I love a good contest as much as the next guy, but this one is tremendously important, and if you choose to participate, you’ll be striking a blow against corporate-owned news and for independent media. It’s Support Your Media Day, a friendly competition between some of the top independent media organizations.
The reason why I have been such a staunch advocate of independent news media dates back to before George W. Bush unleashed his catastrophic invasion and occupation of Iraq. My book on the subject was making the rounds, and I was trying my best to argue against the course for war. One day, a producer for an MSNBC news program called and asked me to come on the show. Hans Blix and the weapons inspectors had been in Iraq for less than 100 hours at the time, and this producer told me I would be expected to come on the show and argue that Blix and the inspectors were doing a terrible job, and should be ignored by Mr. Bush. I spluttered a reply along the lines of, “I won’t say that, we need to let them do their jobs so we don’t get a lot of people killed.”
The producer laughed – a throaty, too-many-cigarettes laugh – and hung up on me.
That – that right there – is why the independent news media is so vitally important. The “mainstream” news media is owned bag and baggage by a small number of large corporations who bank unimaginable profits by lying to the American people day after day after day. In the ten years since that unbelievable phone call, the independent media has grown, flexed its muscles, and changed the way the American people are informed. Today, with the “Support Your Media” contest, you can help Truthout continue to grow, to flex our muscles, and to expose these “mainstream” frauds once and for all.
Make a tax-deductible donation and end our drive tonight by clicking the button below:
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December is the most critical time of year for Truthout, because our nonprofit news is funded almost entirely by individual donations from readers like you. So before you navigate away, we ask that you take just a second to support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation.
This year is a little different. We are up against a far-reaching, wide-scale attack on press freedom coming from the Trump administration. 2025 was a year of frightening censorship, news industry corporate consolidation, and worsening financial conditions for progressive nonprofits across the board.
We can only resist Trump’s agenda by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. At Truthout, we have you.
We’ve set an ambitious target for our year-end campaign — a goal of $250,000 to keep up our fight against authoritarianism in 2026. Please take a meaningful action in this fight: make a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout before December 31. If you have the means, please dig deep.