In the past few weeks Consortium News has added a group of accomplished writers as regular contributors, ensuring that Consortium remains a unique source of news, analysis and commentary that you will not find in mainstream media.
Pepe Escobar, the globe-trotting veteran Brazilian journalist, who can turn a phrase with the best of them while delivering incisive analysis of social movements and West vs. East geopolitics, recently joined Consortium’s roster and has already delivered.
His piece on the Brazilian presidential election is a must read.
Joining Pepe as a new Consortium writer is Max Blumenthal, one of the top journalists in alternative media. Max penned a brilliant obituary of Senator John McCain that gave you everything that was missing from The New York Times.
Patrick Lawrence, a long-time contributor to The Nation, Salon and other important alternative media, with a background in the mainstream as Asia Editor of The International Herald Tribune, has begun contributing his insightful analysis to Consortium News.
As’ad AbuKhalil, a.k.a “The Angry Arab,” began contributing a few months ago with a special perspective on the Middle East as a Lebanese scholar of the region that overrides the usual Orientalist Western view.
Alexander Mercouris, a sharp observer of British politics has begun filing a regular Letter from Britain, in the vein of the legendary BBC U.S. correspondent Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America.
John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who blew the whistle on torture, has also begun contributing a regular column to Consortium News.
These important writers join our stable of regulars that include Ray Mc Govern, Gareth Porter, Daniel Lazare, Jonathan Marshall, Marjorie Cohn, Diana Johnstone and Annie Machon.
Unlike many websites today, we pay our writers at a competitive rate. But we can’t do it without you.
So please make a contribution today to Consortium‘s Fall Fund Drive so that we can continue to provide you some of the best journalism outside the mainstream that exists on the Web.
I have always found Dr. Gilbert Doctorow’s articles regarding Russia very insightful. But I can’t recall the last one I read via CN. It would be nice to see his writings more often here.
I hope you will be publishing more from Caitlin Johnstone and Suze Dawson, as well!
That would be fine by me.
A superb list of new writers- Max Blumenthal and John Kiriakou have long been on my short list of writers to trust, thanks for adding them to your staff. I look forward to familiarizing myself with the other new talent and expect to add them to my regular reading, as well.
And if I may second Kevin S’s suggestion above, CJ Hopkins would be a great addition, as well.
Thanks for all the great work you do– Mr. Parry’s legacy is in good hands.
It is a shame that Consortium News does not publish articles by Slavoj Zizek.
I would like to here from jamal khashoggi the journalist . I am not being sarcastic. What happened to him?
Zizek regularly writes op-eds for RT, perhaps Consortium News could republish those. I agree I think Zizek is a brilliant philosopher in the classical sense, not the “cultural studies theorist” he is most often portrayed as (not that that would be a bad thing of course), and publishing his short op-eds on CN would be great for expanding his readership.
I would suggest that every potential “ink slinger” consider who they are writing for. Nobody should be able to insist who they are read by.
I have found that most writing is of greatest benefit for the writer themself.
The other Johnstone, Caitlin Johnstone, is another must-read. Though I understand if all your writers must be paid, the list can’t be too long. Maybe have some writers with token payments, for those that want to be read but don’t rely on it for a living?
There are some fabulous female analysts, writers—whatever. Eva Bartlett and Vanessa Beeley in Syria, Abby Martin, a generalist, Nataly Baldwin. Not sure about the spelling of some, but CN readers know them, I am sure.
CN (and other alt media, progressive orgs) should focus more on genuinely independent journos like Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett, especially considering how hard they work – getting attacked from fake Leftwing assets like Newsbud for their efforts – to bring us news and info from Gaza and Syria, sometimes after personally visiting locations there and getting firsthand knowledge and reports from victims of imperialism and imperialists’ terrorist assets. By all means tap established writers who have worked in the belly of the beast, depending. But ignoring those who have worked hard to investigate, tell the truth and expose injustice, all without deep State or establishment connections, to my mind, is absolutely required. It’s easy to reward stars. Those who do the same good work as celeb journos, but who lack all of the awards and plaudits of establishment persons and orgs, should not be less trustworthy than star writers – in a truly progressive community – for those reasons.
Agreed Abby Martin would be a great contributor to CN.
Eva Bartlett and Vanessa Beeley would be excellent additions.
All the new writers are terrific, thank you CN!
Oops, Diana Johnstone is already in there. My mistake, good on ya.
Incredibly good work to get these writers. Please consider also adding C.J. Hopkins, who has been a victim of the gradual rightward (i.e. left-liberal) shift at CounterPunch. I note that Pepe Escobar and Diana Johnstone are not carried there anymore.
Great writers and if you need any sources please stop by and peruse our free, biased research project… biased for national sovereignty and not rampant globalization on all levels. Welcome aboard!
His piece on the Brazilian presidential election is a must read.
Those are six fabulous additions, Mr Lauria! As a reporter and paying subscriber I am delighted to hear CN pays its contributors at a competitve rate, which i hope is high. Incentivizes me to keep donating–which I would do anyway for the superior quality of writers and stories you publish that I can’t get anywhere else. Bob Perry would approve, imo!
That said, CN needs more women writers. The three contributors you mentioned , Diana Jonstone, Anne Machon and Marjorie Cohn, are excellent. CN introduced me to them and I read all of their pieces.
Welcome all, everyone an outstanding addition to Consortium News.
So tell me again why comments go in “moderation”.
Explain to me who is doing this. Is it Google? Is it the administrator? What is going on?
I just posted a comment that used no swear words, but posited my belief that “nationalism” doesn’t just come out of the blue, that it comes from one side pushing too hard and then there is a resultant push-back. Physics or something. Newton’s third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
For this I am moderated.
I guess CN needs to moderate in terms of what is germane or relevant to the particular issue. I also agree that comments should not be used as a “chat” forum by comment contributors.
I’m with you backwardsevolution. This moderation tool got to go.
Now I wish to thank Joe Lauria for the great authors he is giving us to read. It ain’t all bad, just the stupid algorithm thing which doesn’t make sense on a site that advocates free speech is an irony of process. Get rid of the moderation and bring on the great writers. Joe
We have no choice but to use an automated system. We do not have 24/7 staff to moderate every comment. The alternative would be to shut down the comments section, which we do not want to do. Consortium News does not practice censorship. We follow our Comments Policy.
We can’t have conversation because of the enemy. Who’s winning therefore?
Couldn’t you have a comment section without a algorithm blocker? Am I doing something wrong with the Comments Policy? Joe
On the other hand forget I brought it up.
> So tell me again why comments go in “moderation”.
Here’s what one of the people who program it had to say about a similar comment:
“Christopher Finke
Design Engineer at Automattic
There’s no whitelist or settings; the best thing to do is just mark the comment as not spam so that Akismet can learn from it.
If you repeatedly are seeing legitimate comments get marked as spam, email us at support@akismet.com with your site URL and API, and we’ll look into it.”
DIVERSITY ! – I also appreciate the many “commentaries”, although I prefer those which capture the essence succinctly and as briefly as possible.
BRW, other longtime faves are Wayne Madsen and Finian Cunningham.
Is there any way to snag these brilliant fellows for CN?
Wonderful news. I already support CN and look forward to more articles including these authors, whose works I appreciate greatly.
Great news! Consortium News keeps delivering! All of these people are excellent journalists, been following them for a while.
Wonderful additions all!!
I mostly agree. Although I would like to see journos who are genuinely independent (without a past in the belly of the beast), CN can only improve with the addition of those writers.
Great news!
I am a longtime fan of Escobar, Mercouris, McGovern, etc.
Adding these writers is a great opportunity also for the Consortium News community to dialogue with these expert analysts.
I’m happy to see Annie Machon… did my lieing eyes miss seeing any other women colleagues? The gender ratio seems embarrassing. Otherwise, congrats.
As someone who lives in the UK, I would point out that Mr Mercouris writes from a particular section of the British establishment that in no way represents the viewpoint/perceptions of the bulk of British thinkers and writers. I, therefore, object to his ‘letter from the UK’ meme.
When reading Mr Mercouris, please stay aware of the framing of his argument/comments. The British truly are the best at ‘wordplay’ and there is no better than those found within the close knit legal profession.
I don’t think Mercouris bills himself as a representative of “British thinkers.”
In fact, the idea sounds a bit comical to me.
As does the comment about the British being truly the best at “wordplay.”
Maybe in British English, and in some hot-house British-only circle such as the “close-knit legal profession.”
News flash: There is a big world out there, and it is not all English-speaking.
What could the point here possibly be?
Interesting. I read something by the same writer that I found to be not quite right. Forget what it was and wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise. Time will tell. And we must speak up when it becomes necessary.
Wonderful, and crucial additions!
More coverage of events in Donbass, Ukraine. Please.
‘Her Second War’ by Donbass Rose. English subtitled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4oLFWoz5rY
Pepe & Max are “always check” when seen elsewhere for me. Appreciate their columns on this site, which I also always check.
Max should have severed his link with faker Mother Jones a long time ago. Other than that, he’s pretty good.
I’m surprised my credit card company processed my donation. They must not have heard about you, yet.
Good additions, I am happy to be a supporter!
Some big-time heavy hitters!