More Awards

All you hard-working researchers at the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service, etc., listen up! Investigative journalism non-profit Pro Publica is accepting nominations for a new award honoring sterling examples of "investigative governance." Reports from 2008 (calendar year, not fiscal) are eligible, and nominations are due by the end of January. Interestingly enough, the prizes are being sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, now lead by former GAO head David Walker.

I think these prizes are a great idea. GAO reports are a government journalist's best friend, because they always have good statistics, good anecdotes, and an all-encompassing perspective we can't pull together when reporting a daily story. But too often, good government reports don't get the attention that they deserve in the mainstream media, and government researchers are treated as sort of a separate species as the rest of government, rather than an integral part of it. Recognizing their work, and acknowledging how useful good internal government oversight is to good journalism, is a good first step towards getting government research organizations some of the credit they deserve.