Journalists Launch Web site to Investigate Safety and Health Issues

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Work Safe Network



<http://www.fairwarning.org>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Journalists Launch Web site to Investigate Safety and Health Issues


LOS ANGELES (March 18, 2010) — The board and staff of FairWarning today announced the launch of a nonprofit, online publication that will produce in-depth stories on safety and health issues facing consumers and workers, and related topics of government and corporate accountability. The site will begin publishing Wednesday, March 24.

The new venture will be led by award-winning investigative journalist Myron Levin. After 23 years as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, Levin founded FairWarning as a new model for presenting essential news and information that is underreported or absent from traditional media.

“Even before news budgets went into free fall, few news organizations gave adequate attention to safety and health investigations, despite the potential to save readers from injury or death,” Levin said. “In today’s hollowed-out newsrooms, even fewer reporters can tackle these complex and time-intensive stories. We want to help fill the gap.”

Levin runs FairWarning with Joanna Lin, also a former Los Angeles Times reporter, and three graduate students at the UC Berkeley and University of Southern California journalism schools.

The project is guided by a distinguished board of directors, including Margaret Engel, director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation and a former editor and reporter for The Washington Post; Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication; Vernon Loeb, deputy managing editor for news and multimedia at The Philadelphia Inquirer; William K. Marimow, editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner; and Henry Weinstein, a law professor at UC Irvine, former Los Angeles Times reporter and a founder of the Center for Investigative Reporting.

With its small staff and focus on safety and health, FairWarning has no illusion of serving as an all-purpose news source. Rather, it aims to become a go-to source of robust, public interest journalism on certain vital but often neglected issues. It will partner with other media nationwide to distribute and produce stories that might not otherwise be told.

When FairWarning goes live Wednesday, one of the reports on offer will spotlight the trail of victims of a combustible line of pickup trucks. Another article will tell how undercounting and outright cheating in injury reports create an overly rosy view of workplace safety. A third story will examine the politics of regulating all-terrain vehicles to minimize injuries and deaths.

Along with in-depth articles, FairWarning will also offer on a daily basis a wide sweep of legal and regulatory news, including court rulings and reports from think tanks, advocacy groups and academic and professional journals.

Support for FairWarning is provided by the Charles Evans Foundation, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, the Investigative Reporting Workshop and The Renaissance Foundation.

For more information, please visit www.fairwarning.org, or contact Myron Levin or Joanna Lin.

Myron Levin | 818-907-9953 | [e-mail]
Joanna Lin | 818-907-9933 | [e-mail]



Read more: http://www.fairwarning.org

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Mods: No link & no copyright. I posted the full email since it isn't available online.

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. "Safety and Health Issues" don't belong in LBN ya know . . .

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But if Sarah farts . . . .

'nuff said

[Omaha Steve]

2. Good point :-)

It had 4 R's that I know of before it got kicked here.

[OhioChick]

3. Isn't that the truth. n/t

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. And then we wonder why the boy-king reigned for 8 years?

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NOT

(sigh)