"Our list is more up-to-date than the Treasury department's": ProPublica's new bailout site
Investigative organisation launches its 'Eye on the Bailout' facility
– 2 min read
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ProPublica, the US-based, non-profit, investigative organisation, today launched a new, comprehensive resource section to follow 'all facets of the financial crisis and the bailout money given to banks by the US government'.
Named 'Eye on the Bailout', the new sub-site includes : a searchable database showing how all bailout money is being distributed; profiles of all bailout recipients and the amount of funding each received; and graphics showing the impact on different industries.
Reports and commentary on the most recent bailout developments are also featured, alongside links to external content; a timeline of major events in the financial crisis; a glossary of terms; and maps plotting the banks that have received bailout money, a release announced today.
A widget to let other websites share ProPublica's bailout information is also in development.
Speaking to Journalism.co.uk earlier this month, the organisation's senior editor, Eric Umansky , said the site began as a list of every bank on the web that has received bailout money.
According to today's release, the list quickly became 'one of the most viewed, linked to and quoted resources on the ProPublica site'.
"Our list is more up-to-date than the Treasury department's," Umansky told Journalism.co.uk.
"I don't know if they [the government] check us, but we do now get press releases from banks: 'hey, we just got bailout money' because in some sense it's a government guarantee they're not going to let them go under.
"We try to break it down in humanly understandable terms."
Citizen journalism-led content will also be a significant feature, he said.
"When we took a step back and looked at all the information we had collected, we saw a way for us to provide context and clarity in a way that others weren't. Eye on the Bailout will help us fulfill our mission by serving as a watchdog for the trillions of dollars that are being spent on the bailout and by sharing content and information that others can use," ProPublica's director of online development, Scott Klein, said in the release.
