The Top Ten Reasons to Donate to Narco News and the School of Authentic Journalism

“Unique, Hard-Working, Groundbreaking, Tireless and Real Journalism in an Era When That Has Become Very Scarce”

By Al Giordano
Publisher, Narco News

October 8, 2009

10. Every report published on Narco News is original: Don’t you get tired of online publications that steal, copy or duplicate the work of others to make their pages “look busy”? What you get on Narco News is 100 percent original journalism or original translations of work that appears in other languages. We’re too busy doing real investigative journalism 365 days a year to need to filch from other publications, and that is made possible by your donations.

9. Narco News reports the story from below: While most of the media is enraptured by the power struggles by those up above, our reporters walk at ground level throughout the hemisphere and bring you the ignored stories that later change what happens up above. Regular readers of Narco News are rarely surprised when big changes happen in the hemisphere, because you read the reports from our journalists that showed them coming up from below before the rest of the media noticed.

8. No ads, no pop-ups, and all our work is free to you and to the world: When you want to read a report on Narco News, your eyes and ears aren’t being “rented” to advertisers. Therefore, we don’t have to worry or self-censor our work out of fear of losing wealthy or corporate sponsors. We don’t make you watch commercial videos or pop-up ads before you can read the story. You don’t have to pay any subscription fee. When it comes to an authentic free press, “free” means you don’t pay… unless you choose voluntarily to make a contribution.

7. Narco News reports drive the narrative and change history: Whether toppling a coup d’etat or forcing the removal of dishonest corporate “journalists” from their posts in Latin America, or predicting US and other presidential primary and election results before they happen, Narco News has a track record of forcing neglected stories into the wider media and limiting its ability to distort or ignore such vital news reports. It is our highest priority to get the job done and we do it again and again.

6. Narco News is the favored media for whistleblowers to leak documents: Two words: Bill Conroy. His reports for six years now on Narco News have exposed, again and again, wrongdoing by US law enforcement agents and others. When, in 2005, Homeland Security agents went to Bill’s family home to try and intimidate his unnamed sources from him, he stood tall. And that led to a deluge of more whistleblowers inside government to view him as the only reporter they trust to protect their identities while breaking the information blockades.

5. It Was Narco News that won First Amendment protections for all Internet journalists: Our victory in the case of Banamex vs. Mario Menéndez Rodríguez, Al Giordano and Narco News created the legal precedent that put a stop to a wave of corporate harassment lawsuits against online publications and reporters. That 2001 decision fell like a bomb on the commercial media, leveling the playing field for independent journalism to enjoy the same press freedom protections that had previously been the monopoly only of commercial publications. When you support Narco News you know you are supporting a rare news organization that will never back down or allow itself to be intimidated or censored by powerful interests.

4. Narco News Trains and Cultivates a New Generation of Authentic Journalists: Our School of Authentic Journalism is the only intensive training program for independent journalists, documentary and viral video makers and communicators that exists on earth. Everybody complains about the sorry state of the media and what it calls “journalists.” We’re the ones doing something about it, scouting and recruiting new journalists of talent and social conscience and also experienced teachers that help them (and us) be so much better, faster, more coherent and effective at this craft than before. Your contribution to The Fund for Authentic Journalism comes back to you every time you later read or see or hear a report by one of the more than 100 authentic journalists that have passed through our training program, tuition free. While others hoard their skills and talents, we share them, clone them, and multiply them for all.

3. If you support the 2010 J-School, You Will Be Able to Attend It from Your Computer Screen: For the first time, in February 2010, when we convene the School of Authentic Journalism in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, many of the lessons in how to do cutting-edge and honest journalism will be videotaped, edited and translated so that you, too, can learn from those skills and lessons from home. Go ahead and try finding anything that useful for your own communications efforts online today, and for free. Such an online independent journalism curriculum doesn’t exist. Your donation will make it happen in February.

2. Narco News is a rare media organization that is primarily funded by small donors: Not dependent on advertisers or any single funding source, that gives us the freedom to pursue aggressive no-holds-barred investigations and reporting without any one special interest or sponsor having the power to pull the rug out from under us. We have created the new model – sustainable for as long as we answer to you, the readers, above all others – for the kind of journalism that will replace commercial daily newspapers and other dying media industries with something even better: Journalism that answers to, and serves, you and people like you. Your small contributions are the single greatest factor in keeping our work independent and free of the pressures and impositions that have destroyed the credibility of traditional news companies.

1. Supporting Narco News Feels Good and Makes You Part of a Larger, and International, Community: Every contributor to The Fund for Authentic Journalism is invited to own a free “copublisher account” on our pages. Copublishers may comment on all our stories without having to wait for each comment to be moderated. Copublishers may also have your own blogs on Narco News, as long as you are posting original first-time material here. Our 469 copublishers make new friends and contacts with each other every day across the hemisphere and the world. As a copublisher, this newspaper is not separate from you, but part of you, and you own a piece of it through your copublisher account. Not all contributors choose to be copublishers, but it sure is nice to know that once you’ve invested in this project that you have that unique access to all of our readers and reporters when you want it or especially when you need it.

For these ten reasons and so many more, please consider supporting this newspaper, its journalists and its school that will bring you even more authentic journalism in the days and years to come, by making a contribution online right now at this link:

http://www.authenticjournalism.org

Or send a check to:

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

As a 501c3 nonprofit organization, your contributions to The Fund for Authentic Journalism are tax-deductible in the US, and right now every dollar you donate will be doubled by matching support from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, so this is also a very opportune moment to make your donation count twice as much.

There are many organizations that seek your support, and if you’re like most folks, you have a limited amount you can give to any of them. Among them all, there is only one Narco News, and only one School of Authentic Journalism, unique, hard-working, ground-breaking, and tireless at bringing you real journalism in an era when that has become very scarce.

Just as authentic journalism happens when you add your truth to our truth and together we construct a bigger truth, when you add your donation – no matter how large or small – to that of so many others, together we make for a bigger and better journalism.

Thank you so much for your support in the past, and your continued role as the most important person in this project, who along with many other most important participants, accomplishes with your donation something greater than any of us can achieve alone.

From somewhere in a country called América,

Al Giordano
Publisher, Narco News

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