While journalistic skill and technique are essential for writing a good investigative article, we often take it for granted that journalists have access to the information they need to write complex news stories. Without publicly available data, much of our news would not be possible. We've been looking at investigative articles as part of an ongoing series called "Back to the Source" for the last several months. Now we've decided to amp it up a bit and make redacted visuals to explicitly demonstrate how little the public would know without laws and regulations that force the government to make the data it has publicly available.

In honor of Sunshine Week we decided to create "The News Without Transparency." We took original investigative articles and manually blacked out all the information that would not be known without existing transparency measures. It is worth taking a look at just how little we would know.

Some examples we found notable are below, and the ongoing series is available here.

The News Without Transparency: Military Defense Contractors, Lobbyists Support Mrs. McKeon

The News Without Transparency: Pentagon Contractors Flock to Mrs. McKeon

Military defense contractors and lobbyists are rushing to support the wife of Congressional House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon in her bid for California state assembly, according to a Salon article in early February. This article would not have been possible without public access to campaign finance and lobbying data. The article reports that in the first few months of fundraising, Patricia McKeon was able to collect $19,200 from defense contractors or their lobbyists. This includes $3,000 from Lockheed Martin - a company currently locked in a battle to maintain funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet. It also includes donations from lobbying firm Beau Boulter LLC, which lobbies on behalf of Proxy Aviations, and Bruce Leftwich, a DC-based government affairs specialist. The California Secretary of State's website provides campaign finance data for all candidates running for public office, including Patricia McKeon's. The data can be searched by contributions received or made, expenditures made, late and high dollar contributions, and late independent expenditures. The contributions listed on Mrs. McKeon's disclosure page include the following... Click here to read the full text of our analysis.

The News Without Transparency: U.S. Approved Business With Blacklisted Nations

The News Without Transparency: U.S. Approves Business With Blacklisted Nations

The New York Times published an article in December 2010 investigating the U.S. government’s approval of American companies doing business with countries blacklisted for sponsoring terrorism, such as Iran. According to the article, the Treasury Department has granted almost 10,000 licenses for business deals involving these blacklisted nations, some of which were impacted by political influence. In addition to good reporting, the public availability of data was essential to making this such a meaningful investigative piece. That said, much of the underlying data for this article was hard to obtain, and the article itself says that even after the Times filed a FOIA request, “The process took three years, and the government heavily redacted many documents. . . ” We investigated and have highlighted what data is publicly available and what data isn’t, but in some cases can be obtained through FOIA. The article highlights how much less business the United States did with Iran than China or Europe did, pointing out that “…in the first quarter of this year, 0.02 percent of American exports went to Iran.” The U.S. Census Bureau provides monthly and annual datasets detailing American foreign trade, which provides information such as the data point used in the article. The annual report for 2010 is available here and can be viewed as a PDF or as a zip file for text or excel formats. Click here to read our full analysis of the data behind this article

The News Without Transparency: Obama Rewards Campaign Contributors

The News Without Transparency: Obama Rewards Campaign Contributors

An in-depth analysis of Obama's 2008 campaign contributors conducted by iWatch News in 2011 determined that in certain circumstances major bundlers ended up receiving appointments to key White House positions, invitations to White House events, and stimulus money awarded through contracts. This analysis required a high level of investigative journalism skill, but would not have been possible without public access to several data sources. The iWatch analysis frequently returns to the story of Donald H. Gips, a Colorado businessman and bundler for Obama. His story provides a useful frame for illustrating the data sources that provided essential information for this piece. The article states that Gips bundled over $500,000 for Obama in 2008.  Presidential candidates are not required to report their bundlers, but both Obama and McCain chose to do so in 2008. The Center for Responsive Politics makes available the list from 2008 as well as a list of 2012 bundlers for those candidates who have chosen to disclose. While the candidate usually only discloses the name of the bundler, CRP adds value by including additional information such as the total amount contributed, the name of the bundler, the city and state, and employer. The information also contains the total amount the bundler has contributed him or herself to the specified candidate since 1990. Bundlers are additionally broken down by industry. A search for Gips shows that he bundled over $500,000 in 2008 and has individually donated $32,391 since 1990. Click here to read the full text of our analysis.

The News Without Transparency: $52 Steaks on Menu as AT&T Feted Lawmakers During T-Mobile Push

The News Without Transparency: $52 Steaks on Menu as AT&T Feted Lawmakers During T-Mobile Push

The proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger dominated the news in Washington last fall. It caused quite the stir, with numerous outlets reporting on AT&T's massive lobbying efforts to push through the merger. Bloomberg was one such news outlet, reporting a story of expensive steaks and 'lobbyist's libations' in early September. The story focused on the numerous swanky fundraisers AT&T was hosting as well as their generous campaign donations to key lawmakers. This was a detailed investigative piece that involved a good deal of skilled journalism. It would not have been possible without public access to campaign finance data and lobbying disclosure information. The article begins describing the lavish fundraisers AT&T had been hosting for lawmakers, citing Sunlight's Party Time data. Sunlight's Party Time data is free and available for anyone to use. We manually collect fundraiser and event invitations and put them online. They are searchable by a variety of of criteria including committee, leadership PAC, beneficiary, host, and venue. Click here to read the full text of our analysis.

Last month Politico reported that corporate contributions to a super PAC set up to support Democratic U.S. Rep. Howard Berman were being used as a weapon against him during the contentious primary race that he and Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, also from California, have found themselves in as a result of redistricting.

The Politico article is able to report facts regarding campaign finance data by accessing publicly available information. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 initially established substantive disclosure requirements for federal candidates, political parties, and PACs. Subsequent amendments and legislation, including the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 and the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 have further strengthened these requirements.

As I have written about before, this information can be found on the Federal Election Commission’s website under Campaign Finance Reports and Data, but  it’s not easy to use unless you know what you are looking for. However, because the information is made available to the public, organizations like the Sunlight Foundation, ProPublica and the New York Times have been able to take FEC data and put it in more user-friendly formats. The information is then presented so that the most relevant information is easily accessible to regular people.

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"The News Without Transparency" shows you what the news would look like without public access to information. Laws and regulations that force the government to make the data it has publicly available are absolutely vital, along with services that take that raw data and make it easy for reporters to write sentences like the ones we've redacted in the piece above. If you have an article you'd like us to put through the redaction machine, please send us an email at mbuck@sunlightfoundation.com.

An in-depth analysis of Obama's 2008 campaign contributors conducted by iWatch News in 2011 determined that in certain circumstances major bundlers ended up receiving appointments to key White House positions, invitations to White House events, and stimulus money awarded through contracts. This analysis required a high level of investigative journalism skill and a significant amount of time. It would not have been possible, however, without access to a number of data sources.

The iWatch analysis frequently returns to the story of Donald H. Gips, a Colorado businessman and bundler for Obama. His story provides a useful frame for illustrating the data sources that provided essential information for this piece.

Accessing Campaign Finance Data Regarding Bundlers

The article states that Gips bundled over $500,000 for Obama in 2008.  Presidential candidates are not required to report their bundlers, but both Obama and McCain chose to do so in 2008. The Center for Responsive Politics makes available the list from 2008 as well as a list of 2012 bundlers for those candidates who have chosen to disclose. While the candidate usually only discloses the name of the bundler, CRP adds value by including additional information such as the total amount contributed, the name of the bundler, the city and state, and employer. The information also contains the total amount the bundler has contributed him or herself to the specified candidate since 1990. Bundlers are additionally broken down by industry. A search for Gips shows that he bundled over $500,000 in 2008 and has individually donated $32,391 since 1990.

While presidential candidates only disclose bundlers voluntarily, bundler information for candidate committees, leadership PACs, and political party committees is required to be disclosed by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. Bundler information for these entities can be found using the Federal Election Commission website. In addition, Sunlight's Influence Explorer also provides bundler information for registered lobbyists and lobbying firms in a searchable and user-friendly format.

Monitoring Staff Changes in the White House

After Obama won the election, the article states that Gips was put in charge of hiring in the White House and subsequently appointed as the U.S. ambassador to South Africa. The White House provides a searchable database of nominations and appointments that indicates the name of the nominee, the position and agency, the formal nomination date, and the date and result of the confirmation vote. Gips does not appear in that list, as his position did not require him to be appointed. A press release from Change.gov, Obama's transition website, however, lists Gips among several other staff announcements. The U.S. Department of State provides a list of embassies, which can be used to find information about American consulates around the world, including the name of the current ambassador.

Tracking Stimulus Funds

The article points out that Level 3 Communications LLC, where Gips was formerly vice president, was later the recipient of $13.8 million in stimulus funds. Information regarding the recipients of stimulus funds is available from three places:

• Information regarding stimulus funds is available from Recovery.gov. Level 3 EON, a subsidiary of Level 3 Communications, appears as having received $13.7 million in six awards.
• You can find information about the stimulus as well as all contracts and grants data on USASpending.gov. A search on this site shows that Level 3 Communications received just under $80,000 in awards from the Department of Defense and the Department of Agriculture.
• Our Influence Explorer also provides contract data in a more user-friendly format.

Viewing White House Visitors

The article also discusses bundlers receiving access to the White House, such as invitations to events or meetings. The Obama White House has voluntarily chosen to disclose the security records that detail those who enter the White House. These Visitor Logs have been criticized for a lack of accuracy and completeness, but can be valuable for use in analyses such as the iWatch report. The records show 18 visits by Gips to the White House between August 17, 2009 and April 1, 2011. Among the 18 are two trips to see the president and various trips to other White House staff such as Jenny Cizner, who works in the Office of Presidential Personnel, and Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to the president.

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"The News Without Transparency" shows you what the news would look like without public access to information. Laws and regulations that force the government to make the data it has publicly available are absolutely vital, along with services that take that raw data and make it easy for reporters to write sentences like the ones we've redacted in the piece above. If you have an article you'd like us to put through the redaction machine, please send us an email at mbuck@sunlightfoundation.com.

Military defense contractors and lobbyists are rushing to support the wife of Congressional House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon in her bid for California state assembly, according to a Salon article earlier this month. The article reports that in the first few months of fundraising, Patricia McKeon was able to collect $19,200 from defense contractors or their lobbyists. This includes $3,000 from Lockheed Martin - a company currently locked in a battle to maintain funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet.  It also includes donations from lobbying firm Beau Boulter LLC, which lobbies on behalf of Proxy Aviations, and Bruce Leftwich, a DC-based government affairs specialist. The California Secretary of State's website provides campaign finance data for all candidates running for public office, including Patricia McKeon's. The data can be searched by contributions received or made, expenditures made, late and high dollar contributions, and late independent expenditures. The contributions listed on Mrs. McKeon's disclosure page include:

• $3,000 given to Mrs. McKeon's campaign on Oct. 28, 2011 from Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin.
• $1,500 given to the campaign by the Arlington, VA lobby shop Beau Boulter on Dec. 29, 2011. The Center for Responsive Politics' lobbying firm look up tool shows that in 2011 Beau Boulter LLC earned over $1.5 million from lobbying on behalf of several companies from the sea and air transport and defense industries.
• $500 donated to Mrs. McKeon on Nov. 15, 2011 from DC lobbyist Bruce Leftwich. A search using Sunlight's Influence Explorer indicates that in 2011-2012 Leftwich lobbied on veterans affairs and education issues along with the federal budget and appropriations. He also donated $2,000 to Mrs. McKeon's husband, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), in 2007-2008.
• The campaign finance data provided by the Secretary of State does not indicate the industry associated with the donations (where applicable), so the $19,200 from the defense industry reported by Salon was likely the result of manual research into the names of employers on Mrs. McKeon's donation list. The National Institute on Money in State Politics and the Center for Responsive Politics both provide research tools that associate individuals and corporations with an industry.

The article also reports that Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) has been the number one beneficiary of military industry campaign donations for 49 years. A search using Sunlight's Influence Explorer shows the following:

• The top industries supporting Rep. McKeon financially across all years include Defense Aerospace, Misc Defense, Defense Electronics, Lobbyists, and General Contractors.
• Rep. McKeon was the number one beneficiary of the Defense Aerospace industry in 2011-2012.
• He was also the number one recipient for campaign contributions from Beau Boulter LLC in 2011-2012. The other top beneficiaries of the lobby shop during the 2011-2012 election cycle were also all Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee.

Super PACs have been a hot topic in the news recently as reporters, advocacy groups, and the public try to follow the money flowing into the political system as the 2012 elections approach.

On January 31st MSNBC reported that Stephen Colbert's super PAC, Americans for A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, was the first to submit its end-of-year report to the Federal Election Commission. The deadline for these reports was January 31st.

Colbert included his super PAC's filing on his super PAC's website, ColbertSuperPac.com, but this is not required. This kind of information can generally be found on the FEC website under Campaign Finance Reports and Data, but you have to know exactly what you are looking for.

The FEC portal includes a variety of search tools, including a searchable database of disclosure reports, downloadable copies of electronic filings, images of all financial reports, and other campaign finance data. However, these search tools suffer from a lack of a user-friendly interface. Several organizations, including the Sunlight Foundation, ProPublica, and the New York Times, have taken FEC data and put it in more user-friendly formats while focusing on information most relevant to the upcoming presidential election.

A search for Colbert's super PAC using the FEC's Disclosure Database search tool returns 13 filings, including the Year-End report displayed on Colbert's super PAC website. This report indicates that the super PAC has raised $825,475.46 since July 2011 and spent $151,521.01 as of December 31, 2011.

TPM published an article as the FEC deadline approached as well that focused on Newt Gingrich's campaign filing. The article cited several specifics regarding Gingrich's campaign spending, all of which are publicly available using the same online FEC portal. A search for "Newt 2012," the official name of Gingrich's presidential election campaign, under the "View Images of All Financial Reports" tab returns a list of documents filed. Viewing the PDF of the Year-End report shows all the numbers used in the article mentioned above.

It is necessary to emphasize again that these tools can be extremely hard to use, and you have to be very precise in your search terms. For example, a search for "Gingrich" using either search tool will return many results for other organizations related to Gingrich, such as "Friends of Newt Gingrich," but it will not return other better options.

The TPM article stated that the campaign had $2.1 million at the end of 2011 and owed over a million dollars in debt. The top level summary on page two of the Year-End report shows the $2.1 million the campaign has in cash and the $1.2 million it currently owes.

The article specified that the campaign's debt includes $1,666.66 to Rick Tyler - a former Gingrich aide who currently manages a super PAC in support of his candidacy. A search for "Rick Tyler" shows the $1,666.66 the campaign owes this former Gingrich aide on page 5166.

The debt also includes $350,000 for private jet flights. A search for "Moby Dick Airways," the private jet company that it has been reported Newt Gingrich uses, shows that the campaign began the quarter owing $451,946, incurred an additional $33,008 in charges this quarter, then made a payment of $133,008 to conclude 2011 with an outstanding balance of $351,946.

Lastly, the article says that the campaign paid $47,005 to Gingrich to buy a mailing list. A search for "Newt Gingrich" shows the campaign's $47,005 disbursement to the candidate for the express purpose of "list purchase" on page 4954.

Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey helped with the research for this post.

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"The News Without Transparency" shows you what the news would look like without public access to information. Laws and regulations that force the government to make the data it has publicly available are absolutely vital, along with services that take that raw data and make it easy for reporters to write sentences like the ones we've redacted in the piece above. If you have an article you'd like us to put through the redaction machine, please send us an email at mbuck@sunlightfoundation.com.

In 2009 the Washington Times reported that an investigation conducted by researchers at the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity had found 440 nonexistent districts listed on Recovery.gov. Combined, the districts were marked as receiving $6.4 billion and creating almost 30,000 jobs. The article provides specific examples, such as the following:

• "Recovery.gov shows 12 districts, using up more than $2.7 billion, in Washington, D.C, which only has one congressional district."
• "Recovery.gov also shows 2,893.9 jobs created with $194,537,372 in stimulus funding in New Hampshire’s 00 congressional district. But, there is no such thing."
• "The site also shows $1,471,518 going to New Hampshire’s 6th congressional district, $1,033,809 to the 4th congressional district and $124,774 to the 27th congressional district. In fact, New Hampshire only has two congressional districts; inviting confusion about where the money listed for the 00, 4th, 6th and 27th districts is going."

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"The News Without Transparency" shows you what the news would look like without public access to information. Laws and regulations that force the government to make the data it has publicly available are absolutely vital, along with services that take that raw data and make it easy for reporters to write sentences like the ones we've redacted in the piece above. If you have an article you'd like us to put through the redaction machine, please send us an email at mbuck@sunlightfoundation.com.

In addition to an analysis of who gets paid what, the news reports highlighted the fact that the reports are now provided digitally.

These staff salary reports are valuable oversight tools, but they do not include information such as assets, gifts, or travel payment. For top level executive branch staff, that information is available in the staff personal financial disclosures, which are available upon request through an online portal created by the Obama Administration. While lower level staff do submit reports as well, these are not publicly available.

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"The News Without Transparency" shows you what the news would look like without public access to information. Laws and regulations that force the government to make the data it has publicly available are absolutely vital, along with services that take that raw data and make it easy for reporters to write sentences like the ones we've redacted in the piece above. If you have an article you'd like us to put through the redaction machine, please send us an email at mbuck@sunlightfoundation.com.

The Washington Post looked at the impact of new legislation facilitating absentee ballots and found that overseas military personnel voted at higher rates than the general population in the 2010 elections.

The new legislation, or the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, was ultimately included in the Defense Authorization Bill of 2010.

The article states a number of military voting statistics:

• 46 percent of military personnel cast ballots last year, which is a 21 percent increase from 2006 and slightly more than the 45.5 percent of the general population who voted.
• 77 percent of U.S. troops registered to vote in 2010 compared to just 65 percent of the general public.
• Over 112,000 military voters were unable to vote because they never received ballots they requested in 2010. This is a 12 percent more than those who did not receive ballots in 2008.
• 52 percent of military spouses voted in 2010. Of these, 57 percent voted in person, while just 33 percent of military personnel voted in person.

Voting statistics regarding military personnel are available in reports developed by the Federal Voter Assistance Program. Post election reports are available digitally starting with the fourth report, which covers the period between September 1961 and 1963.  The Washington Post article used the FVAP's 2010 Post Election Report.

The raw data for the statistics used in the reports and in the article is also available from the FVAP as well as on Data.gov, but the spreadsheets are hard to decipher. I personally found the reports to be sufficiently informative, but the data is there if one wanted to do a deeper analysis.

Statistics regarding the general public's voting patterns, which FVAP used to draw comparisons in its report, are available from the U.S. Census Bureau. The statistics for 2010 are available here.

Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey helped with the research for this post.

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"The News Without Transparency" shows you what the news would look like without public access to information. Laws and regulations that force the government to make the data it has publicly available are absolutely vital, along with services that take that raw data and make it easy for reporters to write sentences like the ones we've redacted in the piece above. If you have an article you'd like us to put through the redaction machine, please send us an email at mbuck@sunlightfoundation.com.

Last spring the government technology newspaper Federal Computer Week highlighted the Health and Human Services Department for spending $1.6 billion on advisory committees over the last decade, which is half of the $3.2 billion total the federal government spent on these committees during the same time period.

These numbers were obtained using the General Services Administration's new eFACA website. The website was developed "to make information from the Federal Advisory Committee Act database easier to find, understand, and use," according to the main page. This sort of information has been collected by GSA since 1972, but until recently had been hosted in a notoriously hard-to-use database.

These advisory committees have come under fire for a lack of transparency in other areas as well as spending, such as influence and access. President Obama attempted to address some concerns in June 2010 with a Presidential Memo prohibiting federally registered lobbyists from serving on these committees.

Earlier this fall the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee passed legislation seeking to make these committees more accountable. The legislation then moved to the Ways and Means Committee but has not made any progress since then. GSA's eFACA website and a study being conducted by the Administrative Conference of the United States on FACA are two steps forward for increasing transparency in this regard, according to the Project for Government Oversight.

The FCW article goes on to list the agencies that have spent the most on advisory committees over the last decade. HHS tops the list, followed by the following:

• The Defense Department at $255 million.
• The Environmental Protection Agency at $137 million.
• The Interior Department at $88 million.
• The Energy Department at $74 million.
• The Veterans Affairs Department at $68 million.

The News Without Transparency: Records not so Open with Obama

The Department of Justice’s recently proposed changes for the way it executes Freedom of Information Act requests have inspired a flurry of media attention from various news outlets and criticism from government watchdogs.

The groups criticizing the DOJ, which includes the Sunlight Foundation, are concerned that the new rules are too restrictive and threaten the federal law’s usefulness and fairness to the regular citizens and journalists it is meant to serve.

Here at Sunlight, we compared the new and old regulations, and discussed how the changes would be a huge step back for transparency. But we’re not the only organization writing about FOIA problems and setbacks. The backlog of FOIA requests and agencies taking much longer than allowed by the statute to fill requests are examples of the frequently discussed issues over the past few years.

Based on data gathered by government entities responsible for collection of FOIA statistics, and despite the presidential promise to do better, it appears things have only gotten worse. In March 2010 the Associated Press assessed how well President Obama's promises to comply more fully with FOIA had been carried out after a year.

The article found that agencies were more frequently citing exemptions to avoid complying with requests. Similarly, in July 2011 iWatch News vented frustration with the State Department for neglecting to respond to FOIA requests for four years.

These articles, as well as others that look at the administration's compliance with FOIA, frequently begin with holding agency practices to the standard set by President Obama's memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies. The memo states, "The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails." The text of this memo is available from the Briefing Room on WhiteHouse.gov. It is located under "Presidential Memoranda" under January 2009.

In general, agencies are required to submit annual reports detailing their interaction with FOIA requests. FOIA.gov links to At-a-Glance reports that highlight the major findings from each agency. FOIA.gov also allows you to search the data submitted as part of agency reports and create acustom-made report. The Office of Information Policy also generates specific reports to emphasize interesting FOIA statistics.

The AP article states that agencies cited the "deliberative process" exemption - one that the president's memo specifically directed agencies to avoid using so frequently - 70,779 times in 2009. This is up from the 47,395 times it was cited under George W. Bush in 2008. The article also states that agencies overall cited exemptions at least 466,872 times in 2009, again up from 312,683 times in 2008. Meanwhile requests are declining, down by 11 percent - 493,610 in 2008 to 444,924 in 2009. The AP also claims that the "majority of agencies - 12 out of the 17, or 70 percent of those surveyed - increased FOIA requests granted in full, in part or both." On what could be a positive note for the administration,  the AP notes that the number of backlogged requests had dropped from 124,019 in 2008 to 67,764 in 2009. These facts and statistics about the number of FOIA requests filed and completed can be found using the "Advanced Report" function on the FOIA website. This function allows you to select the specific data you would like included in your report as well as which agencies you would like included in a comparison. Unlike the basic report function, "all agencies" is an option using this tool. Specific data choices include exemptions, requests, appeals, processing time, requests granted, and backlog. Much of this information could also be obtained by looking individually at each agency's annual report. The AP article only looked at 17 agencies, but the FOIA data tool allows you to look at many more if you so choose. The iWatch News story states that for the State Department, "the median response for complex FOIA requests is 228 days." The State Department makes available its annual FOIA reports from 1998 through the present. The 2010 report provides the statistic used in the article. The story also states that for fiscal year 2012 the State Department has requested "$166,000 in new money to depend the department in FOIA-related lawsuits." The department's budget requests are available from 2002 through the present. The 2012 "Department of State Operations Congressional Budget Justification" includes the numbers cited in the article.

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"The News Without Transparency" shows you what the news would look like without public access to information. Laws and regulations that force the government to make the data it has publicly available are absolutely vital, along with services that take that raw data and make it easy for reporters to write sentences like the ones we've redacted in the piece above. If you have an article you'd like us to put through the redaction machine, please send us an email at mbuck@sunlightfoundation.com.