Pulitzer Prize nominated author Robert Parry left the TM years ago when it became apparent the TM had no interest in upholding any of the values of REAL Journalism. He started his own investigative reporting news site in 1995 in an effort to begin a "progressive" media infrastructure to counter balance the vast media resources of the far right wing. Suffice to say had he received ample funding back then from heavy hitter "liberal" donors or simply a few thousands of people like us, we very well might not have had to endure the horror of these past 8 years.
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The VRWC has had their way with the TM so long now it's hard to remember a time when they didn't. A time when their spinning and lying wasn't being echoed, amplified then accepted by the TM as "fact". It is Parry's position that we progressives need that same ability but have never gone out of our way to even get a semblance of it off the ground.
While the VRWC pumped literally Billions of dollars into their media, (The Rev. Moon alone has pumped $50 million every year for the past quarter century to keep the Washington Times in business) it has been left to easily derided and marginalized citizen journalists to counter this machine. We're playing pinochle against Professional Texas Hold 'Em Card Sharks and have been now for so long, it's truly a miracle we have been able to pull of the electoral results we have. Imagine how different it may have been had we in place a balancing media? Would there even be a Republican left in office? Would the Bushes indeed be fleeing down PA Ave, steps ahead of a lynch mob, as GHW Bush stated once in an unguarded moment in an interview in 1993?
I think not.
But here it is almost 2009 and a fine journalist like Parry is reduced to begging as he and his staff forgo even a regular meager paycheck while still turning out fine work.
Mr Parry says it better than I can;
Our year-end fundraiser is down about 75 percent from last year, putting the survival of our unique journalistic operation in jeopardy.
We realize that times are tough - and there are many worthy causes - but Consortiumnews.com has been there for the past 13 years providing serious investigative journalism for you, our readers.
Indeed, viewed as a whole, we have created an important counter-narrative to Washington's misguided conventional wisdom, the false narrative that has led the Republic into its current mess. So keeping this Web site alive is important.
Our annual operating budget is only about $125,000 - and there's only so much more belt-tightening we can do. Already our little staff has absorbed one month of payless paydays. We also have had to cut the modest payments to our freelance writers. If we have to close down, our journalistic narrative will die, too.
When you have a minute, I invite you to go back to the Consortiumnews.com home page and look over the stories just from December. Those original works of journalism told truths that otherwise would have remained unknown or, at best, they would have drawn far less attention.
Those stories include:
--Detailed warnings about some of Barack Obama's top Cabinet choices, particularly Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
--George W. Bush's exit-interview lies about his justification for invading Iraq, such as his bizarre claim that Saddam Hussein didn't let the U.N. weapons inspectors in.
--The anti-war context of Martin Luther King's "fierce urgency of now" quote, which was a staple of Obama's campaign speeches but always without the crucial context.
--The historical significance of President Lyndon Johnson's taped remark about the "treason" of Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign in sabotaging Vietnam peace talks.
--President Bush's personal responsibility for his administration's torture policies, a key point from a Senate report that was widely ignored or downplayed by the mainstream news media.
--The tragedy of Gary Webb's death and his important contribution to American history by forcing devastating admissions from the CIA about drug trafficking by its clients, the Nicaraguan contras.
--The need for President-elect Obama to take a more balanced look at the tensions with Russia.
--The U.S. news media's acquiescence to the Bush administration's arguments on the value of torture and the success of the "surge" - and how those myths could limit Obama's actions.
--Vice President Dick Cheney's brazen defense of torture and his challenge to a core American principle, the rule of law.
--Henry Kissinger's role in undermining American democracy at key junctures in the past.
It is simply unconscionable that professionals like Parry, people on the right side of truth and justice have to beg while the likes of any freak faux wingnut journalist you can think of positively rolls in cash, given happily by the forces of Plutocracy.
I'll end this now because I want you all to go to Parry's site and have a look around, if you don't agree this guy deserves $10, 20, 50- whatever you can spare, then fine, you've only lost a few minutes. But if you agree with me, that Parry is one of the most valuable resources we have, then please, find the good sense within yourself to send a few smackeroos to the Parry's. We simply can't afford to lose the voice of people like Robert Parry.
Please recommend and let's put a big dent in Parry's troubles and by extension one in ours, right now. Robert Parry's Consortium News
Let's do the right thing!