Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Twitter logo Print HTML logo
WatchDog

WatchDog Opinion banner

The WatchDog has been published by the Society of Environmental Journalists for nearly two decades, relentlessly alerting journalists of threats to their ability to gather information and do their jobs. In 2020, SEJournal relaunched the WatchDog in a new form — as a regularly published opinion column advocating open information in a personal voice. The “voice” of the WatchDog is that of columnist Joseph A. Davis (pictured, right), who has been advocating First Amendment freedom for all that time and who has been covering the environment journalistically since the 1970s. Read more about the relaunch of the WatchDog Opinion column. And find the 2008-early 2020 archives of the former WatchDog Tipsheet here.

For questions and comments, or to suggest future columns, email WatchDog Opinion Editor Joseph A. Davis at sejournaleditor@sej.org.

Public

Latest WatchDog Items

June 18, 2025

  • Public Broadcasting Cuts Would Harm Free Press

    Trump administration efforts to defund public media, now before Congress, are a misguided effort to harm a source of journalism that is highly trusted by audiences, argues the latest WatchDog Opinion column. And while public broadcasting’s diverse funding sources may insulate it from politics to some degree, the attacks do threaten to chill press freedom, including environmental reporting, more broadly. The latest Dog explains.

    VIEW ARTICLE

May 21, 2025

  • Trump Pursues Broad Attack on Press Freedom

    In case you haven’t been keeping track, Donald Trump has been engaging in a multifront offensive against the news media and press freedom more generally. WatchDog Opinion catalogs the transgressions to illustrate how the president is moving to grasp control of White House pool coverage, beguile rich media owners, politicize libel law, kneecap public media and weaponize regulatory agencies.

    VIEW ARTICLE

April 16, 2025

  • Trump 2.0 Cuts Hit FOIA Offices at Federal Agencies

    The Freedom of Information Act is a key tool for environmental journalists, but firings at many federal agencies’ FOIA offices threaten to seriously undermine it. That’s the warning from WatchDog Opinion, which points to dire implications for the free flow of information on public health and environmental health threats. A look at what’s at stake and what some are doing to keep FOIA alive.

    VIEW ARTICLE

March 19, 2025

  • Trump Pick To Head Secretive Agency Adept at Stifling Info, Regs

    A little-known federal office where some say environmental and other regulations go to die may soon be led by a Trump loyalist best known as an indicted co-conspirator in the plot to overthrow the 2020 election. What is OIRA? And who is Trump’s pick to lead the powerful subagency? WatchDog Opinion has answers and some worrying questions, along with resources for reporters to dig further.

    VIEW ARTICLE

February 12, 2025

  • Press Freedom Issues Come to Fore As Trump 2.0 Launches

    Salvaging disappearing web pages from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, fostering (and protecting) government whistleblower sources and sussing out the First Amendment’s prospects under the new attorney general at the Justice Department — the latest WatchDog Opinion scans the Trump administration’s information terrain. Plus, check out the latest actions from the Society of Environmental Journalists’ freedom of information efforts.

    VIEW ARTICLE

January 15, 2025

  • There Has Never Been a Better Time for Environmental Journalism

    Environmental devastation. Corporate capture. Disinformation’s diffusion. Hostility to news media. All this may seem overwhelming for environmental reporters. But for WatchDog Opinion, it means that journalism must rise to the challenge, take the truth seriously, report with conviction, cover corruption and tell the stories of the many whose stories are not being told. A case for why Trump 2.0 presents that opportunity.

    VIEW ARTICLE

December 11, 2024

  • Will Trump 2.0 ‘Come After’ Journalists?

    If the idea of an FBI director targeting journalists seems oh so last century, then Donald Trump’s prospective pick for the post has news for you. And that isn’t even the all of it. As WatchDog Opinion writes, the incoming administration bodes a litany of woes for free speech advocates, starting with the misuse of the law to try to silence a critical press. What should be done?

    VIEW ARTICLE

November 20, 2024

  • Attention Press Officers — Read This Reporter’s Bill of Rights

    Under the last Trump White House — and in quite a few presidential administrations — shoddy treatment of journalists by federal agency press offices has been the norm. And WatchDog Opinion worries it will be even worse in the new Trump administration. So it’s time to remind public information officers what we journalists fairly expect. From the latest WatchDog, an updated reporter’s bill of rights.

    VIEW ARTICLE

November 13, 2024

  • Threats of Media Censorship Cloud COP29

    Again this year, a petrostate hosts the COP climate gathering. Azerbaijan as host not only raises questions of how an oil-rich nation can help foster the fossil fuel cuts needed to stem climate change. But WatchDog Opinion also worries what Azerbaijan’s poor press freedom record will mean for journalists covering the gathering and for the civil society that normally enlivens the meeting.

    VIEW ARTICLE

October 16, 2024

  • Harris Must Shed More Light on Her Press Freedom Views

    Yes, press freedom advocates worry over the prospects of a Trump administration that considers journalists “the enemy of the people.” But the new WatchDog Opinion column argues the Harris campaign has, for its part, been uncomfortably quiet on those same issues. So it’s time for the Democratic presidential hopeful to answer some questions. WatchDog has 10 we should all be asking.

    VIEW ARTICLE

Pages

Advertisement

graphic

Advertise with SEJ