News

The Investigative Reporting Workshop has released the trailer to its upcoming series, Years of Living Dangerously, which will air on Showtime in April 2014. The eight-part series examines the impact of climate change around the world, covering it from three angles: how it is affecting people, the politics that surround the issue, and solutions to address the problem.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is pleased to announce the appointment of Keesha Gaskins as director of the Democratic Practice program's U.S. portfolio. Ms. Gaskins is responsible for program development and grantmaking to advance democratic reforms and other strategic efforts to strengthen the vitality of democracy in the United States.

In June 2013, the RBF contracted with M+R Strategic Services to conduct an impact assessment of the Democratic Practice program's money-in-politics grantmaking. The purpose of the impact assessment was to step back after 10 years of grantmaking and  review the money-in-politics portfolio, including related transparency grants.

According to the 2013 CPA-Zicklin Index, released last month, the number of large American companies ranked highest for transparent political disclosure and accountability grew by more than 150 percent since last year. The index is a joint effort between the Center for Political Accountability, a Rockefeller Brothers Fund grantee, and the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research .

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has found new and surprising ways to reach audiences through arts. CIR has partnered with Tides Theatre in San Francisco to adapt investigative news articles and a documentary film into one-act plays. CIR is also collaborating with arts organizations in Berkeley, California to showcase animated shorts based on the news. Another CIR initiative brings spoken-word poet José Vadi onto its staff.

Fossil fuel companies have been overvaluing coal and gas reserves resulting in a dangerously inflated investment bubble, according to the latest report released by the Carbon Tracker Initiative and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. With the 2010 agreement among governments to limit global warming to two degrees, the study's authors calculated that 60 to 80 percent of the oil, gas, and coal reserves listed on stock exchanges are unburnable.

United States forces and agents engaged in torture following the attacks on September 11, 2001, according to a nonpartisan, independent study by The Constitution Project. The report found that the country's most senior officials were ultimately responsible for allowing and contributing to torturous interrogation techniques. There also is no firm evidence that the widespread use of torture produced significant and valuable information.

As the Fund's overall work has increasingly incorporated support for the involvement of youth in key issues, the board of trustees has approved a revision to the Democratic Practice program guidelines to wind down its focus on youth organizing. The decision was made after careful consideration and acknowledgment that other programs will continue to carry forward a commitment to support youth as a necessary constituency in furthering program goals.

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) has published a comprehensive digital newsbook about the drastic change in campaign financing during the 2012 elections, as a result of the Supreme Court's February 2010 Citizens United ruling. Consider the Source is a project that was launched in January 2012 to track the impact of campaign spending by nonprofits and Super PACs throughout the election year.

The Wesleyan Media Project analyzed the enormous amount of political advertising projected at Americans during the 2012 election campaigns. With 2013 underway, co-directors Erika Franklin Fowler, Michael M. Franz, and Travis N. Ridout, offer their reflections, highlighting fascinating discussion points such as the predominance of male voiceovers, and the primary emotion conveyed in ads—anger.