Covering Congress: The Art of Insider Citizen Reporting
We all know about the infamous “Beltway Bubble” and the information divide between political professionals and the rest of us. That divide is not, however, an immutable rule of nature – a relatively modest number of independent citizen journalists can have a huge impact in neutralizing the insiders’ advantage in knowledge of both congressional process and policy details. In this training, a few of the intrepid folks engaged in just that mission, operating from both inside and outside Washington, will share their experiences. The panelists will also offer concrete tips to help those interested in entering the field find their niche.
Jeremy Koulish is the Executive Director of Main Street Insider, a brand-new organization covering Capitol Hill from a grassroots perspective. MSI plans to serve the unjustly ignored constituency of engaged citizens outside the Beltway with a new type of insider coverage. It will provide a combination of policy basics, exclusive reports and hard-hitting interviews directly from the corridors of power, background information on legislators and the legislative process, and concrete avenues for citizens to engage with their government. In addition to his responsibilities as Executive Director, Jeremy coordinates policy content and coverage of committee events.
Jeremy has experience working in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Prior to devoting his efforts to Main Street Insider, he was the Founder and Executive Director of the Carrots and Sticks Project, a grassroots action tank established following the 2008 elections designed to advance a vision of 21st-century style sustainable prosperity directly in the rarefied marble halls of Congress. Before that, he was a Research Assistant at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities focusing on state fiscal policy.
Jeremy is also an experienced activist, having worked on a number of issue referendum and electoral campaigns. Most notably, he was a canvass director with the Mass. Ballot Freedom Coalition and co-founded DC Turns Prince William County (VA) Blue in the summer of 2008. As if he wasn't busy enough already, Jeremy is also currently pursuing an M.P.P. at George Washington University.
Jeremy occasionally blogs under the pseudonym "optimo", and can be found on Twitter @jkoul.
Mike Stark has pursued political activism since 2003 when he started his first blog, CallingAllWingnuts.com, a daily chronicling of his adventures in talk radio.
Over the years, Stark has discomfited George Allen, Virgil Goode, John McCain, and scores of "birther" Representatives
simply by asking questions discussed regularly in the blogosphere, but ignored by the traditional media.
After Stark moved to the suburbs of Washington DC, he decided to continue the work by taking his gig to Congress. StarkReports.com is a semi-regular chronicling of Mike's work on the Hill where he takes questions (mostly) derived from blog discussions to Senators and Representatives.
As a Contributing Editor at Daily Kos and editor of Congress Matters, David has made a specialty of blogging about the dynamics and intricacies of Congressional procedure, dating back to the 2005 “nuclear option” showdown over judicial nominations. His writing has helped focus campaigns challenging the continuance of Joe Lieberman’s committee assignments, raise awareness of the limitations of Congressional subpoena and contempt processes, broker a more favorable deal on Senate committee ratios, keep the “public option” debate alive beyond all expectations, push the Senate toward rules reform, and inform both activists and the media about the reconciliation process that salvaged the administration’s health insurance reform legislation.
Donny Shaw handles editorial content at OpenCongress.org, a non-partisan, not-for-profit website that brings together official government data on Congress with news and blog coverage, social networking, and public participation tools to create a fuller picture of what's really going on. He is also a co-founder of the financial reform group A New Way Forward and a farmer in beautiful Western Massachusetts.
David Dayen has been blogging about state and national issues since 2004. He currently writes and reports for the News Desk at FireDogLake (news.firedoglake.com). His work has appeared in the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post and Capitol Weekly, and he has been a guest on NPR, Pacifica Radio and Air America. He is a former delegate to the California Democratic Party.
