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The Center for Investigative Reporting

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The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a non-profit journalism organization located in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1977 by Lowell Bergman, Dan Noyes, and David Weir to reveal injustice and abuse of power through the tools of journalism.

CIR produces in-depth, original investigations leading to a coordinated release of stories for multiple news outlets; invests in promising investigations at their early stages to give them a fighting chance against the many obstacles - mainly financial - facing news outlets; maximizes the impact of the best investigations by promoting them to decision makers, citizen groups and other journalists. Together, these activities equip citizens with the information they need to participate fully in the democratic process and bring about needed changes in laws, regulations, and the operations of government, corporations, powerful individuals, and institutions.[1]

Since CIR's founding, its reports have reached millions in every state and overseas, appearing in news outlets such as 60 Minutes, 20/20, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, PBS Frontline and Frontline/World, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and U.S. News & World Report.

In turn, its stories have received the recognition of the journalism community, including awards such as the Alfred I. du Pont-Columbia University Silver Baton, George Polk Award, Emmy Award, Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award, Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, and National Magazine Award for Reporting Excellence.

More importantly, CIR’s investigations have sparked Congressional hearings and legislation, U.N. resolutions, public interest lawsuits, and change in corporate policies. The current Executive-Director of the CIR is Robert Rosenthal. Rosenthal resigned as Managing Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle to accept the job as Executive Director of the CIR. He resides in Marin County, California with his wife and three children.

  1. ^ "Center for Investigative Reporting", "About CIR"