Media
The Reviews Were Written by the Boss's Relatives
A finalized FTC order against Publishing.com describes wealth claims from founders, reviews from undisclosed insiders, and a hard-to-complete refund process.
14 July 2026
Independent investigative journalism, backed by evidence.
Watchdog Journal investigates wrongdoing by individuals, corporations, and institutions — fraud, deception, and misconduct wherever public trust is on the line. Every investigation is built from primary documents: court filings, corporate registries, financial disclosures, archived pages, on-the-record statements. Every claim is weighed against our evidence standard before it's published — nothing runs on trust alone.
Featured
Institutions
$45.5 Million Raised, $34.9 Million Kept
A 20-jurisdiction settlement details how a vehicle-donation operator kept most of what it raised in the name of breast cancer screening for itself.
8 October 2025
Corporations
The $40 Million Rounding Error
The SEC's case against ADM describes how executives allegedly moved profit between company divisions to hit growth numbers promised to investors.
6 February 2026
Public Figures
One Million Fake Degrees
Police say a single network manufactured and sold up to a million forged degree certificates — exposing how little credentials are actually verified.
19 December 2025
Government
The Enforcement Ledger: June 2026
The second edition of our running enforcement record: an AI-branded crypto scam, an MLM earnings ban, and a record health care fraud takedown.
20 June 2026
Fraud & Deception
Five Stars, Bought and Paid For
The FTC has begun enforcing its Consumer Review Rule — warning letters to ten companies and a widening probe into fake, AI-generated reviews online.
9 January 2026
How we report
Every material claim in a Watchdog Journal investigation is classified by the strength of the evidence behind it — assigned by the record, not by how confident we feel. Readers see the classification in the text, next to the claim it applies to.
DOCUMENTED
Supported by primary-source records: court filings, registries, archived pages, on-the-record statements. The only claims we state as fact.
REVIEWED
Assessed by our reporters, with the supporting evidence characterized in the text. Patterns are reported as patterns, never upgraded to fact.
SELF-REPORTED
Claimed by a subject about themselves and not independently verified. Always attributed, never adopted.
DISPUTED
Contradicted by the documentary record — with both the claim and the contradicting evidence presented.
Our commitments
Accountability journalism only works if the newsroom itself can be held to account. These are the rules we operate under, in full, with no exceptions.
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Fair representation
Where a subject's own explanation, denial, or public statement exists on the record, it is represented alongside our findings. We do not publish a claim we know to be false.
Corrections in the open
Errors are corrected promptly and visibly, noted at the top of the affected investigation. We never silently edit published work.
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We do not remove or alter reporting in response to threats — legal, financial, or personal. Evidence changes our coverage. Pressure does not.