderline intimidation. In today\u2019s political climate it is particularly unacceptable. We received your inquiries (via email, phone calls, text messages, both on work and personal email address) and made a conscious decision not to respond, as we have every right to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou are not entitled to a response from us, or anyone, ever,\u201d Biedermann wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n To be clear, at no time prior to this email did the department tell O\u2019Matz that it had received her inquiries and would not comment. The article ran on Oct. 8, about two months after we first contacted the department. (I would highly encourage you to read it.)<\/p>\n The world has come a long way since the days of \u201cAll the President\u2019s Men\u201d and \u201cSpotlight,\u201d movies that favorably portrayed journalists knocking on doors and trying to reach sources to tell important stories \u2014 in those cases, about the Watergate break-in that led to President Richard Nixon\u2019s resignation and the abuse scandal that enveloped the Roman Catholic Church in Boston and beyond.<\/p>\n Bob Woodward, left, and Carl Bernstein in the Washington Post newsroom in April 1973. More than 50 years later, reporters have gone from venerated to vilified.<\/span> Ken Feil\/The The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n President Donald Trump has labeled his administration the most transparent in history, but at the same time, agencies in the executive branch have taken down datasets and pulled down public information. Trump has called the press \u201cfake news\u201d and called individual reporters derogatory terms. In this environment, our journalists have found that their efforts to get the real story and be fair were vilified rather than appreciated. Condemned, not commended.<\/p>\n Take what happened with Doug Bock Clark, a reporter in ProPublica\u2019s South office. Clark was working on a story about North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, who has remade the court to make it more partisan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Newby wouldn\u2019t talk to Clark, so Clark interviewed over 70 people who know Newby professionally or personally, including former North Carolina justices and judges, lawmakers, longtime friends and family members. Clark reached out to Newby\u2019s daughter, Sarah, who is the finance director of the North Carolina GOP.<\/p>\n When ProPublica emailed questions to Sarah Newby, the North Carolina Republican Party\u2019s communications director, Matt Mercer, responded, writing that ProPublica was waging a \u201cjihad\u201d against \u201cNC Republicans,\u201d which would \u201cnot be met with dignifying any comments whatsoever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration and I\u2019m sure they would be interested in this matter,\u201d Mercer said in his email. \u201cI would strongly<\/strong> suggest dropping this story.\u201d (The emphasis was Mercer\u2019s.)<\/p>\n Or consider what happened to Vernal Coleman, a reporter in our Midwest office who has been reporting on the Department of Veterans Affairs this year as part of a team. They\u2019ve reported how doctors and others at VA hospitals and clinics have sent sometimes desperate messages to headquarters explaining how the Trump administration\u2019s cuts would harm veterans\u2019 care. (The VA provides health care to roughly 9 million veterans.) And they\u2019ve reported how nearly 40% of the doctors offered jobs at the VA from January through March of this year turned them down.<\/p>\n Coleman was pursuing a story of interest and identified a potential source in Michigan. In an effort to contact them, Coleman visited the person\u2019s home. He introduced himself as a reporter and explained his reasons for being there. They had a pleasant conversation, but the person ultimately declined to speak about the VA without prior authorization from their superiors.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few days later, VA Secretary Doug Collins sent out a tweet that accused Coleman of trying to \u201cstalk\u201d the employee.\u00a0<\/p>\n Door-knocking is not stalking, as reporter Gina Barton explains in this 2023 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel column. Indeed, federal employees have a First Amendment right to talk to the press, courts have ruled as they\u2019ve invalidated policies preventing it.<\/p>\n Just as my colleagues did, I reached out to those featured in this article to give them an opportunity to comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Biedermann wrote, \u201cSincerely hope you print the entire back and forth so that readers understand the ProPublica method of \u2018journalism.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mercer wrote: \u201cDoug Bock Clark needs a hobby besides his weird obsession with North Carolina\u2019s judges. Maybe knitting or surfing. Have a nice day!\u201d<\/p>\n And VA spokesperson Peter Kasperowicz wrote: \u201cVernal\u2019s uninvited visit to the home of a VA employee was rude, creepy and stalker-like. No VA employee should have to worry about being accosted at home by an uninvited reporter whose sole mission is to make their employer look bad.\u201d<\/p>\n When told that Coleman had received threatening notes after Collins tweeted about him, Kasperowicz wrote: \u201cWe condemn all violence and threats of violence, but the secretary simply publicly highlighted Vernal\u2019s actions. ProPublica literally does the exact same thing in every story it writes. ProPublica\u2019s website says it wants to \u2018spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.\u2019 The fact that you are whining about the spotlight being turned on one of your reporters proves you\u2019re nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.\u201d<\/p>\n To be clear, Coleman did nothing wrong. The same is true of O\u2019Matz and Clark. I am proud to call them my colleagues. They exemplify what fairness in journalism looks like.<\/p>\n As 2026 approaches, ProPublica remains committed to telling stories of public interest and continuing to offer the subjects of our stories an opportunity to comment. As members of the public who rely on accurate reporting, you should expect no less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This summer, my colleagues were reporting out a story about the Department of Education\u2019s \u201cfinal mission,\u201d its effort to undermine public education even as the Trump administration worked feverishly to close the agency. As we do with all stories, the reporters reached out to those who would be featured in the article for comment. And<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[15696,247,11456,6771,13896],"class_list":{"0":"post-39501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-comment","9":"tag-propublica","10":"tag-propublicas","11":"tag-pushback","12":"tag-reporters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}