The Money Trail

The “Money Trail” series is about the influence of corporate contributions on politics.

Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times

Robert McChesney maintains that the major beneficiaries of the so-called Information Age are no more than a handful of enormous corporations, and that this concentrated corporate control is disastrous for any notion of participatory democracy.

President Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky Scandal

Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff’s stories and inquiries played a major role in shaping developments on the road toward impeachment. Isikoff was the first journalist to learn of the liaison between President Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Dirty Votes: The Race for Miami Mayor

Revealed corruption in Miami’s city administration, exposing the irregularities of the city’s electoral contest in 1998, such as buying votes and falsifying votes of deceased persons and of criminals.

Inside Tibet: A Country Tortured

Account of the flight of 15 Buddhist monks from Tibet through the Himalayas.

Investigation into Chicago City Hall Ethics Abuses

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that lawyer and Chicago Alderman Edward Burke, chairman of the city council’s Finance Committee, was paid at least $189,000 in fees while helping developer Joseph Beale, who got a $1.2 million subsidy and other aid from City Hall. Investigative reporters Chuck Neubauer and Charles Nicodemus wrote in their November 15 story that the total paid to Burke may have exceeded $300,000, and that Burke’s wife, Anne, a state appellate judge, also received at least $17,000 from the developer. They also reported that Burke’s lobbying efforts on Beale’s behalf included writing a letter to a state official on city stationery.

Abuse of Campaign Finance Laws

Duffy, Novak and Weisskopf labored at the nexus of big money and politics. This required them to pore for days at a time over cartons of Federal Election Commission and court documents, to wheedle information from reluctant sources a sentence at a time. Their persistence paid off in three dozen pathbreaking stories on campaign finance in 1997, many of which were picked up and credited by major newspapers and TV news shows.

Illegal Democratic Campaign Contributions

The team of reporters from the Los Angeles Times uncovered large contributions to the Democratic party by influential Asian donors. Subsequent to the reportage, the Democrats returned nearly $1.2 million in donations and sparked a nationwide debate on campaign finance reform.

Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate

Drawing on both laboratory experiments and the real world of America’s presidential, gubernatorial, and congressional races, the authors show that negative advertising drives down voter turnout – in some cases dramatically – and that political consultants intentionally use ads for this very purpose.

The Rostenkowski Investigation

The Sun Times story, led by journalists Charles Neubauer, Mark Brown and Michael Briggs, uncovered a corruption case against Rep Dan Rostenkowski’s campaign that had paid Dan Rostenkowski $73,000 in building rent and used taxpayer’s funds to personally acquire cars for himself.