NEW SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION GRANT TO SUPPORT CONGRESSIONAL NEWS AGGREGATOR
July 16, 2007
Contact: Gabriela Schneider 202-742-1520 ext 236
WASHINGTON, DC - The Sunlight Foundation is announcing a new grant of $10,000 to NewsTrust.net to support its work to harness social wisdom to aggregate and highlight quality online journalism about elected representatives, with a focus on accountability, corruption and transparency in Congress.
Citizens participate by rating news articles featured on NewsTrust.net, based on fairness, evidence and context, not just popularity.
"Sunlight is excited to partner with NewsTrust.net to collect and syndicate the best news coverage of Congress and its members," said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation. "This project taps into the wisdom of crowds to improve the quality of reporting about Capitol Hill."
NewsTrust.net publishes a reputation database for hundreds of mainstream and independent news sources, to help the public identify trustworthy publications. Its Web site and news feed feature the best and the worst news of the day, picked from hundreds of alternative and mainstream news sources. For this project, NewsTrust.net will maintain a special listing of recommended stories about Congress on its Web site.
"We're pleased to announce a special investigation about the U.S. Congress, thanks to a generous grant from the Sunlight Foundation," said NewsTrust.net Executive Director Fabrice Florin. "Throughout the coming year, we will search for quality journalism on the current issues now faced by Congress, from earmarks to ethics to lobbying and the power of political money."
The Sunlight Foundation will award more grants throughout the year. Last year, the organization gave more than $1.6 million in grants.
The Sunlight Foundation develops and deploys new Internet technologies that make information about Congress easily accessible to the American people. The Foundation's projects and grants foster online congressional transparency, creating more openness, honesty and accountability in government.
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