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The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonparti-

san organization supported by foundations and

individual contributors, was founded in 1989 by

investigative reporter and former 60 Minutes producer

Charles Lewis. Lewis’ idea behind establishing the Center

was quite simple: What needs to be investigated? What has-

n’t been reported? What is significant to our society?

The Center’s work is based on the conviction that the public

has a right to know what its government, public officials, and

corporate leaders are doing. Its mission includes providing

the American people with information—often not available

elsewhere—about how these entities are performing their

duties. By providing thorough, thoughtful, and objective

analyses, the Center serves as an honest broker of informa-

tion, which in turn leads to a more informed citizenry that

demands a higher level of accountability from its govern-

ment and elected leaders.

Widely acknowledged as the preeminent online journalistic

enterprise in the United States, the Center does investiga-

tive reporting and research on public policy issues in the

United States and around the world. Virtually all of our find-

ings are posted online at www.publicintegrity.org, while

many of our investigations are later published as books or

reports.

During 2003 the Center published more reports, received

more Web site hits, won more awards, and began more

projects than in any previous year. The numbers are telling:

more than 40 investigative reports posted online triggered

nearly 3 million unique visits and more than 75 million hits.

In addition, the Center was cited in some 1,500 print and

broadcast stories around the world.

More importantly, there was evidence in both Washington

and the country at large that Center reports made a differ-

ence: in at least two instances, for example, these investiga-

tions spawned changes to the law.

It was, in short, a banner year.

A N N U A L R E P O R T2 0 0 3

The Center for Public Integrity

2003Association of Capital Reporters and EditorsOnline Reporting: Public Service In-Depth Reporting“State Secrets: An Investigation of Political Party Money inthe States,” Mary Jo Sylwester, Leah Rush, John Dunbar,and Robert Moore

Project Censored National Award: Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2002-2003 [2nd Place Ranking]“Justice Department Drafts Sweeping Expansion ofTerrorism Act,” Chuck Lewis and Adam Mayle

Awards (continued)

Online News Association and USCAnnenberg School of CommunicationFirst Prize in Enterprise Reporting (Independent Category):“Well Connected,” a report on the frequent travels of the FCC and other telecommunications issues, John Dunbar, Bob Williams, Morgan Jindrich and Scott Singleton

Finalist in General Excellence: The Center for Public Integrity

Finalist in Enterprise Reporting (Independent Category):The Water Barons: How a Few Powerful Companies ArePrivatizing Your Water, ICIJ

Finalist in Feature Reporting (Independent Category):Making a Killing: The Business of War, ICIJ

The Center for Public Integrity, which does notaccept contributions from anonymous donors or fromcorporations, labor unions, or governments, gratefullyacknowledges the generous support of the followingindividuals and foundations that contributed $500 or more in 2003:

William BackerRobert D. BlainJack BlockDavid BraybrookeThe Carnegie Corporation of New YorkPeter and Lucia CaseCharles S. Chapin Charitable TrustC.S. Fund / Warsh Mott LegacyThe Nathan Cummings FoundationRussell & Teruko DanielVictor Elmaleh Edith and Henry EverettEverett Philanthropic Fund Ford FoundationFoundation Open Society InstituteJames Gleick & Cynthia Crossen David B. Gold FoundationRichard and Rhoda Goldman FundGunzenhauser-Chapin FundRobert GilesThe Lucy Gonda FoundationFrancis HaganLinda Hagan-BrandtsHafif Family FoundationJohn Hirschi Donor Advised Fund Peter E. HomekJimmy W. JanacekThe Joyce FoundationKatz Family FoundationKismet Foundation

John S. and James L. Knight FoundationJerry KnollLear Family FoundationArthur D. LipsonDonna Mae LitowitzThe Litowitz Foundation, Inc.Bevis & Clara Longstreth The Los Angeles Times Foundation*The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur FoundationMichael Marston Robert W. McChesneyMcCormick Tribune FoundationThe Giles W. and Elise G. Mead FoundationGordon T. MooreMostyn Foundation Inc.Stewart R. Mott Charitable TrustThe John and Florence Newman FoundationFrances NyceOpen Society InstitutePark Foundation, Inc.Dr. Charles PerkinsThe Pew Charitable TrustsCharles PillerPopplestone FoundationPrinceton Class of 1969Donavan E. RasmussenV. Kann Rasmussen FoundationRockefeller Family FundRockefeller Financial ServicesSandler Family Supporting FoundationDr. Jonathan & Gail Schorsch Ben & Karen SherwoodFred & Alice Stanback The Streisand FoundationMark S. ThompsonTides FoundationTown Creek FoundationThe Whitehead FoundationStacey Woodruff

THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY 910 17th Street, N.W 7th floor Washington, D.C. 20006 202-466-1300 www.publicintegrity.org

f u n d e r s

* Matching gift

Since 1996 the Center has been honored by jour-nalistic organizations 21 times, including six awardsthis year for work completed in 2002 and 2003.Below is the list of those awards:

1996Society of Professional JournalistsSigma Delta Chi Award: Public Service in OnlineJournalism (Independent)Fat Cat Hotel: How Democratic High-Rollers areRewarded with Overnight Stays at the White House,”The Public i staff and Margaret Ebrahim

Investigative Reporters and EditorsNational Book Award Finalist“The Buying of the President 1996,” Charles Lewis

1997Investigative Reporters and EditorsNational Book Award Finalist“Toxic Deception: How the Chemical IndustryManipulates Science, Bends the Law, and EndangersYour Health,” Dan Fagin and Marianne Levelle

1998Investigative Reporters and EditorsNational Book Award Finalist“The Buying of Congress: How Special Interests HaveStolen Your Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit ofHappiness,” Charles Lewis

1999Investigative Reporters and EditorsNational Book Award“Animal Underworld: Inside America’s Black Market forRare and Exotic Species,” Alan Green

Investigative Reporters and EditorsOnline Reporting Award Finalist“US Support for Tobacco Overseas: Going Out ofBusiness,” The Public i staff and Maud Beelman

2000Investigative Reporters and EditorsOnline Reporting Award“Our Private Legislatures— Public Service, Personal Gain,”Diane Renzulli, Leah Rush, John Dunbar, Alex Knott, RobertMoore, and Kenneth Vogel

Investigative Reporters and EditorsOnline Reporting Award Finalist“Money, Influence and Integrity in the 2000 Election Year,”The Public i staff

2001Society of Professional JournalistsSigma Delta Chi Award: Public Service in OnlineJournalism (Independent)“Watchdogs on Short Leashes,” Kenneth Vogel and Leah Rush

Investigative Reporters and EditorsOnline Reporting Award Finalist“Tobacco Companies Linked to Criminal Organizations inLucrative Cigarette Smuggling,” ICIJ, Maud Beelman, BillBirmbauer, Duncan Campbell, William Marsden, Erik Schelzig,and Leo Sisti

2002Society of Professional JournalistsSigma Delta Chi Award: Public Service in OnlineJournalism (Independent)“State Secrets: An Investigation of Political Party Money in theStates,” Mary Jo Sylwester, Leah Rush, John Dunbar, andRobert Moore

Society of Professional JournalistsSigma Delta Chi Award: Online Investigative Reporting(Independent)”Making a Killing: The Business of War,” ICIJ

Investigative Reporters and EditorsNational Book Award“Capitol Offenders: How Private Interests Govern Our States,”Diane Renzulli, John Dunbar, Alex Knott, Robert Moore, andLeah Rush

Investigative Reporters and EditorsOnline Reporting Award Finalist“Enron’s Big Political Donors,” John Dunbar, Robert Moore, andMary Jo Sylwester

Awards

The Center for Public Integrity • 2003 Annual Report

February:■ The Water Barons: A Handful of Corporations Seek to

Privatize the World’s Water■ Water and Power: The French Connection■ Metered to Death: How a Water Experiment Caused Riots

and a Cholera Epidemic■ The ‘Aguas’ Tango: Cashing in on Buenos Aires’

Privatization■ Loaves, Fishes and Dirty Dishes: Manila’s Privatized

Water Can’t Handle the Pressure■ Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-

Terrorism Act■ Water and Politics in the fall of Suharto■ A Tale of Two Cities■ Low Rates, Needed Repairs Lure ‘Big Water’ to Uncle

Sam’s Plumbing■ Even in Wartime, Stealth and Democracy Do Not Mix■ Hard Water: The Uphill Campaign to Privatize Canada’s

Waterworks■ The Big Pond Down Under■ The FCC’s Rapidly Revolving Door

March:■ Gore Spent Recount Money in Primary States Before

Bowing Out■ Advisors of Influence: Nine Members of the Defense

Policy Board Have Ties to Defense Contractors■ The Clinton Top 100: Where Are They Now?

April:■ Privatizing Water: What the European Commission

Doesn’t Want You to Know■ FCC Makes New Rules to Reform Troubled Program

May■ Kerry Carries Water for Top Donor■ Hired Guns: Lobbyists Spend Loads of Money to Influence

Legislators■ Cigarette Company Documents Outline Strategy to Derail

Global Tobacco Treaty■ Well Connected: FCC and Industry Maintain Cozy

Relationship on Many Levels■ Behind Closed Doors: Top Broadcasters Met 71 Times

with FCC Officials

June■ Bill Would Eliminate Industry-Sponsored Travel for FCC■ The FCC’s Strange Nonprofit: FCC Chairman Michael

Powell Runs Venture Capital Firm That Claims It’s Private■ Harmful Error: Investigating America’s Local Prosecutors

July■ Trading in Favors: Soft Money Documents Imply Quid Pro

Quo between Donors and Politicians■ Buying Influence: So-called 527 Committees Spend

Millions on Elections with Little Oversight or Accountability

September■ FCC Plans to Nix Industry-Paid Travel■ Silent Partners: How Political Nonprofits Work the System

October■ Big Radio Rules in Small Markets■ Prepaid Profit Plan for Wireless Companies: Top Firms

Have Banked $629 million for Services Not Yet Offered■ Windfalls of War: U.S. Contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq

November■ The Politics of Energy: Coal

December■ 527s Raised $29 million So Far in 2003■ The Politics of Energy: Nuclear Power■ The Politics of Energy: Oil & Gas

Web site Activity:

In 2003, our site had nearly three million unique visits andover 75 million hits. Reader feedback has been on the rise,with the public sending us over 3,500 e-mails this yearabout our reports and investigations. The Center currentlyhas 10,209 listserv subscribers with an increase of 4,200this year alone.

“…a nonpartisan watchdog that keeps an eye onhow things really work in our nation’s capital.”

Bill Moyers on Now with Bill Moyers.

concerns that a handful of private companies could sooncontrol a large chunk of this vital natural resource. InNovember the project was a finalist for the notable Online News Award for Enterprise Reporting.

■ Making a Killing: The Business of War, winner of theprestigious Sigma Delta Chi award for investigativereporting, shows that at least 90 companies provide services normally performed by national military forces.In over 100 countries these companies provide every-thing from military training to logistics, and even engagein armed combat. This project also was a finalist for theOnline News Award in the category of Feature Reporting.

These two books have brought worldwide attention andacclaim to the Center, which in turn has both attracted newmembers and motivated existing members to increase theircontributions in support of our work.

PROJECT: HARMFUL ERROR: INVESTIGATINGAMERICA’S LOCAL PROSECUTORS. This three-year project on prosecutorial misconduct was conducted by ateam of researchers who studied state appellate court opin-ions throughout the 50 states going back to 1970. Theyscrutinized more than 11,000 opinions and found thatjudges had ruled in over 2,000 of them that prosecutors’behavior inside or outside the courtroom prejudiced juries or judges against the defendants. The report, which ran tonearly 50,000 words, also documented cases in which prosecutorial misconduct had played a role in convictinginnocent men and women. Response from both the mediaand the general public demonstrated that this project strucka nerve in the American psyche, and indicates that morereporting on this subject needs to be done.

PROJECT: WELL CONNECTED: A SERIES OFINVESTIGATIVE REPORTS ON THE TELECOMMUNI-CATIONS INDUSTRY. This multi-faceted look at telecommu-nications has revealed and documented the influence of the industry over officials at the Federal CommunicationsCommission. The project included an exhaustive databaseshowing who owns the television and radio stations, as wellas cable-TV and telephone companies, in every AmericanZip Code. It also revealed startling new information aboutcontrol of broadcast outlets in various markets, industry con-tributions, and lobbying efforts at the congressional level. In

the year to come, “Well Connected”will look into influence at the stateand local government levels.

“Well Connected” received enor-mous news coverage this year for astory on the cozy relationshipbetween FCC officials and staff andthe industries they regulate, withparticular emphasis on industry-financed travel. Days after release

of this story, Senator John McCain, chairman of the SenateCommerce Committee, introduced legislation addressing theCenter’s findings about privately funded trips taken by FCCofficials. In addition, Representative Frank Wolf, Republicanof Virginia, urged FCC Chairman Michael Powell to requestadditional funds so that Commission officials would nolonger have to rely on industry sources to pay for travel—arequest with which Powell complied.

PROJECT: STATE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY.Various portions of this ongoing project won major journal-ism awards in 2001 and 2002, and new reports are well ontheir way to breaking new ground this year. Hired Guns, thestory of how lobbyists spend vast amounts of money to influ-ence state legislators, was the most comprehensive effortever on this subject, while The New Soft Money detailedhow fund raisers use loopholes in all 50 states to raisemoney for national and local candidates and showed howspecial committees (known as “527s” to the financecognoscenti) violate the spirit, and sometimes the letter, ofthe law on election fund raising. These unprecedentedreports have attracted a sizable number of readers fromacross the country who are interested in lobbying at thestate level.

A complete list of reports follows:

January:■ A Most Favored Corporation: Enron Prevailed in Federal,

State Lobbying Efforts 49 Times■ Phone Funds for Schools, Libraries, Riddled with Fraud■ Relaxing Media Ownership Rules Conflicts with the

Public’s Right to Know■ Congressmen Call for Proof of Fraud-Plagued Phone

Fund for School Libraries■ It’s a Millionaires’ Race: New Financial Disclosure ■ Database Details Assets of 2004 Presidential Candidates

Center Projects in 2003

PROJECT: NATIONAL GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY.This project, which is the core of the Center’s activities,includes both short-deadline investigations and longer-terminitiatives. Below are some of the stories and reports pub-lished by the Government Accountability team during 2003:

■ The Buying of the President2004 is the third in a series of booksresearched, reported, and written byCenter staff on money and politics ina presidential campaign year. BoP,as the book is known internally, wasa mammoth undertaking that drewupon the resources of staff Center-wide. In their research, staffersuncovered a number of incidents inwhich presidential candidates failedin their fund-raising efforts to meetthe spirit of the law.

■ Windfalls of War: U.S.Contractors in Iraq andAfghanistan, perhaps the mostpublicized of all the Center reportsthis year (Web traffic jumped from132,000 daily hits to 862,456 hitsthe day the report was released),provided the most comprehensivelist of American contractors workingin those two foreign nations. Thereport also showed that these 70-

plus companies and individuals collectively contributedmore money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush—a little over $500,000—than to any other politician or presidential campaign over the last dozenyears. Shortly after we issued the report, an official at the Iraq Infrastructure Reconstruction Office requested a meeting with the Center to discuss how the office could perform its duties with more transparency.

■ Justice Department Drafts Sweeping Expansion ofAnti-terrorism Act, which made public a draft of thesecret sequel to the 2001 “Patriot Act,” was the Center’sscoop of the year. Hours after the so-called Patriot II Actwas posted online, more than 100 Web sites had linkedto the Center; within two weeks, the leaked documentproved to be a magnet for more than 500,000 uniqueWeb site visits.

■ The Center’s report disclosing that nine members of theDefense Policy Board have ties to companies that wonhuge defense contracts (Advisors of Influence: NineMembers of the Defense Policy Board Have Ties toDefense Contractors) attracted enormous attention from both the public and the media. In fact, the reporttriggered so much criticism of former assistant defense secretary Richard Perle that he resigned his chairman-ship of this influential Pentagon advisory board.

■ The Politics of Energy, posted online during the finaldays of congressional debate over energy policy, tracedthe unprecedented influence that the coal, oil and gas,and nuclear industries have in Washington. This studyalso analyzed the industries’ lobbying, campaign contri-butions, and policy wish lists and how the Bush adminis-tration and Congress have granted those wishes.

PROJECT: GLOBAL ACCESS. Launched in early 2003,Global Access assesses anti-corruption mechanisms andaccountability in 27 countries. This unprecedented researchhas attracted the attention of such organizations as theUnited Nations, which is eagerly awaiting the results of theCenter’s new methodology. The Center is leading a team ofinternational social scientists and investigative journalists,who are measuring transparency, freedom of the press, andthe rule of law from Nicaragua to Nigeria, from Argentina toAustralia. Along with each country report is the country’sranking (in the new Public Integrity Index) as determined bythe project’s access indicator methodology. The report isscheduled for completion in early 2004. In the future, thisproject will be the springboard for more international proj-ects focusing on corruption.

PROJECT: INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM OFINVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS (ICIJ). This unique net-work was created in 1997 by the Center to extend its styleof watchdog journalism globally. ICIJ marshals the talents ofnearly 100 of the world’s leading investigative journalists inalmost 50 countries to produce collaborative, multinationalreports on issues that transcend borders, such as organizedcrime, political corruption, international security, and envi-ronmental degradation. This year the Center published twoimportant books based on months of research conducted byICIJ reporters around the world:

■ The Water Barons: How A Few Powerful CompaniesAre Privatizing Your Water shows that since 1990 theworld’s three largest private water utility companies haveexpanded into nearly every region of the planet, raising

“the paul revere of our times….”The Village Voice about Chuck Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity

with FCC Officials

Web site Activity:

with FCC Officials

Web site Activity:

reports.

Awards (continued)

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* Matching gift

Awards

reports.

Awards (continued)

f u n d e r s

* Matching gift

Awards