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Pro Publica's legal chops? The jury's out

By Mark Obbie

Now that Pro Publica has gone live, what kind of legal-reporting leg is it showing so far? Some, not a lot. But it's a good sign that one of its six main news categories is "justice and law," and that there are at least a couple of experienced legal-reporting types -- not to mention a number of hard-core investigative reporters, all of whom presumably know their way around a docket sheet. The main legal stories so far don't seem to feature original reporting. But that's bound to change. The law-flavored bylines I see include Paul Kiel, who worked on the George Polk Award-winning coverage of the U.S. attorneys scandal by TPMmuckraker, and former Sacramento Bee criminal justice reporter Christina Jewett. Also racking up some bylines on the fledgling law page is Eric Umansky, formerly of Slate and Brill's Content. I'd rate my anticipation over Pro Publica's legal potential as slightly less than what I expect generally from the new news operation. But, given the stellar and growing resources at its disposal, Pro Publica is capable of moving the needle quite a bit.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on June 10, 2008 (boomark / email).