The Texas Observer writes about issues ignored or underreported in the mainstream press. Our goal is to cover stories crucial to the public interest and to provoke dialogue that promotes democratic participation and open government, in pursuit of a vision of Texas where education, justice and material progress are available to all.

The Texas Observer is a nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative, political and social-justice reporting from the strangest state in the Union. Our award-winning magazine is published monthly, and our Web site features daily content.

From our founding in 1954, the Observer has focused on issues ignored or underrerported by Texas’ mainstream media. Our goal is not only to unmask corporate and governmental corruption, but to foster social and economic justice in Texas by promoting democratic participation and encouraging open government. Our guiding light continues to be our founding mission statement:

We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracy. We will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit.

The Observer‘s truth-telling has led both state and national media—including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harper’s, 60 Minutes, 20/20, Frontline, Mother Jones, The Nation, TIME magazine, National Public Radio and ABC News—to important stories about injustice and corruption in Texas. Our reporting has prompted investigations and hearings in the U.S. Congress and Texas Legislature, and led to the exonerations of several wrongly convicted Texans.

Our reporting and writing have garnered widespread recognition: Among other honors, the Observer has won 42 awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, been recognized for Best Political Coverage by The Utne Reader, and been a finalist for the National Magazine Award.