From the Editors: Looking Back At A Landmark Year For Broad + Liberty

I’m proud to be a contributor to Broad + Liberty. 

My Crime Beat column appears on the Broad + Liberty and Philly Daily websites each week.

As the editors noted, it’s been a remarkable year at Broad +Liberty. 

You can read the year-end piece by the editors via the below link or the following text:

 From the Editors: Looking back at a landmark year for Broad + Liberty

It’s been a remarkable year at Broad +Liberty. 

We published over 900 original pieces covering wide-ranging topics from scandals in the Shapiro administration, county politics, education, culture and healthcare.

Our investigative reporting by Todd Shepherd garnered state and national attention. The Pennsylvania News Media Association awarded Shepherd the “Best in Investigative Journalism” for his work exposing incompetence and poor management at the Delaware County prison. 

Nationally, the Atlantic cited Shepherd’s work in its lengthy piece on Governor Josh Shapiro. Broad + Liberty broke the news about a sexual harassment scandal involving one of Shapiro’s top aides back in 2023. Shepherd continues to uncover more concerning facts around the incident including deleted email accounts that run contrary to the state’s own policy.

Whether reporting on excessive county tax increases, questionable spending by school districts or political endorsements and campaign donations, Shepherd’s investigative journalism is making a significant impact at the local, state, and national level. Shepherd's work is complemented by additional reporting and informed opinion pieces from our staff, including Kyle Sammin, Brad Vasoli, and Beth Ann Rosica.

We are also proud to publish regular contributions from Guy Ciarrocchi, Thom Nickels, Ben Mannes, Christine Flowers, Paul Davis, and Seth Higgins, in addition to submissions from private citizens and elected officials that the mainstream media would likely ignore. Broad + Liberty fulfills its mission every week by giving voice to issues and ideas that have been shut out of our public discourse for too long.

This year, Broad + Liberty founded The Bucks County Independence in May and The Lancaster County Independence in August. These new sites deliver thoughtful and rigorous journalism on the local level and have each broken numerous hard-hitting stories. Bucks Independence readers were the first to read about recently retired Falls Township Supervisor Jeff Boraski’s payment of most of his campaign funds to himself as “reimbursements,” the latest development in an ongoing fundraising scandal with countywide implications. The Lancaster County Independence provided trenchant coverage of county budget deliberations and broke a story about a controversial potential challenger to Republican State Representative Steven Mentzer.

It’s interesting to look back and reflect upon which stories earned the most attention. It is often surprising to us which pieces do well and which ones don’t seem to get many clicks. Perhaps it’s timing or getting picked up by an aggregator, but ultimately we can never predict the popularity — or lack thereof  — of a story.

As we would expect, our regular writers captured the top ten list this year, but the pieces that made it were sometimes not anticipated.

To cap off the year, here, in order, are Broad + Liberty’s top ten stories in 2025.

1.     Federal probe launched into Unionville-Chadds Ford School District after parent complaints by Beth Ann Rosica

2.     Pandemic policies sparked a transgender spike and the reversal has begun by Beth Ann Rosica

3.     Philly school district spent at least $309,000 sending staff to local union conference despite travel policy by Todd Shepherd

4.     Shapiro admin can’t locate key emails in sexual harassment case – “zero emails on the server……. is preposterous” by Todd Shepherd 

5.     How northern Pennsylvania is being left behind by Seth Higgins

6.     Philly DA Krasner receives endorsement from democratic ward leader convicted of sex offenses against a minor by Todd Shepherd

7.     Chesco bureaucrats end hot meals for needy West Chester families by Beth Ann Rosica

8.     Ideology over justice – how Larry Krasner’s policies failed Kada Scott by Ben Mannes

9.     Emails show questionable collusion between Krasner and PAC donors by Ben Mannes

10. $164k for a Chief Experience Officer? Chester County finds new ways to spend your money by Guy Ciarrocchi

The past year underscores Broad + Liberty’s growing role in Pennsylvania’s public conversation.

From the founding of our republic, the health of our civic life has rested upon a simple but profound truth: a free and independent press is not merely a feature of democracy — it is one of its chief guarantors. As the only industry explicitly contemplated in the Constitution, the framers understood that liberty is not self-perpetuating; it must be renewed through informed citizens, accountable institutions, and a shared commitment to truth that transcends partisan preferences.

We at Broad + Liberty are stewards of a tradition that predates us and will outlast us if we tend to it faithfully. The press is, in the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, the “chief democratic instrument of freedom”— a moral instrument for the advancement of the public good.

In other words, strong communities are built when government is accountable, enterprise is encouraged, innovation is dynamic, and individuals embrace their God-given responsibility for themselves and their neighbors. This is a social compact that is strengthened when we are at our best.

As 2025 comes to a close, Broad + Liberty is excited for what 2026 has in store. Our team is ready to break the stories, report the news, and help our readers make sense of what is happening locally, across the state, and in the country.

We are incredibly grateful to our loyal readers who click on our website daily and to those who continue to support our work financially.

As Broad + Liberty expands and grows, our commitment to freedom of thought remains paramount, and we promise to bring more diverse voices to our pages.

Thank you for your support and Happy New Year!