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| Formation | 2001; 24 years ago (2001) |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)3 organization |
| 20-0031641 | |
| Legal status | Non-profit |
| Headquarters | Sacramento, California |
| Employees | 25 |
| Website | truthout |
Truthout is an Americannon-profitprogressivenews organization which describes itself as "dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues".[1] Truthout reports news from aleft-wing perspective,[2] with its main areas of focus includingmass incarceration andprison abolition advocacy,social justice,climate change,militarism,economics,open borders,U.S. LGBTQ+ rights andreproductive justice.[3]
Truthout's senior leadership team is composed of Executive Director Ziggy West Jeffery and Editor-in-ChiefNegin Owliaei.[4] The organization's annual operating budget is approximately $2.2 million as of 2021.[5]
Truthout was founded in 2001 in the aftermath of the contentious2000 United States presidential election.[6] By 2006, the organization had thirty employees.[7]
On May 13, 2006, afterJason Leopold posted on Truthout thatKarl Rove had beenindicted by thegrand jury investigating thePlame affair, Rove spokesmanMark Corallo denied the story, calling it "a complete fabrication".[8] Truthout defended the story, saying on May 15 they had two sources "who were explicit about the information" published,[9] and confirmed on May 25 that they had "three independent sources confirming that attorneys for Karl Rove were handed an indictment" on the night of May 12.[9] The grand jury concluded without returning an indictment of Rove.[10]
In his memoir,Courage and Consequence, Rove addressed the Leopold article, writing that Leopold is a "nut with Internet access" and that "thirty-five reporters called [Rove's defense attorney]Luskin or Corallo to ask about the Truthout report." According to Rove, "[Special Counsel]Fitzgerald got a kick out of the fictitious account and e-mailed Luskin to see how he felt after such a long day."[11]
Jason Leopold continued to write investigative pieces for Truthout through 2014;[12] he joinedVice News that year.[13]
A 2009 report byTruthout on the Bush administration's use ofenhanced interrogation techniques was cited byCountdown with Keith Olberman and byCarl Levin, chairman of theU.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services.[6]
In 2009, Truthout became the first online-only news website to unionize.[14] Truthout staff have worked remotely since the organization's founding in 2001[15] – a fact that stymied traditional union organizing and certification processes that take place in a physical workplace.
Truthout held the first virtualcard check in the U.S. on August 27, 2009, using faxed images of each employee's signature to verify their signed union cards.[16] Truthout's board of directors recognized the union on the same day.
About a dozen Truthout employees became members of theNewsGuild-CWA Local 36047,[17] and Truthout remains a unionized workplace today.[18]
60 Minutes cited a report published on Truthout as a source for its May 16, 2010, episode about theBP oil spill and thewhistleblower who warned about a possible blowout at another BPdeepwater drilling site.[19]Digital Journal wrote up the story.[20]CNN'sRandi Kaye in an article cited a report by Truthout as the first article on BP Alaska employee Mark Kovac's inside knowledge about the safety concerns at thePrudhoe Bay, Alaska BP oil field.[21] On July 14, 2010, theUnited States House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing in the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. The hearing[22] titled "The Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines (Part 2): Integrity Management", cited an investigative report by Truthout as a document for the committee's investigation.[23]
In 2011, Truthout suffered a hacking breach in which ten days worth of articles were deleted.[24]
In 2013, Truthout journalist Mike Ludwig unearthed with aFreedom of Information Act request with theInterior Department information that revealed thatfracking technology was being used on offshore oil rigs in the ecologically sensitiveSanta Barbara Channel.[25] Coastal conservationists were alarmed, and environmental groups sprang into action, generating protests and broad public discussion[26] about offshore fracking. At one point, lawsuits filed by environmental groups forced federal officials to place a moratorium[27] on offshore fracking in the channel while regulators reviewed the practice and their rules for making it safe. In 2014, theEPA issued a new rules requiring offshore drillers to disclose fracking chemicals they dump into the ocean off the California coast.[28]
In 2016,Dahr Jamail and Truthout released[29]Navy documents outlining plans for combat training exercises along vast non-military areas ofWashington state coastline. The documents showed the areas the Navy was prepared to utilize, without the mandatory risk assessments, medical plans, surveys of training areas and coordinating their activities with local, state and federal law enforcement officials. The release of these documents forced the Navy to postpone this training for at least 2 years.[30] It caused commotion within the Washington state government, as they were not aware of the Navy's plans.[31]
Freelancer and Truthout writer Aaron Miguel Cantú was one of the six journalists faced with felony rioting charges after coveringthe inauguration of Donald Trump.[32][33] In July 2018, all charges against Cantu and many of the other protestors were dismissed.[34]
On November 14, 2025, Truthout acquired the assets of The Appeal, a criminal justice-focused news site.[35]
In 2023 Truthout launched the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism, a program that offers assistance to small and emerging progressive news organizations in order to "help grow the critical media ecosystem necessary to build grassroots power."[36] Truthout provides these organizations with guidance on growth and sustainability, consults on editorial and business strategy, and provides access to resources such as development databases.Maya Schenwar, Truthout's editor-at-large and former editor-in-chief, serves as the center's director.
Explaining why Truthout founded the center, Schenwar explains, "[W]e want to exist as a publication, but we can't do it alone. We don't want to be anyone's sole news source. We want to have this vibrant ecosystem of different publications that are helping enrich people's understanding of the world, and propel them toward action on all these different fronts."[37]
Through the center, Truthout also collaborates on editorial projects with other progressive news organizations, including Zealous,Teen Vogue, Inquest, and Deceleration.[36] A 2023 series created in collaboration between Truthout, Zealous, and Teen Vogue about alternatives to incarceration won a 2024 Anthem Award.[38]
In March 2024, through its Center for Grassroots Journalism, Truthout co-founded Media Against Apartheid and Displacement (MAAD), a website that serves as a hub for articles published by progressive media organizations about theIsrael-Gaza war and about Palestinian resistance to theIsraeli occupation.[39] Reporting and analysis is from ananti-Zionist perspective.
The project includes articles published by Prism, Truthout,In These Times,Mondoweiss,Institute for Palestine Studies,Haymarket Books,The Real News Network, The Forge, Waging Nonviolence, The Dig,The Kansas City Defender,Briarpatch,Baltimore Beat, Hammer & Hope,Scalawag, Convergence Magazine, and Analyst News.[40]
The Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism coordinates the Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize for personal essays by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated authors.[41] The prize is named after Truthout's editor-at-large and former editor-in-chiefMaya Schenwar's sister, who was incarcerated on and off over the course of 14 years before she died of an overdose in 2020.[42][43] Keeley Schenwar wrote for Truthout about her incarceration, including giving birth while in prison.[44]
Each year, two winners are awarded prizes of $3,000 each, and the essays are published on Truthout's website. The prize was first awarded in 2021.[41]
In 2012, Truthout journalistGareth Porter was awarded theMartha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism[45] for his work uncovering the Obama administration's military strategy in Afghanistan. "In a series of extraordinary articles, Gareth Porter has torn away the facades of the Obama administration and disclosed a military strategy that amounts to a war against civilians." Amongst Porter's award-winning stories were 'How McChrystal and Petraeus built an Indiscriminate "Killing Machine,[46]"' and 'The Lies That Sold Obama's Escalation in Afghanistan.[47]'
Maya Schenwar was awarded in the 2013 Online Column Writing category by theSociety of Professional JournalistsSigma Delta Chi Awards[48] for her columns on mass incarceration,[49] the death penalty,[50] and solitary confinement.[51]
A joint Truthout andEarth Island Journal investigation "America's Toxic Prisons"[52] by Candice Bernd, Zoe Loftus-Farren, and Maureen Nandini Mitra won awards in two categories of the 2018 San Francisco Press Club Journalism Awards.[53] The investigation won second place in the Magazines category for environment/nature reporting and investigative reporting.
Dahr Jamail was awarded the 2018Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media for his reporting on climate change and other environmental issues. The judges wrote: "There is an urgency and passion in Dahr Jamail's reporting that is justified by the literally earth-changing subject matter. And it's supported by science and on-the-scene sources, whether coveringocean pollution, sea level rise, deafening noise pollution or Fukushima radiation."[54]
Jamail produces a monthly wrap-up of the latest climate research and trends – "Climate Disruption Dispatches".[55]
The thirteenth annual Izzy Award was awarded to nonprofit news outlet Truthout, journalist Liliana Segura, senior reporter at The Intercept and journalist Tim Schwab, writing in The Nation.[56]
In 2022, theCrossroads Fund presented The Donald F. Erickson Synapses Award to Truthout, for independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues.[57]
A 2024Anthem Award in the category of News & Journalism was awarded to "Remaking the Exceptional", a series of explainer videos made through a collaboration between Truthout, Zealous, andTeen Vogue about myths about and alternatives to policing and incarceration.[38]
Truthout's executive director is Ziggy West Jeffery and the editor-in-chief is Negin Owliaei.[4]
Truthout's Board of Directors includesMaya Schenwar,McMaster University professor and educational theoristHenry A. Giroux andLewis R. Gordon.[58]
Truthout's Board of Advisors includesMark Ruffalo,Dean Baker,Richard D. Wolff,William Ayers,Mark Weisbrot.[59] The lateHoward Zinn was a member of the advisory board.
The lateWilliam Rivers Pitt was Truthout's senior editor and lead columnist.[60]
Truthout's media bias is left. Ground News assigned this score by aggregating media bias ratings of a Left rating from Ad Fontes Media, a Left rating from Media Bias/Fact Check, a leanLeft rating from from All Sides.
