Editing Center for Public Integrity (section)

===Looting the Seas controversy===
In November 2010, CPI published a report on bluefin tuna overfishing entitled "Looting the Seas".<ref name= looting>{{cite web|title=Looting the Seas |url=http://www.pewtrusts.org/events_detail.aspx?id=61407&selectedDate=09/01/2011&nav=past |publisher= [[Pew Charitable Trust]]|date= November 9, 2010 |access-date= June 9, 2012|url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110506000034/http://www.pewtrusts.org/events_detail.aspx?id=61407 |archive-date= 6 May 2011}}</ref> ''[[Politico]]'' reported that "to obtain key information for the project, reporters accessed a database maintained by an intergovernmental fisheries regulatory body with a password given by a source, likely breaking the law." CPI's own lawyer and an outside law firm both determined that CPI's staff likely broke the law in obtaining information for the report. In addition, one of the experts quoted in the associated documentary was paid $15,000 as a project consultant to CPI.<ref name=tuna>{{cite web|title=Tuna and turmoil at CPI|url= http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69763.html| work =[[Politico]]|date= December 5, 2011|access-date=June 9, 2012}}</ref> The investigative methods used to produce the report became a point of contention within the organization when CPI employee John Solomon made a number of accusations against the team that had worked on the series.

CPI board member and former ''[[The New York Times]]'' Washington bureau chief [[Bill Kovach]] was asked by then-CPI president [[William Buzenberg]] to look into the matter. Kovach concluded that CPI's reporting was "sound, ethical and fully in the public interest."<ref>{{cite web|title=Something fishy?|url= https://www.cjr.org/feature/something_fishy.php | work =[[Columbia Journalism Review]] |date=July–August 2012|access-date= 16 July 2012}}</ref> In addition, the board hired an outside law firm to answer the legal questions. [[Columbia Journalism Review]] reported: "As for the legality of using the password to access data, the lawyers concluded that, in theory, a prosecutor might argue it violated the [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]]. But whether it actually did was open to debate. And, in any case, it was highly unlikely that charges would ever be brought." In the wake of the controversy, David Kaplan and John Solomon resigned from CPI. CPI officials also withdrew their entry of the tuna story for a [[Pulitzer Prize]].<ref name=tuna/> Andy Revkin of ''The New York Times'' wrote, "the relationship of the television production to a United Nations agency and an environmental group can prompt questions about objectivity, but the package, over all, appears robust."<ref>{{cite news|title=Report Reveals Forces Destroying Atlantic Bluefin Tuna|url=http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/report-reveals-forces-destroying-atlantic-bluefin-tuna/|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 8, 2010 |access-date=June 9, 2012|first= Andrew C.|last=Revkin}}</ref> The Looting the Seas series won two journalism awards: the Renner Award from [[Investigative Reporters and Editors]]<ref>{{cite web|title=2010 IRE Awards winners|url=http://ire.org/awards/ire-awards/winners/2010-ire-awards-winners/|publisher=Investigative Reporters and Editors|access-date=June 9, 2012|archive-date=May 30, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530041144/http://ire.org/awards/ire-awards/winners/2010-ire-awards-winners/|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the 2010 Whitman Bassow Award from the Overseas Press Club of America.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Whitman Bassow Award 2010 |date=April 11, 2011 |url=http://opcofamerica.org/awards/whitman-bassow-award-2010|publisher=Overseas Press Club of America|access-date=June 16, 2012}}</ref>