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2015 marks the fifth anniversary of the first electronic edition of Michigan Capitol Confidential.
Producing good news content makes CapCon a good resource for those seeking news that is often ignored by the mainstream media.
Winning awards from the Michigan Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists reflects the credibility of CapCon’s reporting.
But the most important function CapCon demonstrates is in how it keeps the powerful accountable.
Just last year, CapCon first discovered contract language in the Ferndale Public Schools that gave “special consideration” to “those of the non-Christian faith.” The school district admitted the language dated back to 1979 and had never been removed. National media outlets picked up the story that CapCon initially broke. The day after CapCon ran the story, Ferndale sent out a press release saying it was striking the language.
CapCon helped educate the public on the “dues skim” that was taking money away from self-employed home help workers and day care providers and filling the bank accounts of unions. One of these skims ended legislatively; the other ended when voters rejected proposal 2012-4.
Senior Capitol Correspondent Tom Gantert says, “In our five years, the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, MLive, the Drudge Report, Associated Press, Fox News, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, POLITICO and MSNBC have all cited the work of CapCon. The New York Times linked to one of our stories for one of its online Sunday editorials.
"But credibility doesn’t come from politicians or conventional media outlets. It comes from readers.”
