Investigative Journalism is serious business. It can get you killed, arrested or hounded into dispair. It can also destroy the organization that publishes such work. On the other hand, this such reporting can change the world.
It comes in many forms; from novels, to non-fiction books, television segments, newspaper articles-- to now, Youtube videos. I would say that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is an early example, even if Abraham Lincoln never really said to Harriet Beecher Stow, "I've always wanted to meet the women who gave us this great war" It has become true because the book did, in fact, contribute to creating this nation changing conflict.
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and Ralph Nader's " Unsafe at any speed " both changed the course of major industries in this country. Nader was followed by G.M. Detectives who attempted to find vulnerabilities to personally attack him on. And then there is the work of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward that brought down a presidency.
No diary using this group, or on Dailykos could have the impact of these examples. They were effective not only because of the talent and courage of the investigators, but in the case of current reporting, the backing of major media outlets. These media become partners in the rewards, and also more importantly, the risks. The best Investigative Reporting pushes the envelope of civil and in some cases criminal law.
During the Watergate reporting, the Post resisted demands to discontinue the then unsupported accusations that were backed by threats of massive libel damages. They had the resources to do this, but Dailykos.LTD does not. While anyone can post on the internet accusations against individual, or posit conspiracies by them, they rarely elicit legal or other pushback, as such posting are dismissed as ephemera that will be lost in the blogisphere.
Dailykos does have the potential of promoting such effort to a degree of prominence. Diaries that remain on the recommend list for a length of time do get picked up by google, and are accessed by thousands. This is my goal in forming this group.
I can only give my own example which begins with this diary:
John Gardner, Double Rapist Murderer Tries to tell His Story There is a link there to my resources and research that I took down for a reason. I got too much information, speaking to the chief of staff of the California Legislator who sponsored the law who claimed that it would be modified based on acknowledged defects next session. It's now that session, and this is the last thing on their agenda.
I've attempted to get my perspective in the local metropolitan newspaper, and the most popular weekly, but as they say, "It's not for them!" And why should it be, this is poison,as in an era of skimming, of sound bites and tweeter, anything other than raw hatred towards this group of offenders is anathema, and no public media is about to take the risk.
My argument is too hard to describe, and it is paradoxical being: Evidence shows that being more humane to child sex predators may decrease the incidence of child sex predation. ("can" has been replaced by "may") I put this in bold since it is the rationale and reason that I have taken up this issue, that few other choose to touch.
But all of my work is for naught if there's no medium to disseminate it in full. This is what this site if for. For me, and for others who not only see a problem, but have done the groundwork to verify their perceptions. It's for people who have done the interviews, researched the legal background, done some work to verify thier suspicions, and now seek a potential venue to get it out to the public.
If I work on this article on sex offenders, it will be a few more months before I have a suitable article that I would be willing to publish, here or anywhere else. This diary is an invitation to others who may have embarked, or who are considering embarking on such a venture. There is a word, "quixotic", that indicates impractical unrealistic endeavors. The purpose to this group is to make such efforts less so, to provide "reality tests" to inchoate ideas, to help give them a form, and then a venue, to have an impact on issues of importance.