CIR Featured Projects

Recent Investigations:

For two years, the Bush administration has tried to scuttle a federal human rights lawsuit that threatens to embarrass one of China’s top political leaders. The suit accuses Bo Xilai, a member of China's elite Politburo, of supervising forced labor camps where torture and execution occurred.
The number of nations seeking nuclear technology is rising. An hour-long documentary by CIR and American RadioWorks for public radio investigates the most serious threats of nuclear proliferation today. Photo: Mungo Poore
A CIR/Salon investigation reveals that the system set up to protect government whistleblowers has instead been used to punish them. At whistleblower court, employees lose nearly 97 percent of the time.
Why does the U.S. government permit the sale of children's toys containing a toxic chemical that was banned by the European Union? Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power explores that question on PBS NOW with host Maria Hinojosa.
A CIR multimedia investigation into the money and politics behind climate change. A FRONTLINE documentary explores how political and economic forces have prevented the U.S. government from confronting global warming. A radio series on Marketplace asks what we can do to prepare for life in a warmer world. The Nation looks at carbon offsets, and CIR web exclusive reports investigate a PR campaign to discredit climate change science funded by oil companies.
CIR has partnered with an array of Bay Area journalists, media organizations, and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism to form an investigative team to continue the work of journalist Chauncey Bailey Jr., and answer questions regarding his death.
This season, EXPOSÉ will air as a monthly feature on PBS's Bill Moyers Journal. EXPOSÉ tells the story-behind-the-story of groundbreaking investigative reporting, and is produced by Thirteen/WNET New York in association with CIR.
Leave or die—this was the choice white residents in several cities gave their African American neighbors between the end of the Civil War and the Great Depression. CIR co-produced an NPR radio story and the award-winning documentary Banished, which examines a shameful, hidden chapter in U.S. history by revisiting communities where the echoes of racial injustice still reverberate.
A three-year investigation deep inside California’s Latino gang wars. From the lettuce fields of Salinas to the jail cells of Pelican Bay, this collection of print articles, radio stories, and a PBS documentary reveal the devastating effect of gangs on families -- and the controversial war to stop them.