The Center was founded by former 60 Minutes producer Charles Lewis, who served for 15 years as its executive director until January 2005. With more than 30 years of national investigative journalism experience, he oversaw many Center projects that are still cited by other news media today. Examples include:

  • Iraq: The War Card, a 380,000-word analysis of the pre-war rhetoric by leading members of the Bush administration;
  • Windfalls of War, which spotlighted Halliburton’s role as the largest private contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan;
  • “Fat Cat Hotel,” which broke the news about the Clinton administration using the Lincoln Bedroom to host generous political contributors;
  • The Buying of the President series, a detailed exploration of the roles that money and special interests play in presidential politics, also a New York Times bestseller;
  • The Center also obtained the secret draft legislation called the Patriot II Act, which was published on the Center’s website.

From its early years publishing the Public i newsletter, to its current all-digital online platform, the Center’s “no stone unturned” investigative journalism has grown to incorporate new technologies, reach broader audiences, and amass greater impact. The Center’s work now reaches many millions of people, from state and federal lawmakers to concerned consumers and policy makers around the world.

Under my leadership starting in 2007, the Center has investigated some of the most pressing issues of our time. These include:

  • Who’s Behind the Financial Meltdown?, which published the first-ever list of the Top 25 subprime lenders, and the major financial institutions that bankrolled them;
  • The Climate Change, Health and Financial Reform Lobby projects which pinpointed the thousands of companies and special interests trying to derail or weaken any new climate policy, health, and financial reform legislation in Congress;
  • The Sexual Assault on Campus project which provided the first nationwide examination of how students responsible for sexual assaults on campuses, often repeat offenders, face little or no punishment.
  • Most recently, the Center obtained Coast Guard logs showing the president was warned soon after the BP spill that the accident might be worse than the Exxon Valdez, and broke the news that BP accounted for 97 percent of the worst worker safety violations among all U.S. refineries.

But accountable journalism doesn’t stop at the U.S. border. The Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has investigated some of the most important health and environmental issues around the world for the last 13 years, including:

  • Tobacco Underground; how the world’s most widely smuggled legal substance fuels terrorism, addiction, and corruption;
  • The Global Climate Change Lobby; which uncovered the powerful global players battling in support of — and against — an international climate change treaty in Copenhagen;
  • Dangers in the Dust, a joint series with the BBC that sparked controversy from Canada to Brazil and India over the export and use of asbestos, a known carcinogen, with predictions that up to 10 million asbestos-related cancer deaths will occur worldwide by 2030.

Through two decades, the Center’s work has spurred new laws, won more than a hundred awards, and reached millions of readers. The Center still believes in its basic mission, to produce original investigative journalism about significant public issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable.

Thank you for 20 years of extraordinary support.

W.E. Buzenberg

William E. Buzenberg