I couldn’t help noticing the description of a complex technique used by AP in its investigation of potential ethics violations by Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock (“Watchdog group files complaint over Rep. Aaron Schock’s travel“).
The article reports on ethics complaints against Schock filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, as well as other news stories in recent days.
AP says that it combined official Congressional data, a campaign account, and a political action committee, and cross referenced using location data gleaned from photos and videos the congressman uploaded to social media. Pretty cool.
The AP’s review identified at least one dozen flights worth more than $40,000 on donors’ planes since mid-2011, tracking Schock’s reliance on the aircraft partly through the congressman’s penchant for uploading pictures and videos of himself to his Instagram account. The AP extracted location data associated with each image then correlated it with flight records showing airport stopovers and expenses later billed for air travel against Schock’s office and campaign records.
The review covered Schock’s travel and entertainment expenses in his taxpayer-funded House account, in his campaign committee and the “GOP Generation Y Fund,” a political action committee. Records show more than $1.5 million in contributions to the fund since he took office in 2009.
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this is the kind of person who decides how to spend our tax money and make things legal/illegal. How does that happen? Just read about him on Bill Moyers. He’s only 33 years old, long career ahead of him… http://billmoyers.com/2015/02/23/awesome-life-american-congressman/
even right-leaning Politico is investigating Mr. Schlock.
“Rep. Aaron Schock attended dinner and drinks in 2011 at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and at a swank nightclub London — and never disclosed receiving a single gift on his financial disclosure form.
“This past September, the Illinois Republican held a golf fundraiser — the “Aaron Schock Golf Classic” — at Anne Arundell Mannor in Maryland, but never reported a payment for use of the golf course and facilities on his campaign finance forms.
“Schock, a fourth-term Republican congressman with a prized seat on the Ways and Means Committee, has hired lawyers and a crisis communications firm amid a burgeoning scandal over his high-spending ways and potential misuse of official and campaign funds.”
Nice marriage of journalism and social media. And good to see there are still those willing to invest the resources for quality reporting.
There’s more and more of this cool stuff. Check out bellingcat-vehicles.silk.co. It’s rather amazing – a crowdsourced mapping and database effort to track Russian armor in the Ukraine.