Narco News Needs Your Help to Carry the News to You

If You Haven’t Pitched In Yet to Our Fall Appeal, Please Do So Today

By Bill Conroy
The Fund for Authentic Journalism

September 18, 2007

Dear Friend,

Narco News is not a given.

It can take only one breath at a time as it carries the water of the truth through the vast nothingness of the arid media landscape.

And each breath could be its last, if not for wind at its back, which is you kind readers.

Narco News, despite its heavy burden, is delivering a vital payload to those following its journey across the parched desert of modern journalism.

Here’s a short overview of what the Narco News caravan has delivered free of charge over the past year:

• Narco News published the work of dozens of professional correspondents reporting from countries in Latin America — including Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia and Brazil — as well as along the U.S. border. Those journalists produced hundreds of stories in the past year, many of which translators on the team made possible to publish into multiple languages (including English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French and German).
• Veteran Narco News journalists also provided on-the-job volunteer training to less-experienced reporters out in the field while covering stories, principally in Latin America.
• In addition, Narco News has distributed hundreds of DVDs of seven video documentaries it produced (and made available free online) about indigenous and social movements in Mexico, with versions in English and Spanish.
• Narco News’s coverage of “Other Campaign” by Mexican indigenous and social movements resulted in some 280 original stories and more than 700 original translations produced over a 12-month period, all published without charge on the Internet. That “Other Campaign” coverage involved travel by more than 40 journalists and students throughout all 31 Mexican states and the Federal District, in rotating shifts.
• Narco News also has been at the forefront in covering the remaking of Oaxaca’s popular assembly movement.
• Narco News edited and published Nancy Davies book, The People Decide: Oaxaca’s Popular Assembly in May and has already distributed hundreds of copies throughout the world.
• Narco News also has been the only media outlet to expose and continually investigate the cover-up in the House of Death mass murder in Juárez, Mexico, and the cover-up of DEA corruption in Colombia (the Bogotá Connection) — publishing more than 80 stories on those fronts to date.
• In addition, Narco News provides the Narcosphere, where more than 300 co-publishers can post their own stories, comment on all Narco News stories, and provide an oasis of news, commentary and insight about issues affecting Latin America and the border that simply can’t be found by sifting through the barren sand dunes of the mainstream media.

As you heard last week from founder and publisher Al Giordano, Narco News’ original webmaster and managing editor Dan Feder has come back on board to edit the newspaper day-to-day with an increased emphasis on reporting from South America and in particular about the US-funded military intervention known as Plan Colombia. And Colombian journalist Laura del Castillo will bring more frequent reporting and commentary from that front.

With Dan’s leadership, Webmaster David Briones and Newsroom Coordinator Chris Fee are, in addition to the daily work of managing the technical aspects of the website, and coordinating with co-publishers, translators, donors and other volunteers, are working on some improvements in the website’s uses and design. (Dan and I and the rest of the team continue to rely on Al’s counsel and expertise; even as he works on other projects, he’s still very much a presence around here in the “virtual newsroom.”)

All of that counts for a heavy load for this lone caravan in the desert to carry alone: If you responded to Al’s appeal to you last week – the first in many, many months – thank you. If you haven’t pitched in yet in response to this fall appeal, we really do need your help right now. Narco News needs to support the nomadic journalists spread across two continents that are braving the sand storms and scorching sun of the media wasteland if it has any hope of continuing this caravan.

It needs your help to take the next step, the next breath, in this arduous journey to tell the truth.

We can’t allow Narco News to fall, to become yet another skeleton in this snake-infested desert.

The year ahead holds great promise for change, both good and bad, in the course of history in Latin America and beyond.

The truth of Plan Colombia, Oaxaca (and all of Mexico) and the murder victims in Juárez — and far more — is still out there in the unforgiving desert, cloaked in media mirages, waiting on a caravan of authentic journalists who can find what is real and deliver it to the people.

Please help Narco News continue on this journey. We simply cannot do it without your help.

Please make your contribution today via The Fund for Authentic Journalism at this link:

http://www.authenticjournalism.org/

Or send a check to:

The Fund for Authentic Journalism
PO Box 241
Natick, MA 01760

Sincerely,

Bill Conroy
Journalist
Treasurer, The Fund for Authentic Journalism

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