Texas Watchdog founder dies at 47
AUSTIN — Trent Seibert, an investigative political reporter who worked in TV and launched news websites in Houston to shine light on the underbelly of state politics, died this week, according to his friends and colleagues. He was 47.
The Houston Police Department responded Wednesday afternoon to a request for a welfare check at his home near the University of Houston after colleagues were concerned because they hadn’t heard from him in three days, according to a department spokesman.
Police found no signs of forced entry and do not suspect foul play. An autopsy was performed Thursday, and the Harris County medical examiner is expected to report the cause of death in the coming days.
Seibert spent his career focused on how governments spend taxpayer money. He founded the Texas Watchdog in 2009 and edited the nonprofit news website until it ran out of money in 2012. In 2014, he joined the investigative reporting team at KTRK-13 in Houston, where he contributed to reporting about unhealthy conditions at the Harris County Jail in 2015.
Seibert’s publications took on taxpayer spending and government corruption and were largely consumed by political insiders. His career also included stops at the Denver Post, the Tennessean and the San Diego Union-Tribune.
He reported on how former Vice President Al Gore — an Oscar winner for “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary warning about climate change — used more than 10 times the electricity of typical American consumers to power his mansion. He reported the story while working for a conservative think tank in Tennessee.
Seibert launched his last nonprofit news project in Houston in 2017, naming it the Texas Monitor and focusing on breaches of public trust. The website’s investigations have included reporting on frustrations with the management of the Alamo and ethics surrounding the 2018 election.
The future of the publication is unknown, said Gayle Reaves, managing editor of the Texas Monitor.
“The answer is, I don’t know. That will be figured out in coming weeks and months,” she said. “We want to keep doing what we were doing, and I know Trent would want us to as well.”