Bill McMorris, Editor 

Bill McMorris is a staff researcher and writer at the Franklin Center. A print journalist by training, he has written for the Santa Barbar a News-Press, National Review Online and Libertas magazine. While in Santa Barbara, Mr. McMorris produced a wide range of investigative work. His on-site coverage of a November 2008 wildfire revealed that the city had lost nearly ten times more homes than the fire department initially told the public. He also investigated charges of power abuse against the city’s police chief, as well as pay increases at the District Attorney’s Office following a series of lay-offs. Mr. McMorris was educated at Cornell University where he majored in government and history. When he is not reporting, he is trying to pay for a wedding.

Email: bill.mcmorris(@)franklincenterhq.org

Frank Keegan, Editor

Frank Keegan is a national editor for Watchdog, who believes the most important thread in America’s “garment of destiny” is a free and vigorous press. We the People cannot govern ourselves unless we are informed. Keegan committed his life early to the mission of informing the People honestly, objectively and equitably no matter what the consequences.

A native of Memphis, Tenn., he moved to Indiana in high school and went to Purdue University where he was a photographer, reporter and photo editor of the Exponent, the daily student newspaper. The administration shut the paper down and took control because of probes into activities of the quasi-public Purdue Research Foundation.

He became a stringer for the Lafayette Journal & Courier, which then hired him as a regional reporter and photographer. While reporting for the Journal & Courier he was arrested once covering an illegally closed custody hearing, and again when police restricted access to a criminal trial. In both cases the state dropped all charges. At the Journal & Courier he was promoted to assistant city editor and city editor.

His first editor’s job was at the Sturgis Journal in Michigan. He later served as editor in Chambersburg, Pa., Bristol, Conn., Easton, Pa., and Bridgeport, Conn. In 2006 he helped launch the Baltimore Examiner, a revolutionary free-distribution newspaper that quickly rose to more than 400,000 daily and 640,000 Sunday readers, and a Web site with more than 300,000 uniques and 1.1 million page views a month. Baltimore Police arrested Keegan in his home less than a week after the Examiner published full department payroll data on its Web site and called for overtime cost control in an editorial. The state dropped all charges a month later. The Examiner closed this year.

Among his many state and national journalism awards, he is proud to have been fired three times, arrested three times, to have prevailed in overturning illegal arrest of one of his photographers, and to have won numerous freedom of information and libel fights.

Now he is looking for new sustainable models to help citizens cut through rising background noise and inform the People as America’s garment of destiny weaves into its third century.

Elizabeth Hillgrove, Staff Writer

Elizabeth Hillgrove is a staff writer and researcher with Watchdog.org. Ms. Hillgrove’s passion for journalism and politics evolved from her interest in history and literature. Ms. Hillgrove received her training from the National Journalism Center in Washington D.C. She then served as a beat reporter with the Washington Times before earning a Koch Summer Fellowship with the Sam Adams Alliance.

Ms. Hillgrove graduated from James Madison University with a major in English literature and minor in Studio Art. Ms. Hillgrove’s artwork has been featured in several art shows in the Virginia area, in addition to her frontpage stories and bylines. She also dedicates some of her time volunteering with Christian and athletic groups

Email: elizabeth.hillgrove@franklincenterhq.org