About Watchdog
What Watchdog’s public research surface is for
This page explains what Watchdog is, what readers can explore here, and how the public research surface differs from the internal workflow behind it.
What Watchdog is
A read-only accountability research surface built around reports, events, sources, and themes.
Orientation
Watchdog organizes published accountability records into a public research surface.
The public site is designed to help readers move from broad entity reports into specific events, source records, and thematic groupings without needing access to the internal workflow that prepares those records for publication.
What the public site includes
The public surface is organized around several distinct research entry points.
- Reports
- Agency, office, and people reports provide higher-level summaries with timelines, compare views where available, and linked accountability context.
- Events
- Public event pages show the core event record, related public entities, linked evidence, and thematic tags.
- Sources
- Public source pages show evidence metadata and the events that reference that source.
- Tags
- Public tag pages group linked events under a common topic or recurring accountability theme.
These are usually the best starting point when you need a structured overview before moving into individual events or source records.
Use event pages when you need to understand a specific development rather than a whole report surface.
Use source pages when you need to inspect the visible evidence trail behind an event or report claim.
Use tags when the question is thematic and you want to follow a pattern across multiple records.
What kinds of entities and reports are available
The public surface is organized so readers can start broad, then move into narrower supporting context.
Agency, office, and people reports
These report pages are the main public summaries. They gather timelines, linked records, compare views where supported, and connected context into one place.
Events, sources, and tags
These pages provide the supporting public trail beneath the reports. They help readers move from a summary into specific records, evidence, and recurring themes.
How the public site differs from the internal system
The public surface and the internal workflow serve different audiences and different tasks.
Public research surface
Built for external readers who need a serious, readable orientation to published accountability material.
Internal research workflow
Used to review records, link entities, assess evidence, and prepare material for publication.
What public readers can and cannot do here
The public site is intentionally narrower than the broader system behind it.
What you can do
Read, compare, follow links, and preserve visible views.
Browse public reports and indexes by entity type or theme.
Open events, sources, and tags through the public evidence trail.
Use share links, print views, and lightweight exports where available.
What you cannot do
No operator workflow or administrative controls are exposed.
No review queues, publication actions, or moderation controls.
No internal dashboards, operator activity, or unpublished working context.
No promise that every internal linkage or draft record is visible on the public site.
Important limits for readers
A trustworthy public surface should also make its boundaries clear.