William Rivers Pitt is Truthout’s senior editor and lead columnist. His work with this organization spans two decades. He covers environmental issues, the crisis of gun violence in the United States, foreign policy, the vagaries of right-wing insanity, the doings of activism in all its forms, various social and economic issues and electoral politics, but only in season.
Mr. Pitt is a New York Times and international best-selling author of three books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You to Know, The Greatest Sedition Is Silence and House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America’s Ravaged Reputation. Mr. Pitt, a 40-year native of Boston, now lives with his wife and daughter in New Hampshire.
Who Needs Republicans?
Friday, 14 November 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
This Nation of Cowards
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The True History of Blowback in One Sentence
Thursday, 23 October 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
George W. Bush: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Saturday, 18 October 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
War Eternal: One Man Gathers What Another Man Spills
Thursday, 25 September 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Fascism 101: The Police and Media Control
Monday, 22 September 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Pleasant Fiction of “No Boots on the Ground”
Monday, 15 September 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Meet the New War, Same as the Old War
Thursday, 11 September 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Friday, 05 September 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Iraq War Was a Smashing Success
Thursday, 28 August 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
To Know the Darkness and the Light
Friday, 15 August 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
All the Blood in Your Body
Tuesday, 29 July 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Hope in the Village
Friday, 18 July 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Lost, Lingering Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy
Saturday, 12 July 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Land of the Free, Unless You’re a Woman
Friday, 04 July 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Iraq, Two Bullets and the Long Arc of History
Tuesday, 01 July 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
They Belong in Prison, Not on TV
Friday, 20 June 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Friday, 6 June 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Friday, 02 May 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Friday, 04 April 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Thursday, 06 March 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Thursday, 30 January 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Friday, 17 January 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Homegrown
Tuesday, 07 January 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Year of the Gun
Wednesday, 01 January 2014
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Laney’s Christmas
Wednesday, 25 December 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Here Lies America: Shot to Death
Thursday, 12 December 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Last Dead Nazi
Tuesday, 03 December 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
An Open Letter to You
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
An Open Letter to All Breathing Republicans
Friday, 08 November 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
America on Fire
Tuesday, 22 October 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Boehner, Obama and the Triple-Dog Dare
Tuesday, 08 October 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Half the Republicans You Know Are Insane
Thursday, 03 October 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Long Lesson, and New Legacy, of September 11
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
It’s Not War, So Stop Saying That
Thursday, 05 September 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
War on Syria: Twenty Pounds of Stupid in a Ten-Pound Bag
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
You Are, In Fact, Being Watched
Wednesday, 07 August 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
He Can Marry, She Can’t Vote: Another Day in Deranged America
Thursday, 27 June 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
You, Terrorist
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The End of the Beginning of the End
Sunday, 26 May 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
An Itty Bitty Pity Party for the Associated Press
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Climbing Heartbreak Hill
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Waking From My Moral Coma
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Sequester is Good for You, and Other GOP Lies
Thursday, 07 March 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The United States of Aftermath
Thursday, 21 February 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Tip Your Server and Save the World
Thursday, 07 February 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Selling the Shooting
Thursday, 17 January 2013
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Shooting Is Business, and Business Is Good
Thursday, 20 December 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Winning the Outside Chance
Wednesday, 07 November 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Eye of the Storm That Sees Us All
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
A Festival of Gibberish
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
When the President Comes to Town
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Big Joe and the Joyful Noise
Friday, 12 October 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
A Nationally-Televised Presidential Fail
Thursday, 04 October 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Beneath the Bottom of the Barrel
Thursday, 16 August 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
A Jo’rneyman’s Song
Monday, 28 May 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Essay
It Is Enough: An Open Letter to the Sick at Heart
Wednesday, 09 May 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Weight
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Savage Arithmetic of the Pre-Existing Condition
Friday, 30 March 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
To My Mother
Saturday, 18 February 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
This Is What I Know
Wednesday, 01 February 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
In the Clearing Stands a Boxer: One Man’s Fight Against Fracking
Thursday, 12 January 2012
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
It’s Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Christmas
Friday, 02 December 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The People’s Surveillance State
Monday, 21 November 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
This Is What America Looks Like
Thursday, 17 November 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
An Open Letter to Wall Street
Tuesday, 04 October 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Children of Aftermath
Sunday, 11 September 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Dick Cheney, the Ultimate American Terrorist
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Unacceptables
Friday, 19 August 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
A President in Reverse
Tuesday, 02 August 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
So This Is Despair
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
I Pledge Allegiance to the Pole
Monday, 04 July 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Down in the Ditch
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Triumph of Political Derangement
Friday, 03 June 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
They Love Each Other
Friday, 27 May 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Yup, Still Here
Saturday, 21 May 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Kooky Konservative Klown Kar
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Meanwhile, in America
Monday, 09 May 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Now What?
Wednesday, 04 May 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
My Alabama
Monday, 02 May 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
I Remember America
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
A Festival of Dumb
Thursday, 07 April 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The Nowhere Man
Tuesday, 05 April 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
The New American Dream
Thursday, 31 March 2011
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy