The self-described digger of Maine journalism is boasting about its “local news service … in direct response to what people told us they need.”

But arguably the question is what the Maine Monitor is actually doing to ensure its followers are – in its words – “informed and engaged.”

The Monitor claims to be “committed to investigative journalism and Maine,” says keen statewide media watchdog Jonathan Reisman of Cooper, Maine, who says he hasn’t “seen anything on fraud, Somalis,” to cite two examples.

Reisman, an economist/policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after nearly 40 years and is a contributor to The Maine Wire, said that the “reality doesn’t quite match [the] rhetoric.”

He received a solicitation for a donation from Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, executive director of the Maine Monitor.

“The Maine Monitor’s reporting is a public good,” Schweitzer-Blumh wrote. “Can I count on you to keep it working for Maine?

“Member support is the linchpin that keeps our nonprofit news organization working for Maine,” she added. “We rely on member support to fund everything from reporter salaries to document access fees to gas money to get to a story.”

Schweitzer-Blumh attached a link in her solicitation email to the organization’s “Impact Report 2025.”