The Center for Public Integrity

On the campaign trail the other day, Mitt Romney was asked what the "big idea" of his campaign was. He answered, "Freedom." 

Funny that he didn't follow that up by discussing what our voting system, the voting system that defines our ability to be free, has devolved into. On one hand, we have several states attempting to put laws in place that disenfranchise voters by forcing them to jump through hoops in order to obtain proper documentation to vote. 

On the other, donors to super PACs are subverting disclosure laws by giving their money to nonprofit sub-branches, allowing anonymous donations to fund political activity and purchase elections. 

That doesn't seem like "freedom" to me. 

The 2012 presidential contest will be the most expensive - and most secretive - election of the modern era. Thanks to federal court decisions, corporations, billionaires and labor unions can spend as much as they want to fill the airwaves with half-truths and outright propaganda.

Sadly, much of the media is missing this story and instead obsessing over scripted, corporate-funded national conventions, where the biggest news was Clint Eastwood interrogating an empty chair.

The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to giving you the most credible information possible - not available from other news outlets. We’re not focused on the parade of celebrities and sound-bite gaffes. We are focused on uncovering the shadowy groups that are determined to decide who the next president and members of Congress will be through a historic influx of special-interest cash, the result of the now-famous "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling.

This is investigative reporting that I believe you care about and the kind of critical journalism that separates the Center for Public Integrity from the for-profit daily news chatter. And it's why I'm asking you to take a role in ensuring that this reporting continues by contributing today.

At the Center for Public Integrity, we are a watchdog for the public, not for insiders and shareholders. We take the time to write impartial, nonpartisan stories that give you the real truth.

But the truth has a price - research, reporting, writing, editing, fact-checking and publishing all cost money. We hope you consider it a price worth paying so we may continue to give you reporting that holds government, corporations and special interests accountable to you.

Rob Tornoe, a political cartoonist based in Delaware, is now drawing original cartoons for The Center, based on our stories. You'll see his work pop up on publicintegrity.org, our Facebook page and on Twitter. Tornoe also draws cartoons for The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Press of Atlantic City, Media Matters and Philadelphia NPR affiliate WHYY, among others. You can follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, too.

Rob Tornoe, a political cartoonist based in Delaware, is now drawing original cartoons for The Center, based on our stories. You'll see his work pop up on publicintegrity.org, our Facebook page and on Twitter. Tornoe also draws cartoons for The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Press of Atlantic City, Media Matters and Philadelphia NPR affiliate WHYY, among others. You can follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, too.

You may have noticed something funny around here lately: political cartoons.

Rob Tornoe, a political cartoonist based in Delaware,is now drawing original cartoons for The Center, based on our stories. You'll see his work pop up on publicintegrity.org, our Facebook page and on Twitter. Tornoe also draws cartoons for The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Press of Atlantic City, Media Matters and Philadelphia NPR affiliate WHYY, among others. You can follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, too.

We asked Rob a few questions to get to know him a little better:

When did you first know you wanted to be a political cartoonist?

Rob: During college, I worked at the local daily paper in town building ads and doing layout. Every so often the editors would let me draw local cartoons for the op-ed pages, and that was the first time it dawned on me that I could turn my love of politics and drawing into a career. Once I started, I was hooked.

So, if you weren't a cartoonist, you'd be a . . .?

Rob: No sure. I have a business and accounting degree of all things, so I guess I'd be a comptroller working for some company counting down the hours until I could retire. Or maybe I would have been a forensic accountant.

The Center for Public Integrity is, once again, The Center for Public Integrity.

Actually, we always have been. But in April 2011, as part of a new business plan that included a top-to-bottom redesign of our website, we also gave ourselves a new digital address — www.iwatchnews.org — to go along with our new look.

It sounded good at the time and looked good on paper, but it never fit quite right. And frankly, it led to some confusion about who we are — which is and always has been The Center for Public Integrity, one of the country’s oldest and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organizations.

Granted, the name we were born with doesn’t sound like your typical journalistic organization. But we’re not typical and we’re proud of it. Since former 60 Minutes producer Charles Lewis started The Center for Public Integrity from his home in 1989 — when the first George Bush had just taken over the White House from Ronald Reagan and the Clintons were still living in Little Rock — we have published thousands of hard-hitting, in-depth stories that have appeared in thousands of print and online publications and TV and radio programs around the world.

And we’ve had impact. Many of our investigations not only have won some of the most prestigious awards in journalism, they have also produced concrete results: