Public officials and flaks who stonewall reporters, beware: Your face might be the next added to this website.
“____ couldn’t be reached,” a new Tumblr from the Center for Public Integrity, puts a spotlight on prominent officials and institutions that refuse to talk to news organizations for important stories. Since it went live earlier today, the Tumblr has highlighted reticence from the Obama administration, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the IRS and Amazon.com, to name a few.
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The Tumblr was founded by CPI media specialist William Gray and engagement editor Sarah Whitmire, who were trying to expand the nonprofit’s social media footprint onto some new platforms, Gray said. They noticed public officials had slowly become decreasingly responsive over the years and wanted a way to show that trend.
“When you finally see this lined up, it becomes obvious how many news organizations aren’t getting a response,” Gray said. He’s also the founder of Floor Charts, a Tumblr dedicated to cataloguing the wide array of props used by public representatives on the House and Senate floors.
The ultimate goal for the Tumblr is to encourage public officials to comment for the record, Gray said.
“If all of the sudden, every member of Congress starts answering as best they can, their hometown papers and national editions, the mission would be accomplished,” Gray said. “But I’d still keep it up, because archives are great.”
