About

Texas Watchdog is a news Web site and training center that scrutinizes the actions of government agencies, bureaucracies and politicians in Texas. It is an independent, nonpartisan entity founded on the belief that our American democracy depends on transparency in government.

Texas Watchdog will serve as a government watchdog and training center where reporters, bloggers and activists of any stripe will learn how to uncover waste, fraud and corruption in state and local governments. This combination of news outlet and training facility will create a two-tiered approach to holding governments and officials accountable for their actions.

In addition to reporting on government waste, fraud and corruption on a regular basis, we will offer training –- ranging from two-hour programs to three-month fellowships –- on how Texas residents can use journalistic skills to keep their local city halls and corridors of government honest. Topics may include, but are not limited to, investigating municipalities, school systems and lawmakers’ actions. We will also examine key state races and vet the candidates’ backgrounds.

Texas Watchdog adheres to no political or social philosophy other than a belief in open government at the local, state and federal levels. It endorses the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Why now?

Texas Watchdog seeks to be on the leading edge of a national trend toward investigative and enterprise journalism taking place on the Web and outside the traditional newsroom.

We’re launching this service because the owners of newspapers and television news teams have, in too many cases, cut back on investigating government and chipped away at their ability to be a watchdog for the voter and the taxpayer.

Experts may disagree about the many reasons for this, but they agree that newspapers are on the decline nationwide. In 2007, newspaper newsroom staffs fell by 2,400 –- the largest drop in 30 years. And this does not include hundreds more newsroom buyouts and layoffs already imposed in 2008. Dozens of major newspapers have announced staff cuts, including the elimination of long-time investigative reporters and experienced writers.

Furthermore, some studies indicate that reporters who are launching journalism careers don’t have the training they would desire to be watchdogs and to do the digging that is needed for enterprise reporting. Editors say that many journalism school graduates are ill-prepared for the job, and the vast majority of recent graduates –- 82 percent of young journalists in one recent study –- say they need more training “very much.”

We hope to be a resource for reporters seeking those skills, as well as for bloggers who seek to learn more about digging up their own original content. We also want to be a place where residents can learn more about how to make their city halls and school systems more transparent –- and to keep public officials honest. We hope to launch a more fully featured Web site soon.

Why Texas?

Texas is a vast, diverse state. That makes it an ideal testing ground for a new model of watchdog journalism. If our group is successful here, we believe the model could be implemented in other parts of the country.

Who is funding the work?

Texas Watchdog is grateful for the support of The Sam Adams Alliance, which is funding Texas Watchdog’s start-up phase. This Chicago-based group has taken on government transparency as a major focus, launching projects such as ballotpedia.org, judgepedia.org and sunshinereview.org. This focus fits perfectly into the mission of Texas Watchdog, which seeks transparency at all levels of government and wishes to arm citizen-journalists with journalistic tools to keep City Hall honest.

Texas Watchdog also generates revenue via its blogger/citizen-journalist training program. We teach journalism skills: crafting a public records request, effective interviewing, using and presenting multimedia, and other skills. If you’re interested in attending one of our classes, call Deputy Editor Lee Ann O’Neal at 713-980-9777 or e-mail leeann@texaswatchdog.org.

We are scheduled to launch advertising on our site by mid-2009. If you’re interested in advertising opportunities with us, call Editor Trent Seibert at 713-980-9776 or e-mail trent@texaswatchdog.org.

Who is involved?

Trent Seibert

Trent has been a journalist at newspapers across the United States for more than 10 years, uncovering corruption and exposing closed-door operations of state and local governments.

Before moving to Houston, he worked for the Tennessee Center for Policy Research uncovering government waste, fraud and abuse. Previously, Trent was a political reporter for The (Nashville) Tennessean, where he was part of the team that uncovered cronyism and corruption in the Tennessee Highway Patrol. He also reported on ethics in government and the influence of lobbyists on Tennessee’s Capitol Hill. In 2005, Trent was a co-winner of the newsroom’s Jimmy Davy Award, recognizing the newsroom’s “most valuable player.” The Nashville Scene named him the city’s “Best Capitol Hill Reporter” that same year.

Trent also worked as an on-air investigative reporter for WKRN-Channel 2 in Nashville, where he broke news about legislators’ conflicts of interest, Tennessee’s new ethics laws and cost overruns by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

Trent also served a stint as city editor of The Tuscaloosa News in Alabama. There, he supervised the team that uncovered voter fraud in the Black Belt, the poorest counties in the state. In the wake of that investigation, the state attorney general began his own voter fraud probe.

Trent was also an award-winning reporter for The Denver Post in Colorado, where he uncovered widespread problems in the Colorado Lottery. Trent also covered the War on Terror from Afghanistan and Pakistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Trent graduated from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, the state where he launched his journalism career.

Read Trent’s Texas Watchdog posts | E-mail Trent

Jennifer Peebles

Jennifer previously served as the government editor of The Tennessean. She has been a journalist for 14 years, working as an editor and reporter.

As an editor, she led the team that uncovered a rash of sexual harassment in Tennessee state government, prompting state leaders to change the way harassment cases are reported. She also oversaw an investigation into the Tennessee Highway Patrol that unearthed deep-seated cronyism and a scheme in which troopers were promoted after making campaign contributions to connected politicians.

Jennifer is the immediate past president of the Middle Tennessee Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and was president when it entered into a partnership with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to oversee the Drue Smith Scholarship for Midstate journalism students. She is a former board member of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.

Jennifer is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, majoring in history. She was the editor of the student newspaper and was the winner of the university’s Geyer Award and the Charles Forrest Alexander Award, both for student journalists.

Lee Ann O’Neal

Lee Ann previously worked as the First Amendment/government editor at the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, supervising government and political coverage, and as a reporter at The Tennessean.

At the Citizen-Times, Lee Ann led a team that investigated local and state government. She oversaw a project that discovered more than 300 dead people listed as active voters in the city. This investigation prompted elections officials to remove dozens of dead people from the voter rolls.

Lee Ann’s team found the cost for a major bridge project had ballooned to $363.3 million from $87.4 million. They also revealed that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was contributing to political campaigns but keeping those donations secret.

Lee Ann received her journalism training at the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University and holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Vanderbilt. She grew up in the farming community of Enville, Tenn.

Read Lee Ann’s posts | E-mail Lee Ann

Matt Pulle

Matt has worked at newspapers for 13 years, most recently as the managing editor of the Nashville Scene in his second stint at the paper. While at the alt-weekly, he reported on the troubled nomination of a federal judicial nominee, writing extensively about his legal career and controversial membership at an exclusive country club. Pulle also edited a range of investigative stories, including one on a former death row inmate who remained behind bars even after new DNA evidence appeared to exonerate him.

Earlier this year Pulle was recognized along with Anthony Lewis, Adam Liptak and Linda Greenhouse of The New York Times, Walter Dellings of Slate and the The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin for exemplary legal writing in the Green Bag Almanac, a national law journal, for a cover story on a partially segregated elementary school in an exclusive neighborhood in Dallas. He was also recognized as one of the best reporters in Dallas by the editors of D Magazine in its annual Best of Dallas competition. Pulle was also twice named feature writer of the year in the Nashville Scene’s “Best of Nashville” Reader Survey.

Before returning to Nashville, Pulle worked as political reporter for the Dallas Observer. In his time there, he covered the hotly contested 2007 mayor’s race, which featured no less than eight serious candidates. He also wrote extensively about a federal investigation into a bribery ring at Dallas City Hall and profiled one of its main targets, Don Hill, a one-time mayoral candidate. Pulle also covered a range of statewide issues for the paper including a cover story on Texas judge Sharon Keller, who garnered nationwide publicity last year after she denied a death row inmate’s appeal after it was filed 20 minutes late.

Pulle is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he majored in history.
E-mail Matt