My name is Jason Kosena. I am a government and investigative reporter who has worked for both family-owned and corporate newspapers, as well as for an online non-profit daily Web publication. I am starting this blog out of a concern that the demise of traditional media will inevitably lead to an erosion of the First Amendment duty to serve as a watchdog over government, business and the politicians who we trust to run our country and communities.
The bottom line is that it comes down to the bottom line. Investigative reporting is expensive. Ensuring that First Amendment duty, which includes open records requests, employment of highly-trained professionals and time and energy, costs money -- a lot of it. New media bloggers lack the funding and the training to do serious investigations. Trending data, following endless paper trails and preparing easy to understand graphics is the expensive part of good journalism. Linking to and commenting on it after the fact -- as most bloggers do -- is the easy part.
The intent of this blog is not to take over the First Amendment duty that traditional media are leaving in the wake as the industry continues to shed staff, resources, paper editions and purpose. It is more to provide insight and to compile and pay tribute to the First Amendment journalism still being done by the over-worked and under-paid reporters and editors around the country. It is through their blood, sweat and dedication that our democracy functions properly under the microscope of truth and transparency.
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