Franklin Center/MDCAN Investigative Reporting Workshop
Via Ann Corcoran at Potomac Tea Party Report:
MDCAN and The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity is sponsoring an investigative reporting workshop. Saturday February 4 at The Gathering Place in Clarksville, MD.
This training will teach you how to identify inconsistencies and half-truths in the government, and expose them for the lies they are. Join MDCAN and the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity for an all-day training. For $35 you will learn:
The registration cost covers continental breakfast, coffee/tea all day, lunch and training materials.
Training will be given by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity
Active high school and college students may register at the student rate of $25. (A current student ID must be presented when checking in on February 4.)
A group rate of $25 per person is also available for groups of 3 or more people registering together.
Register for the workshop here.
I can’t stress how important it is for more of us to learn investigative reporting skills, and use the many tools at our disposal to hold Governor O’Malley and the Maryland Democratic oligarchy accountable.
You don’t need an expensive journalism degree to do this stuff. Baltimore County GOP Central Committee chairman Steve Kolbe showed us, it’s easy find Democratic corruption. Like the old Yellow Pages commercial, “just let your fingers do the walking.”
Here’s a taste of the juicy stories you can break using the skills and tools of investigative reporting:
The late night scramble by Martin O’Malley’s top aides to scrub an embarrassing employment report, and O’Malley’s lie about not knowing anything about it.
Public data showing the failure of Governor O’Malley’s renewable energy policies.
The insane amount of money we spend on education, and the ever increasing achievement disparities we get in return.
State data that exposes O’Malley’s false claim that he cut six billion from the budget.
I also recommend signing up for the Heritage Foundation’s Computer Assisted Investigative Reporting Bootcamp. The workshop is open to both professional journalists and bloggers. You learn the basics of using Excel to analyze data, and where to go to find government data.
Washington Examiner Editorial Page Editor Mark Tapscott, is the instructor, and you get hands on training from Heritage data analysts and reporters from the Center for Responsive Politics.