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Praise for Truthout
Check out what people are saying about Truthout! We're telling the stories that no one else is telling - and shaking up the power structures that impede democracy. We invite you to sign on

Praise for Truthout

Check out what people are saying about Truthout! We're telling the stories that no one else is telling - and shaking up the power structures that impede democracy. We invite you to sign on


Check out what people are saying about Truthout! We’re telling the stories that no one else is telling – and shaking up the power structures that impede democracy.
We invite you to sign on, by emailing [email protected]!

Like so many other people, I rely on Truthout for a daily flow of information and insights. In this challenging and ominous era, progressives need to sustain nonprofit institutions that function with independence and commitment to our values. Truthout strengthens us every day. We can’t afford to take Truthout for granted.

-Norman Solomon, founder, Institute for Public Accuracy and author, “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters With America’s Warfare State

I have been writing about educational, political, and cultural issues for over 35 years. I believe that Truthout is the most important, informative, honest and couragous online news journal I have both read and have had the pleasure of working with. Truthout has a great respect for the intelligence of its readers and never fails to engage social problems with both integrity and razor sharp analyses. At a time, when critical culture is collapsing under the weight of various anti-democratic threats, Truthout is both a blessing and a source of struggle and hope.

-Henry Giroux, Author of “Hearts of Darkness: Torturing Children in the War on Terror” and Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University

I trust Truthout to cover the important stories that impact people’s lives, whether the corporate media is covering them well, poorly, or not at all. I’ve stopped being surprised by compliments and camaraderie in response to wearing my Truthout shirt.

-David Swanson, Washington Director, Democrats.com and Founder, AfterDowningStreet.org

Freedom of thought is proximate to all other liberties. Truthout provides news, views and analysis about critical issues that are often ignored by mainstream media. The service they provide to the quality of democracy is invaluable.

-Cynthia Boaz, Vice President of the Metta Center for Nonviolence Education and assistant professor at Sonoma State University

I have written for Truthout for many years and still look forward to the lineup every day for my research on the hot button issues. It just keeps getting better!

-Marjorie Cohn, professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, immediate past president of National Lawyers Guild


I wouldn’t miss my regular pit-stop at Truthout even for a day. It’s invaluable for anyone who wants to grasp the world as it is (and sometimes, as it should be).

-Tom Engelhardt, Editor, TomDispatch.com

Truthout is one of my first reading stops each day in preparation for my nightly radio show. It’s a treasure trove of articles and opinion pieces that helps me stay informed and plan my show.

-Nicole Sandler, veteran radio personality, host of Radio or Not

News is often portrayed as the first draft of history. However, in many cases, those covering the news have enormous hidden economic or political interests. As a result, people with a discerning eye toward reading objective facts should be drawn to Truthout. I highly recommend visiting their site daily, as I do, for accurate, concise, and reliable news often far more robust and frequently days ahead of larger corporate news outlets dependent upon cozy relationships with government, corporate, and religious leaders.

In a day and age where reputation, speed and diligent reporting actually do matter because the economic and political stakes are so high, Truthout continues performing well above and beyond the call of duty. Decades or centuries from now when historians research digital news about breaking events related to foreign policy, civil liberties, and veterans, I encourage them to thoroughly read Truthout, because this web site writes among the best first drafts of history – drafts that stand up to scrutiny when the infotainment of major news outlets becomes so obviously useless.

-Paul Sullivan, executive director, Veterans for Common Sense

Truthout is a valuable source of information and ideas. I am proud of the fact that I have been writing for the site for the last 4 years.

-Dean Baker, co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

I rely on Truthout both as a writer and a reader. As a writer, it’s a key tool for me to get information out about what the U.S. is doing in the world and efforts to reform U.S. policy. As a reader, it’s a key tool for me to keep on top of the issues I follow closely and the issues that I don’t follow as closely.

-Robert Naiman, Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy

Truthout is the stage on which real journalism can perform unshackled and uncensored. And since merging with Buzzflash, it just becomes the have-you-read-that? site. Its truth goes marching on!

– Greg Palast, Investigative Journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller, “Armed Madhouse”

Truthout is one of our country’s most important independent news outlets – offering topnotch analysis and reporting on a daily basis, the kind not available in corporate news outlets. I couldn’t do without Truthout. And it’s great to see BuzzFlash joining forces with Truthout.

-Jeff Cohen, founder of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

I make personal donations to Truthout because of their commitment to credible and quality truth-telling.

-Bernie Lunzer, President, The Newspaper Guild


In a world rife with complexity and intentional diversions, the mainstream media increasingly offers us regurgitated press releases crafted by the very people, corporations, and governments that we seek to inspect more thoroughly. Without the honest and democratic journalism and commentary of sites committed to the truth behind the rhetoric, we would be a sadly misinformed nation.

-Nomi Prins, Author of “It Takes a Pillage”

My name is Bob Carson. I host a liberal radio show called Carson’s Corner. I’m the only liberal talk show anywhere on the FM dial in New Jersey that I know of. I rely on Truthout. Truthout has provided me with guests and material. Without Truthout, preparing for my show would be much more difficult. We need Truthout around because they provide independent material that the corporate media won’t cover, and they support people like me. Please support Truthout.

-Bob Carson, radio host, Carson’s Corner, “New Jersey’s only FM progressive radio show”

As America’s corporate media continues to decline, I think it’s important that we support nonprofit journalism here at Truthout.

Truthout delivers a great mix of news and commentary. For me Truthout provides some of the best in-depth investigative reporting available, without ads or subscriptions.

Let me offer two examples:

Jason Leopold’s excellent reporting on BP’s dangerous Atlantis platform in the Gulf—and many other aspects of BP’s deplorable record on accidents and safety. His original reporting was so good that it was plagiarized by corporate outlets like The Wall Street Journal and CNN.

H. P. Albarelli, Jr and Dr. Jeffrey Kaye have exposed some of America’s dirty secrets , including the recent report on CIA’s experiments with LSD and electro-shock on children.

If you have a job, and a little money in the bank, I’d like to ask you to give $100 or more to Truthout this month. It’s an important investment in independent journalism at a time when it’s really needed. Like most people, I’m not “rollin’ in dough” these days, but I’m donating $100 and hope you will, too.

-Peter B. Collins, the former syndicated progressive radio host who now hosts a podcast at www.peterbcollins.com.

As a fellow website editor, I know the hard work it takes to keep a not-for-profit website alive, especially those that do progressive political analysis. Truthout and BuzzFlash, now working together, are two of the best, and are well-deserving of wide support and encouragement.

-Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers

Truthout is one of the few forums genuinely dedicated to critical reflection and providing information in the public interest. The assault over the past thirty years on institutions whose mission is the cultivation of public intelligence has left little room for words and deeds by which political life and the necessities of freedom receive support. As time becomes more compressed and the world increasingly shrinks under the weight of technological developments, the need for electronic public-oriented media becomes more urgent. I am proud to be a contributor to and supporter of truthout. I urge fellow-minded readers also to contribute what they can for this precious resource. In the end, democracy depends on the collective responsibility for the public, which, after all, is no more than every one of us.

-Lewis Gordon, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Temple University, founder of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies

The material that Henry Giroux and others have been writing for Truthout is among the best progressive work published in North America today. It is essential reading for progressive thinkers in higher education and for those who still believe that public intellectuals can still make a difference.

-Jeffrey R. Di Leo, Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, University of Houston-Victoria, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange

Democracy depends on a free and independent press to function and indeed, to survive. Today’s independent media is often found in cyberspace, and while we need and rely on original reporting and analysis, we also need guides to sorting through the torrent of material out there, to separate the wheat from the chaff — and point us to essential writing. These are among the many reasons we need Truthout and Buzzflash. All one has to do is read them to discover many more.

-Frederick Clarkson, author of “Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy”

There are 1440 minutes in a day, and I use every one of them. But when my computer or phone indicates that I’ve gotten something from Truthout, everything stops for me, for at least ten minutes, until I can carefully see and internalize what’s there.

I don’t follow the mainstream media anymore. It’s utterly futile. It’s bought and paid for. Not only can’t we take Fox seriously, but it’s also next to impossible to get MSNBC to cover the important stories. We’ve had them ignore gigantic issues. This country has married weapons of mass destruction to crazy fundamentalist Christians, and the mainstream media, disgracefully, does not want to get involved with it – the story of our time. Truthout is telling that story. It’s telling it with Matt Harwood’s reporting on fundamentalism in the US military, William Astore’s reporting on the substitution of evangelism for PTSD care and more.

One of the greatest Americans that ever lived in this country was the peerless historian, author and activist Howard Zinn, who was a member of the Truthout Board of Advisers. I joined the Board of Advisers shortly after Zinn died, less than a year ago.

He once succinctly and sagaciously said that “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Indeed, seven words that rocked the universe.

According to Zinn’s standards, Truthout is the most patriotic American news organization out there.

Before Truthout existed, there was nowhere to go to make sure the important stories got out. And if Truthout goes away, there’d be a fatal vacuum. There would be no place for real news with real-world consequences to go, which is always the tragic harbinger of a civilization’s demise.

-Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

The best remedy to counter the ignorance that plagues America is honest, independent journalism. Truthout works diligently to educate, inform and enlighten its readers. I strongly support and endorse the excellent work Truthout does.

-Linda Milazzo, managing editor, OpEdNews.com

To me, there are three qualities that define the culture of the establishment media: (1) over-reliance on anonymous government sources dictating government talking points; (2) discomfort with evidence of who, as opposed to evidence of what; and (3) a preference for talking at readers, rather than conversing with them.

What is the common denominator of these three qualities? A lack of accountability. The establishment media holds no one to actual account, least of all itself. In a sense, the establishment media conceives of itself as a kind of royalty. Like royalty, it needs to believe it owes its prerogatives to merit rather to a series of unjust accidents; it is motivated primarily by a desire to maintain the system from which it derives its status; and it bridles at, and will attempt to crush, criticism from those it views as peasants, because the existence of such criticism is an implicit threat to the whole implicit foundation of its favored position in society.

By contrast, the progressive blogosphere is defined culturally by reliance on the factual record rather than the unverifiable whisperings of government officials; by an impolitic insistence on
naming names, including those of establishment media stars; and by a preference for dialogue with readers and other bloggers rather than soliloquy. The common denominator of these three qualities, of course, is accountability — and the blogoshphere’s belief in and practice of accountability is precisely why the establishment media feels so threatened by it. When someone holds a favored position in society for reasons other than merit, of course he’ll feel threatened by someone who is demonstrating actual aptitude for the position in question. Too complicit to simply cede his position, too lazy to emulate the newcomer, royalty tends to favor subversion, instead.

Within this universe of superb progressive blogs, Truthout stands out for its reporting and commentary. Its not just the quality of the articles; it’s also the quality of the coverage — that is, Truthout’s decisions on what is *worth* covering — that is so distinctive.

Truthout has had a huge impact on my understanding of the world and on the stories I write, and if you’re not a regular reader already, please do give this terrific blog a try, and see how much you’ve been missing.

-Barry Eisler, bestselling author, “Inside Out”

The Rick Smith Show is proud to support the outstanding work of Truthout and Buzzflash. We at the Rich Smith Show read, and talk about the articles often. In day’s mega corporate media structure truth tellers and fishbowl cleaners are vital to keeping our democratic process honest and transparent.

-Rick Smith, Host of the Rick Smith Show

In a recent Gallup poll, public confidence in major daily newspapers and television news had fallen to levels that are embarrassing and humiliating to newspapers and television
news. Yet nothing changes with them: They are megaphones for insiders, apologists for the status quo, and evangelists for the talk
they hear at insider lunches and dinner parties for the establishment. Even when newspapers cut back and close down, even when television ratings slide down, they keep doing what they are doing, because that is the only thing they know how to do.

Truthout is important because it gives voice to views that are largely excluded from the insider-dominated mainstream media.

Truthout is important because it provides a megaphone for ideas, and those who have ideas, that are not blessed by the insider
culture of elitism in which a relatively small circle of people tell us what we are supposed to think, what we are allowed to consider, and what we must accept whether we like it or not.

Truthout is important because it expands the kind of robust debate that makes America America, that makes democracy democracy, and that makes freedom freedom.

Truthout is important because it stands in the tradition of what Oliver Wendell Holmes once called the great clash of ideas, at a time when major media is far often nothing more than a bulletin board of one group of insiders fighting another group of insiders for power in a corrupted capital in which the uniforms of power change, but the corruptions of power remain the same.

Truthout is important because there is far more truth in Truthout than in most of the elitist insider media.

In the great Gilded Age of our times, Truthout is important because it offers a megaphone to diverse voices who believe that America is a far better country than what we are getting from our politicians, our bankers and our elitist media today.

-Brent Budowsky, Columnist, The Hill

Truthout has always had a commitment to covering the lives of working people, of immigrants, people of color and the labor movement, often a great one than other progressive media. In a media world in which their voices are virtually unheard, Truthout breaks the silence.

-David Bacon, journalist, photographer and author of “Illegal People – How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants”



Want to tell us what you like about Truthout? Write to us at [email protected] with the phrase “My Thoughts on Truthout” in the subject line

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We’re not going to stand for it. Are you?

You don’t bury your head in the sand. You know as well as we do what we’re facing as a country, as a people, and as a global community. Here at Truthout, we’re gearing up to meet these threats head on, but we need your support to do it: We still need to raise $14,000 to ensure we can keep publishing independent journalism that doesn’t shy away from difficult — and often dangerous — topics.

We can do this vital work because unlike most media, our journalism is free from government or corporate influence and censorship. But this is only sustainable if we have your support. If you like what you’re reading or just value what we do, will you take a few seconds to contribute to our work?