In summary
CalMatters’ third Emmy award honored accountability journalism that, as one reporter described, “I could not have done” without Digital Democracy.
CalMatters’ Digital Democracy collaboration with CBS-TV has been honored with an Emmy award from the Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The video piece, “Using new AI, grieving moms discover California lawmakers killed popular fentanyl bill by *not* voting” told the story of how moms advocating for fentanyl legislation were upset to learn through Digital Democracy that their bills died when legislators declined to vote.
The broadcast followed a CalMatters’ story, “Power is never having to say ‘no.’ How California Democrats kill bills without voting against them” co-authored by CBS correspondent Julie Watts and CalMatters reporter Ryan Sabalow. The story used data from Digital Democracy to show that instead of directly voting against a bill, Democrats often killed bills by declining to vote.
Launched in 2024, Digital Democracy is CalMatters’ unprecedented, custom-built AI tool that tracks every word spoken in public hearings, every dollar donated to politicians, every bill introduced, every vote cast and more.
The CalMatters and CBS entry won in the politics and government news category, which also honored a KCRA 3 entry. The award recognizes CBS correspondent Julie Watts and producer Dennis Lopez along with CalMatters reporters Sameea Kamal and Ryan Sabalow. Foaad Khosmood, a computer science professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and an architect of Digital Democracy, was also recognized.
“First of all, Digital Democracy has transformed the way I do my job … everyone in this room should be using it,” Watts said when accepting the award next to Dave Lesher, CalMatters’ co-founder, senior editor and leader of Digital Democracy. “This is one of many accountability stories that I did this year that I could not have done without this incredible tool that Dave Lesher is responsible for and I could not have done this and several other stories without these incredible women.”
Read more stories from CalMatters that have used data from Digital Democracy.