2019 ANNUAL REPORT In the Lives of Americans ProPublica is an unusual news organization. Nearly all of our stories are investigative, which for most newsrooms is a small part of their work. We also have a clear mission: We seek through our journalism to spur real-world change, and we judge our own success by how often and to what extent we achieve this objective. And these are unusual times. All 2019, we want to spotlight some of interest and dividends — which of us are confronted with news those stories. describes most people. we never imagined possible, with We have been reporting about But the online services lobbied a level of polarization in our so- online tax filing services since against the idea of government-as- ciety not seen in a century and a 2013. But it was not until 2019 sisted tax prep and prevailed in ex- half, with norms being smashed that we understood the extent to change for the companies offering seemingly every week, with news which their lobbying efforts, with free services to most taxpayers. cycles shortening and attention Congress and especially the IRS, In fact, however, few taxpayers spans with them, with barriers to were resulting in higher profits used the free services. Why? Our speech dramatically lowered and for the companies. We revealed stories revealed that the free of- a resultant cacophony of speakers. that TurboTax especially, but also ferings were confusingly named How does our unusual orga- H&R Block, were selling millions (paid services were labeled “free”) nization make its way through of taxpayers a service they could and even hidden from Google and these unusual times? Sometimes, have received for free. In most other search engines. By year-end, we must try to bring facts and advanced countries, preparing TurboTax had agreed to stop the context to the madness of the individual income tax returns is masking of its free service, the moment. But much of the time, a task largely undertaken by gov- naming of the truly free products with much of our effort, we work ernment, which uses the informa- had been made uniform and the to bring to light specific injustices tion it has already been given to do IRS was authorized to enter the in the lives of millions of Amer- an initial version for the taxpay- tax prep business (although it is icans, and to do so in a way that er’s review. In the U.S., this would not doing so in 2020, suggesting can change lives for the better. In be easily achieved for anyone that the power of the companies this introduction to our work in who has only income from a job, remains considerable). On the cover: “What is ProPublica?” was the answer to a Jeopardy clue broadcast on November 14, 2019. PROPUBLICA 2019 ANNUAL REPORT 1 Five million Americans are active-duty military personnel, reservists or their spouses or dependents. Millions more have family members in these groups. All of them count on the widely accepted idea that our armed forc- es are the world’s best equipped and staffed, and are ready to fight and prevail should that be- come necessary. But a series of stories we published in 2019, “Disaster in the Pacific,” centering on three accidents in 2017 and 2018 that resulted in the deaths of 20 service members, challenges these as- sumptions. Our reporting showed Our investigation reconstructed the 2017 crash of the USS Fitzgerald — one of the that U.S. sailors and aviators are Navy’s deadliest accidents — and showed how the warship was doomed by its own often not properly trained for senior leadership. (Xaquín G.V.) combat and are frequently sent out with outmoded or slipshod equipment. When the inevitable ant differences in 2019. Reporting began quickly and ultimately the accidents occurred, investigations by ProPublica Illinois and the hospital reformed debt collection led by senior officers blamed Chicago Tribune revealed and re- practices, raised the minimum rank-and-file sailors for what were viewed 35,000 instances of the use wage for employees and erased clearly systemic shortcomings. In of “isolated timeout” and physical almost $12 million in medical debt three of the cases we reported on, restraints in schools throughout in thousands of court cases. senior officers evaded responsibil- Illinois. Seclusion was being over- In the year ahead of great ity even though their subordinates used and misused, with horrifying debates and important choices, had been repeatedly warning of consequences for thousands of there will be a lot to say about possible disasters. children and their families. The crucial issues like immigration, These stories struck a chord reaction from officials to these trade and jobs, and health care. with a wide range of active-duty stories was quick and dramatic. ProPublica is determined to shed personnel and their loved ones. The suspect practices were almost light on those issues and to help Thus far, the Trump administra- immediately suspended, as the inform those choices. Once again, tion has refused to acknowledge governor, legislature and state as we did in 2016 and 2018, we will the pervasiveness of the Navy’s Board of Education instituted new deploy Electionland, a journalistic problems, even as it moves closer emergency rules and scrambled to collaboration intended to help to military confrontation in the craft longer term reforms. safeguard the sacred American Middle East, the perennial global ProPublica Local Reporting right to vote. hotspot. Congress has scheduled Network partner MLK50: Justice At the same time, day in and hearings on the issues we spot- Through Journalism investigat- day out, we are determined to lighted, providing some reason to ed the rapacious debt collection again reveal stories of injustices hope change may yet come. practices of a sectarian hospital that detract from our collective It is not necessary for a story to in Memphis and found that it had pursuit of life, liberty and hap- be national in scope to affect the sued more than 8,300 patients for piness — always with the aim lives of a large number of people, unpaid bills over five years, in- of righting wrongs and spurring and ProPublica’s growing efforts cluding more than 160 of its own change. We deeply appreciate in local journalism made import- employees. Again, the reaction your interest in that work. PROPUBLICA 2019 ANNUAL REPORT 2 Highlights of the Year at ProPublica Impact Our work spurred significant impact, including the scrapping of industry-backed legislation that would have barred the IRS from creating a free electronic tax filing system, major reforms to Chicago’s aggressive and unequal ticketing system, medical debt cleared for some of Memphis’s poorest patients, hate group members sentenced to prison, an emergency ban on isolated seclusion in Illinois schools, and millions of dollars allocated to improve public safety in Alaska. Memorable Stories Our journalism shined a light on three of the mil- itary’s deadliest accidents in decades after senior officials ignored years of warnings, a student aid Current and former employees of online tax filing services loophole in which wealthy parents gave up custody of TurboTax and H&R Block revealed that the companies their children to access need-based scholarships, how steered customers away from the government-sponsored the intense deadline pressure that Amazon puts on free option and made them pay. (Richard Borge, special independent delivery drivers threatens public safety, to ProPublica) a secret Facebook page where current and former Bor- der Patrol agents shared jokes about migrant deaths, petrochemical industry’s rapid growth in Louisiana’s the pervasive use of jailhouse informants and how the most polluted communities, how the largest hospital practice corrupts the justice system, politically con- system in Memphis has sued and garnished the wages nected billionaires benefiting from the opportunity of thousands of poor patients for unpaid medical bills, zone tax break intended as an anti-poverty measure, and how a lack of public safety resources and gener- and how carbon offsets have failed to deliver their ations of broken government promises have created promised climate benefits. a sexual assault and child-abuse crisis in Alaska. We also announced a new partnership with The Texas Support for Local Reporting Tribune for a jointly operated investigative reporting In 2019, ProPublica expanded its Local Reporting Net- unit serving Texas beginning in 2020 and launched work to 21 newsrooms around the country, with proj- Collaborate, an open-source tool that makes it easi- ects that exposed how California’s efforts to reduce er for reporters and newsrooms to work together on the population of state prisons have led to overcrowd- data collaborations. ed and dangerous conditions in its county jails, the PROPUBLICA 2019 ANNUAL REPORT 3 ProPublica staff reacts to our receiving the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, April 15, 2019. (Demetrius Freeman for ProPublica) Award-Winning wider range of places and subjects. At the same time, ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize — our fifth — for our staff is growing increasingly more diverse, from feature writing for a series on MS-13 co-published 30% non-white in 2017 to 37% in 2019. with New York magazine, Newsday and the New York Times Magazine. Our series “Zero Tolerance” was a fi- Partnerships nalist for the Pulitzer gold medal for public service, in Our publishing partnerships continued to grow, with addition to winning the first-ever Peabody “Catalyst” 70 in 2019 alone. Partners over the past year included Award and the George Polk Award for immigration the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR News, reporting. The ProPublica and PBS Frontline collab- Frontline, Univision, the New Yorker and the Atlantic, oration “Documenting Hate” won the News & Docu- as well as new national partners American Banker, mentary Emmy award for Outstanding Investigative Military Times and The Trace.