July 27, 2009

How to Do Congressional Oversight

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The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) recently published a new handbook outlining “best practices” for congressional oversight of government. It’s available free to members of Congress and their staff members. If you are not a denizen of the Hill, you can buy it online.

I’ll give you the bottom line for free: don’t assume that everyone else knows what you know or is asking the questions you’re asking. Wondering why something isn’t being investigated? Bother your Congresscritter. Have a whistle to blow? Bother your Congresscritter. Better yet, let us know: a lot of the time, media attention can get the ball rolling when it wasn’t before. Try scoop [at] motherjones [dot] com. We’re listening.

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GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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