We are delighted to announce that, as of next week, award-winning journalist Dahr Jamail will be joining the team here at Truthout as a full-time staff reporter.
From his courageous work as an unembedded reporter in Iraq to his groundbreaking, on-site investigation of the BP oil spill’s lasting effects, Dahr has remained a vital independent voice amid an overwhelmingly corporatized journalistic landscape.
“Truly independent journalism has become increasingly rare, yet has never been as important,” says Dahr. “Truthout remains one of the last platforms available to report clearly about the converging crises that define our times, and that is why I’ve decided to join them.”
Dahr’s highly respected work for Truthout, Al Jazeera, The Guardian and many other outlets has covered a wide range of crucial issues. Reporting for Truthout from Iraq in 2010, Jamail documented the war from the assaults on Fallujah throughout the occupation, to the experiences of American soldiers in the field and at home. In his extensive coverage of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, he followed BP response workers and documented the impact of the disaster on Gulf residents. Dahr’s recent work on the still-underestimated scale of climate change has already made a critical impact on conversations around this issue that will drastically shape our collective future.
He has also reported from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey over the last ten years, and has won awards including the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Award for Investigative Journalism, a Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship and four Project Censored awards. Dahr has reported for Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera, and has appeared on the BBC, NPR, and numerous other stations around the globe. He is the author of The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan (Haymarket Books, 2009) and Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq (Haymarket Books, 2007).
In the coming months, Dahr’s work will center around anthropogenic climate disruption and corporate environmental crimes. We’re thrilled to have him with us, and look forward to sharing his groundbreaking work with you!
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $81,000 in one-time donations and to add 1250 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy