Newseum is the preeminent National Organization that explains, promotes and defends the five freedoms of the First Amendment and the right of free expression. We welcome over 800,000 visitors a year to our building with exhibits that explain the evolution of freedom. We invite people with very different philosophies to come together to discuss challenges to our fundamental liberties. At our newseum Education Program reaches over 7 million schoolchildren in the United States, and 150 countries across the world, and provides them with digital Course Material on freedom and democracy. We all know that there will inevitably be friction between an administration and journalists. However, perhaps at no point in living memory has there been more concern about freedom of the press in good part because of real or perceived conflict between the Trump Administration and the media. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 83 of americans believe that current tensions have made the relationship between the administration and the news media unhealthy. And about three in four u. S. Adult say that these tensions are getting in the way of access to Important National political news and information. Staying true to our role as a Nonpartisan Forum committed to fostering opinion and substantive discussion, we are so pleased to present this set of conversations as we approach the 100 day mark of the Trump Administration to explore these challenges, and maybe to even find some solution and common ground. We have gathered a diverse array of present and former Administration Officials and journalists to discuss how we got to this point and how, still early in the administration we might act to achieve our common goal of an informed citizenry that is the bedrock of our democracy. We will employ several different formats, including standalone talks and panels in order to investigate these complex issues. We are pleased that this symposium is being broadcast by several different networks, and were also life casting it at newseum. Org live, and on several social media platforms, hashtag trump and the press. Important support for this symposium was provided by the Knight Foundation for which were extremely grateful. Additional funding has been provided by the kohler fond of the Community Foundation for the National Capital region. I would also like to express my thanks to our friends at especially tammy, Betsy Fischer more and Robin Goldman for all their help in putting together this ambitious program. The newseum will continue to export issues that are vital to our democracy. This symposium will launch a yearlong set of discussions entitled the First Amendment and the Trump Administration. I hope that you will attend future events in this series and other newseum programs that explore consequential issues. Tonight, for instance, in this room we are showing the First Episode of a new Program Inside the fbi, new york. After the episode, i will be interviewing fbi director james comey and executive producer mark levin. Ripped from the headlines indeed. We want to start this morning with a brief presentation from one of the breakout stars of the 2016 campaign and as of monday, Pulitzer Prize winner for 2016 David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post. From his crowd source coverage of Donald Trumps foundation and charitable contributions to the net infamous axis on a date, his work dominate the political conversation last fall. And he hasnt let up. Hes graciously agreed to share his forward thinking approach to Investigative Journalism and his insights into what the future holds for this tour of the vital reporting. And now, David Fahrenthold. [applause] thank you. Thanks everybody for coming. Im so glad to be at the start of what should be a really, really interesting morning. First i should say for those of you who have not been followed the Washington Post is a new pretty gothic dives into darkness. According to the new company policy, we have set the mood, will turn down the lights, turn on the fog machine and i brought a cd of Haunted House sound effects. Two minutes of organ music and screams to get everybody ready. I guess thats not possible. Thank you. We will just imagine. I want to say this at the beginning. This is a time of extraordinary power for the media in washington. I mean that, power, although there are number of people, some of whom they come on the stage later today who have called us fake news or the enemy of the people. The truth is we live in a time when the folks in power, the folks with power in washington often lack the cohesion, the ability, the organization to shape the narrative about themselves. Usually one of the dynamics we deal with in washington is a president ial administration sort of acting as a unit to shape the way the public sees them. We dont have that now for better or for worse. The public more than ever depends on us on the news media to make sense of whats going on in washington. Weve seen times with the people who have power depend on a static sense of what just happened to them. Remember why did mike pence added mike pence learned the National Security advisor mike flint had misled him about his contacts with Russian Ambassador . He read about in the Washington Post. How did House Republicans find out a couple of weeks ago that this health care bill, as obamacare bill they been talking about for months had been pulled without a vote . They read about it from the Washington Post and the New York Times. The president himself had called this news. One of the dynamics we dealt with last year in the transition. Before President Donald Trump took over was the power of his twitter feed, his ability to use twitter to get around us or two more often command us to cover whatever he wanted. But we now have seen even a few weeks President Donald Trump has diluted the power of that weapon, diluted the power of that account by repeatedly using it to hit that he would do things that he would not do or to make claims that he had no evidence to back up your so just a big one example, in chicago doesnt fix the horrible carnage i will send in the fence. He did not send in the fed. 3 Million People didnt vote illegally. He wasnt wiretapped at trump tower as far as we can tell. Those things, those actions, those tweets have taken away what was his ability to act as Americas National news assignment editor from his bathroom or from his bed, from his kitchen table. That ability that no president has ever had to sort of command the media that we saw in january doesnt exist anymore. So we come back to the idea people not rely on us more than ever to make sense of whats going on. Whats our responsibility now as a news media at this moment of unaccustomed influence . Beyond the ageold requirement that we do right in with the fair and fast, i would say theres a quite enough to be more transparent than ever. We have all these people who normally tuned into washington political coverage in the last month of the president ial election and to doubt again. Those people are now engaged. They are reading, excited or encouraged or theyre terrified, whatever it is, theyre reading the details of House Intelligence Committee meetings and investigation and Court Decisions in maryland and how why come all the things that used to be things we covered for washington audience and some audience beyond now is his enormous national audience. So for those people coming to us for the first time or acting as a sustained audience for the first time, we must show them why w were better. We have to show them if they dont know it from our name, we have to show it to them in our work here so last year in the course of reporting stories about Donald Trumps chervil giving a promise to give to charity, i tried to use social media as a means of economic transparency. I use it to show readers what i knew, what im trying to learn, but i still didnt know and how i knew what i had known. This began not by any plan but by necessity. Last year in may i had this reporting problem, a problem i never had to deal with before. Writing for much about this problem that donald trump had made to give six one dollar that had gathered from the public including 1 million out of his own pocket he said he would give to veterans. I couldnt figure out where the money had gone. Especially the 1 million became out of his pocket. I couldnt pick up where had given it. Then Corey Lewandowski called me and he said donald trump and given the Million Dollars away. This was in may for months after the given the money way to Veterans Group or two veteran groups but he couldnt tell me when or how or what amounts to anything else. Hhe said going to share that information. We had to take his word for it. I dont want to take a four because this is a hugely important promise the automated made his concern for veterans i spent a huge part of it come huge selling point is positive campaign. I want proof. Howd you get it . Cant call every Veterans Group in america. Would take forever. You would be able to prove a negative, you wouldnt be able to prove he gave no money away. I tried to find some evidence that donald trump and given some money, tried to find one dollar of his 1 million. I did it on twitter. Heres one example of i tweeted at veterans organizations can veterans advocates, journalist who covered veterans, celebrities advocate for veterans. Anybody active on twitter. I asked them had he gotten even one dollar of this money trump gave away, this Million Dollars . Do you know anybody did . I included trump and also trump himself with cedric the idea being either a Veterans Group with the outlook for and say hey, you didnt ask me but i got 100,000 for trump and heres the proof, or trump himself might see and think import and tell me what he gave. I spent a day i spent a day searching this way on twitter, and i found no money. I didnt find a dollar. Turned out that was because the money did not exist. When Corey Lewandowski told he had given when the doors away, had not. It was only until that night ma3 after done this long public search that trump gave the Million Dollars away. He gave it away in one fell swoop all Million Dollars to group called the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation whose leaders he knew. There we go. Trump called me the next day to say hed given the money away. And i asked trump commune attempted to just giv do this my going out because asking about it . And then he called me a nasty guy, as you can see here. [laughing] this was the last time we talked. [laughing] sulfite later the scope of my reporting whitened and we set it donald trump had been willing to try to wriggle out of a promise to give 1 million to veterans under the bright spotlight we have in journalism, which is american president ial campaign, what was he do when nobody was looking when he was a private citizen . So without evidence he had been promising to give away millions of dollars over the years. And again set out to prove him right. I started calling charity. I asked the Trump Campaign enough i didnt find charity he had given money to. They didnt respond. I set out on my own. I did it to charity so i thought most likely, if he had given any money who wouldve given it today. I made a list on a piece of notebook paper and i took pictures and posted it on twitter. I eventually got to 450 charities, again charities chocolate had praise in public, that had rented out ballrooms from him at maralago, charities keep givin given moneo from his foundation which was not his money, anybody that thought itd given up all of his own money they would have gotten it. I also thought he would call again and tell me the truth of what he had given. This time he did not call. My search turned up between 20082015, a period in which trump that he was giving millions away, turned up one gift at its own pocket of the 45450 charities, that was less than 10,000. I also come in this process i use social media to ask trump supporters, donald trump, anybody who might know a donald trump and given away his money to come forward and make a suggestion and i would add to the list and called to see that guy in his money. I was using social media to solve another problem. Which was the Donald J Trump foundation, this Charity Trump ran, was in his money, other peoples money, he had been using it to buy things that he should use your mind to buy if you want to charity like cat portraits of yourself. So in one case trump had bought with money from his journey paid 10,000 to buy a large portrait of himself. I need to know where the portrait was, because if you bought with the charities might best be used for charitable purposes. Whatever trump had done with this giant portrait of himself it had to be a general purpose. I needed to know what it was. This is one of a number of times i asked my referral. I asked twitter followers for help and h amaze me with ingenuity. They found things i never wouldve found only on. So in this example theres a reader of mine, a stayathome mother and a short story writer in atlanta. She had the idea to look on the trip advisor page for trumps golf course where people at posted pictures of the 18th green of the hotel buffett or hotel bathroom. 350 photos in she finds at the very bottom there, a picture of donald trump. The portrait ive been searching for, dismissing portrait is shown on trip advisor page hanging on the wall of this sports bar at trumps golf resort. Thats a huge break, but the portrait in the picture was federally 2016. Its now as you can see september. I need to know where is it now. That same night i guy named ricky who is an anchor in miami, he does a spanishlanguage national broadcast, he sees that ive retweeted, we know where the painting was at least in february. He realizes thats four blogs with in a studio. He makes a a reservation for the night. He didnt want to give donald trump any of his money so he uses points. [laughing] he goes over, he goes and checks in. Its late like 12 30 p. M. He asked the cleaning crew to let him into the sports bar and there it is. In the flesh. So in 14 hours we went from not knowing where in the world this portrait was, he couldve thrown away, couldve been anywhere, to having it on the wall in the flesh come in disk is barely breaking the law. Just as applescript one of the funniest part of the story was the explanation for how this portrait from the Trump Campaign how this portrait came to hang on the wall at the sports bar, they said it may appear that the charity, that did the sports bar a favor by buying art that hangs on the sports bars wall but the sports bar is doing the charity a favor by storing the portrait on the sports bar wall. This got one of my favorite quotes of this whole story was, legal experts said its hard to make an irs auditor laugh, but this would do it. [laughing] so since President Trumps inauguration ive seen a number of other news outlets using transparency, sort of embracing transparent in other ways beyond social media. One example is the great things the New York Times and the scs to reason with a post the full transitext of the interview with doctor they sit down and talk with trump, instead of just the right, theres some who want to give people edwards of people can take them and find things they think are interesting and see all picture, see what i shall ask him responded. Also see it in incredible stories recently from us at the post, the times, the New York Times, the wall street journal, politico with you talk about how, theyre writing about west wing infighting and they tell you exactly how many people leaked from within west wing. If youre some like me, its more people than you thought worked at the west wing that are being quoted, you know, theres a political sort i admire recently with it talked about a rebranding effort in the west wing where i think 20 people had been gathered together to talk about the messaging of President Trumps first 100 days and their stories with six had leaked. So an incredible rate. I talked earlier about how we want to show people why we do is better. If you read that story and c6 out of the 20 attendees leaked the story, you will have a lot of confidence that story is right. So being transparent helps readers understand we are not fake news, trust more will be due. It helps us by forcing us to focus on what we know and to be more explicit and providing at her thinking about how we