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Archives

Age of Obama
Barack Obama's presidency

Bush End Game
George W. Bush's presidency since 2007

Bush - Second Term
George W. Bush's presidency from 2005-06

Bush - First Term
George W. Bush's presidency, 2000-04

Who Is Bob Gates?
The secret world of Defense Secretary Gates

2004 Campaign
Bush Bests Kerry

Behind Colin Powell's Legend
Gauging Powell's reputation.

The 2000 Campaign
Recounting the controversial campaign.

Media Crisis
Is the national media a danger to democracy?

The Clinton Scandals
Behind President Clinton's impeachment.

Nazi Echo
Pinochet & Other Characters.

The Dark Side of Rev. Moon
Rev. Sun Myung Moon and American politics.

Contra Crack
Contra drug stories uncovered

Lost History
America's tainted historical record

The October Surprise "X-Files"
The 1980 election scandal exposed.

International
From free trade to the Kosovo crisis.

Other Investigative Stories

Editorials

Often when we make appeals for financial support, we cite what we won’t be able to do if we can’t raise the money. But there is another side of that coin – what we could do if we had more resources.

So, here is a list of five things that we would do if we had enough money. (If you’re already convinced and want to help, click here.)

5. Expand our coverage of the Obama administration, pointing out when it backtracks on promises but also spotlighting when powerful interests seek to block its worthy goals. Already, Republicans and the right-wing media are boasting of their success in hobbling health care reform – and much of the mainstream press is tagging along. If that dynamic is to change, if this pro-Republican media dominance is to be challenged, there must be a dramatic expansion of honest, independent media with the means to make a difference.

4. The U.S. government and the world must get serious about addressing threats to the environment -- now. Years ago at Consortiumnews.com, we did more stories on issues like climate change, the intersection of oil money and politics, and Third World environmental degradation which often was accompanied by human rights abuses . With your help, we would beef up our environmental coverage again.

3. Much of the mainstream media already is eager to follow the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the mindless free marketers at CNBC in accepting a return to business as usual on Wall Street. If that no-lessons-learned approach prevails, none of the over-compensated culprits who drove the economy into a ditch are likely to pay any serious price, let alone see the inside of a jail cell. We propose expanding our economic coverage and pursuing Wall Street abuses with prosecutorial zeal.

2. Apparently afraid of a media/political backlash against any abrupt reversal of George W. Bush’s “global war on terror,” the Obama administration has bent over backward to defend many of its predecessor’s most outrageous policies. One of the reasons is that there has not been enough public outrage, which has been muted, in part, because the news media has shied away from lifting the veil on the corruption at the core of Bush’s GWOT. We would dig into that rot.

1. Over the next two years, a special commission will spend about $1 million to celebrate Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, according to a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress and signed by President Obama. While Democrats act as if history doesn’t much matter – and they routinely sell it out in pathetic attempts to pander to Republicans – our view is that bogus history enables present-day and future crimes. For instance, if the full truth about Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had been known in 2000, there almost surely would not have been a President George W. Bush. We propose using the peg of the Reagan celebration to fight for a truthful accounting of the past three decades and thus stop some tear-filled commemoration of Ronald Reagan to set the stage for more bloody disasters.

If you want to help us in these endeavors, please give what you can toward our mid-year fundraising goal of $45,000 and beyond.

Depending on your situation, we are suggesting four ways you can help:

First, you can make a tax-deductible donation either by credit card online or by sending a check to: Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ); 2200 Wilson Blvd.: Suite 102-231; Arlington VA 22201.

You also can sign up for a monthly donation if that works better for your budget. Or you can make a donation by PayPal to our account which uses our e-mail address: [email protected].

(If anyone can offer a matching grant of several thousand dollars, that could be a huge help. In a previous fundraiser, we had great success with a matching grant as readers met the challenge and thus doubled the value of their donations.)

Second, you can arrange a local fundraiser by inviting Ray McGovern and me to speak as a duo, representing the new alliance we are building between honest CIA veterans and honest American journalists. (I’m also available to speak alone, but it’s a lot better if you have Ray there, too.)

For details on how to arrange one of our talks, click here.

Third, you can buy the three-volume set (Lost History, Secrecy & Privilege and Neck Deep) for your own or your public library for only $29, with $5 of each purchase going to support the Web site.

(To learn more about this special offer, click here.)

Fourth, you can forward our e-mail story alerts to friends who might be interested. We now have an e-mail list of about 8,000. We’d like to double it.

As always, thanks for your support.

Robert Parry, Editor

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. He founded Consortiumnews.com in 1995 as the Internet's first investigative magazine. He saw it as a way to combine modern technology and old-fashioned journalism to counter the increasing triviality of the mainstream U.S. news media.

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