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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We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.