United States: Corruption Risk Report Cards Published

Yesterday, The State Integrity Investigation, a partnership between the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International to measure the risk of corruption in every US state, released full state report cards. They include letter grades, reporter comments and research details, as well as each state's rank among all 50 states.

The State Integrity Investigation is an unprecedented, data-driven analysis of each US state’s laws and practices that deter corruption and promote accountability and openness. Experienced journalists graded each state government on its corruption risk using 330 specific integrity indicators. The Investigation ranked every state from one to 50. Each state received a report card with letter grades in 14 categories, including campaign finance, ethics laws, lobbying regulations, and management of state pension funds.

Since this is the first report of it’s kind in the United States, we are not surprised at the attention this report received both by mainstream media and people on social media. Here is a quick run down of some of the things people have been saying about the report:

SOCIAL MEDIA – via Storify

PRINT MEDIA:

• Reuters – New Jersey (no kidding) is among best corruption fighters
• The New York Times: The Opinion Pages/Editorial – The States Get a Poor Report Card
• Foreign Policy –  Lessons for America from the Global War on Sleaze  
• CNN – Report: Most states do poor job in guarding against corruption
• CBS – Fuggedaboutit: NJ rated least corrupt state gov't
• Politico – Study: 8 states get 'F' on corruption
• MSNBC – Fuhgeddaboutit! NJ top state for fighting corruption
• NBC – NJ at Least Risk for Corruption: Study
• Bloomberg – New Jersey Is Least Corruptible State as Georgia Ranks Last
• Huffington Post – State With Most Integrity is New Jersey, Center for Public Integrity Study Shows
• Fox News – Study: State governments at high risk for corruption
• Atlanta Journal Constitution – Georgia last in public corruption laws
• Newsworks – Sum up your reactions to state corruption with a haiku

RADIO:

• WGBH – Boston did a half-hour interview with Caitlin Ginley, Massachusetts state reporter Maggie Mulvihill, and Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi.
• KPBS – San Diego did a 20 minute interview with SII’s California state reporter, Carol Shull.
• WHYY – Philadelphia did an hourlong interview with the state reporters of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
• WVXU – Cincinnati did a half-hour with the Ohio and Kentucky state reporters – Jon Craig and Jacalyn Carfagno.
• Colorado Public Radio featured Caitlin and CPR reporter Megan Verlee.
• WEKU – Richmond, Kentucky interviewed Kentucky state reporter Jacalyn Carfagno.

–Monika Shepard

–Image: Made using Wordle with text taken from a compilation of press coverage