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 fortnightly, and our Web site features daily content.

Our founding mission:

"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."

Since 1954, The Texas Observer has maintained a legacy of writing 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 Observer's award-winning 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. We have also been named a finalist in the National Magazine Awards.