Publisher’s Notes

Updates on our mission, strategy, funding model, and why our journalism stays fiercely independent.

A narrow hallway of a public housing building, with peeling beige paint, exposed pipes overhead, and a flickering fluorescent tube casting cold, uneven light. A leaking ceiling has left dark stains, and a rusted radiator sits beneath a grime-streaked window that reveals the faint silhouette of a gleaming downtown skyline beyond. Shot from a low, centered perspective looking straight down the corridor, creating a strong leading line toward the window. The mood is stark and confrontational, emphasizing the lived consequences of policy decisions. Photographic realism focuses on textures—the cracked linoleum, water damage, and rust—to speak truth to power without showing any people.
A worn wooden ballot drop box with chipped paint and visible scratches, bolted to a cracked city sidewalk outside a modest municipal building. Scattered flyers and a discarded campaign button lie in the gutter nearby, hinting at a recent, heated election. Overcast daylight creates flat, honest lighting, emphasizing textures and imperfections rather than glamor. Shot at eye level with a slightly wide lens, the box fills the foreground while the blurred outline of the city hall looms in the background. The atmosphere is tense and serious, photographic realism highlighting the unvarnished mechanics of democracy and the quiet, physical point where political power is actually exercised.

From the Publisher: Inside Tabs

Tabs is an independent, non-profit newsroom run by a small volunteer board, not advertisers or party bosses. I publish what power wants buried, and I rely on reader support at /take-action to keep this work uncompromised.

Archive

Read past notes and open letters, organized by date.