Why Consortiumnews Exists

From Editor Robert Parry: America’s political crisis from the crazy rhetoric coming from Republican presidential hopefuls to the deceptive propaganda emanating from the Obama administration could not have happened without a corresponding crisis in the U.S. news media. Which is why Consortiumnews exists.

Frankly, if the mainstream media had been doing its job in 1995 seriously examining U.S. government wrongdoing, such as the Reagan-Bush administration’s ties to Nicaraguan Contra drug dealers and its secret dealings in the Middle East there would have been no need for our independent investigative news site.

And, it’s not as if things have improved since the 1990s, with the mainstream media falling for Bush-Cheney lies about Iraq’s WMD last decade and failing to show skepticism when the Obama administration peddles dubious stories about events in Libya, Syria and Ukraine this decade. So, Consortiumnews remains just as necessary today if not more so but we need your support.

Journalist Robert Parry

So, please help with a donation to our end-of-year fund drive. You can use a credit card online (we accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover) or you can mail a check to Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ); 2200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 102-231; Arlington VA 22201.

For readers wanting to use PayPal, you can address contributions to our account, which is named after our e-mail address: “consortnew @ aol.com”. We are also registered with PayPal’s Giving Fund under the name Consortium for Independent Journalism. (Since we are a 501-c-3 non-profit, donations by American taxpayers may be tax-deductible.)

We also are offering a choice of thank-you gifts for those who can give $125, $150 or more or if you set up a recurring monthly donation by credit card or PayPal.

For donations of $125 or more, you can receive a signed copy of the new edition of my first book, Fooling America, which was originally published in 1992 and has been out of print for many years. Along with it, we’ll include a CD of a book talk that I gave in Los Angeles, explaining what was then a little understood phenomenon, the corruption of the mainstream media.

Or for donations of $150 or more, we can send you the DVD of the movie, “Kill the Messenger,” recalling the mainstream media’s betrayal of the late investigative reporter Gary Webb who was punished for his work reviving interest in the Contra-cocaine scandal plus a CD of Webb and me discussing the topic before a crowd in Santa Monica, California, in 1996.

If you wish to get one of the thank-you gifts, just follow up your donation with an e-mail to us at [email protected] with instructions on where to mail it. We’ll pay the shipping charges.

To save you time, we’ll assume that any donations of $125 are for Fooling America and the related CD, and that if you donate $150, you want “Kill the Messenger” and that CD and we’ll send them to the address attached to your credit card. (Monthly donors can just ask for one of the gift packages.)

Another way to help Consortiumnews survive is to buy one of my books Fooling America, Lost History, Secrecy & Privilege or America’s Stolen Narrative through the Web site and we’ll also send you a hard-bound copy of Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush for free. A portion of each sale will go toward the fund drive.

Again, thanks for your support and for making our two decades of honest journalism possible.

Robert Parry is a longtime investigative reporter who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for the Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. He founded Consortiumnews.com in 1995 to create an outlet for well-reported journalism that was being squeezed out of an increasingly trivialized U.S. news media.