User:Pat Barden/sandbox

PR Watch is an investigative reporting site published by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). Its news stories focus on corporations, lobbying, and public relations, as well as economic, environmental, and transparency issues. Since 2011, it has also produced news stories about the American Legislative Exchange Council as part of CMD's ALEC Exposed investigation and about Wisconsin's policy controversies, as CMD is located in the state's capital.

PRWatch.org previously produced a quarterly print periodical available by subscription called "PR Watch," whose stated mission was to expose deceptive and misleading public relations campaigns. That periodical was merged into PRWatch.org's online work in 2009. CMD also previously produced a feature called "Spin of the Day" about public relations issues.

PRWatch.org is a sister site of CMD's ALECexposed.org (a clearinghouse for information about bills and news about ALEC), SourceWatch.org (a specialized wiki that includes original research on corporations, policymakers, and policies, especially on environmental and economic issues), BanksterUSA.org (a website devoted to analysis of the financial crisis and Wall Street reform proposals), and FoodRightsNetwork.org (which is focused on information about the use of sewage sludge on crops).

CMD's executive director, Lisa Graves (a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice), has testified several times before Congress on national security, homeland security, and civil liberties issues, joined in legal briefs on such issues, and her analysis has been published by the Texas Law Review and in numerous other articles.

Awards
PR Watch's original reporting and investigations have garnered journalism awards, including the Izzy, the Sidney , and most recently an award from the Milwaukee Press Club for one of the Best Investigative Stories or Series of 2011.

Funding
CMD states that it does not accept corporate donations or grants from the government. It also maintains a lists of financial supporters on its website.

Some critics have claimed that its BanksterUSA site has received $200,000 in funding from the Open Society Institute, the charity with ties to investor George Soros, but its BanksterUSA project was not funded by OSI. CMD has stated publicly on its site that it received a grant from OSI for a project researching national security issues.

CMD has reported funding sources since its founding in 1993. These sources include, among others, the Bydale Foundation, Careth Foundation, Carolyn Foundation, Changing Horizons Charitable Trust, CS Fund, Deer Creek Foundation, Educational Foundation of America, Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, Grodzins Fund, Jenifer Altman Foundation, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, Rockwood Fund, Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Stern Family Fund, Town Creek Foundation, and the Turner Foundation. (Many of these are past, not current, funders.)