ProPublica investigates politicians' Super Bowl fundraising

Members of Congress are not allowed to accept Super Bowl tickets as gifts and are required to pay for them. The investigative project aims to find out how politicians who are attending got their tickets and whether they are using the event for fundraising. "It has in the past been 'the Super Bowl of fundraising,'" Stern said. "It's less so today."

Citizen journalists, retired journalists and working journalists from dozens of news organisations are helping out. As some journalists had already tried to obtain part of this information to write local stories, it made the collaboration easier. Plus, some of these organisations asked their audience to help as well by contacting their Congress members.

Stern told Poynter that the majority of Congress members contacted said they were not attending, four said yes, some gave vague responses or refused to say, and others did not return telephone calls. Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. John Conyers is among those attending, Stern reported, and to those who are willing to pay, he's selling one ticket to the game and two tickets to a dinner fundraiser for a grand total of $5000.

Although the public needs to know this kind of information, it remains largely under-reported, Stern said. "It's a completely invisible world shrouded in secrecy, and yet it's so vital to what happens in Washington," he said.

This investigation is a way for journalists and the public to work together to hold political figures to account, he added. He also hopes to pursue an ongoing investigation into politicians fundraising efforts in the lead-up to the November elections.

"We have politicians who issue press releases on every little thing they do, but you will never see them issue a press release on how much money they got from this company or this CEO," he said. "We've got to find a way to reduce the expectation of politicians that they can get together over martinis or steaks or cigars behind closed doors and pass money."

Larger organisations have also taken to crowdsourcing recently, including The Guardian's examination of MP's expenses, The New York Times' look at the schedules of former Federal Reserve Bank of New York president Timothy Geithner and the Washington Post-run WhoRunsGov.com site that tracks US politicians. Newer organisations such as Spot.Us and the Foundation for Public Interest Journalism are also embracing both crowdsourcing and crowdfunding as a new method of audience-commissioned reporting. However it's used, it's clear that crowdsourcing will stay a key part of news organisations' practice for some time to come.

Source: Poynter Online