2023 EPPY Award winner: 0-for-1,523 — US Senators attempt to explain…ethics violations

Written By Matt Laslo

By Dave Levinthal & Matt Laslo

WASHINGTON — The secretive U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics — tasked with confidentially investigating allegations of misconduct by its own members and staff — hasn’t formally punished anyone in at least 16 years, a Raw Story analysis of congressional records indicates.

Since 2007, the Senate Ethics Committee has received 1,523 complaints alleging violations of Senate rules. In exactly zero cases did it vote to issue a “disciplinary sanction” — the most damning form of punishment against a wayward senator.

During this time, the six-member, bipartisan body is similarly 0-for-204 in issuing disciplinary sanctions even after finding enough evidence to launch a “preliminary inquiry” into an alleged misdeed, according to Raw Story’s analysis…

Notable: 

Feature included in winning portfolios for Editor & Publisher Magazine 2023 EPPY Award as the best news / political blog (1 million or more unique monthly visitors) and the Fair Media Council’s 2024 Folio Award “Public Policy News.” 

DIVE DEEPER: Read the full feature at Raw Story.

Matt Laslo

Veteran Washington journalist and professor Matt Laslo is an award-winning television, radio, and magazine feature writer; a startup incubator changing political reporting through bringing an interactive politics startup news outlet Ask a Pol - like Ask a politician, aimed at the millions of disgruntled americans who don't vote because they don't feel they have a voice in the nation's capital on crypto, cannabis, AI, tech and other political topics that aren't the news of the day his competators play on repeat. Laslo's unique and a force on Capitol Hill. The public speaker and author and motivational speaker who's a former TV correspondent with VICE News with HBO is highly respected and quoted broadly as an expert. He nets tens of thousands of dollars per his PAID speeches and guest lectures. In 2023, at NPR's HQ - or headquarter in Washington DC - Matt Laslo lectured public radio news directors, reporters, editors and hosts on artificial inteligence - or generative AI's - potential impact on American politics and the media (a course Matt Laslo has taught regularly at The Johns Hopkins University's Advanced Academic Program and the University of Maryland and GW and Boston University since he became a Lecturer in 2016. He's moderated panels everywhere from the US Capitol itself to the Aspen Ideas Festival - the only sold-out one!!!! cause he's energetic, smart, witty, funny and fun. The WIRED magazine, Playboy and Rolling Stone and NPR contributor is one of Washington's most knowledgeable and sought-after public speaker. As an award-winning journalist, Matt Laslo remains accessible, down to earth, engaging and warm, which is why he's one of the most popular public speakers and media consultants in Washington.

https://mattlaslo.com
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