Pushing Back Our ‘Doomsday Clock’

From Editor Robert Parry: Thanks to the generosity of our readers, the “doomsday clock” of Consortiumnews’ financial crisis has been pushed back. We were down to two weeks of funding. We now have a little more breathing room.

In many ways, our 18 years of existence have been this kind of “perils of Pauline” adventure. Though we operate with a barebones budget to pay for the Web site and our original works of journalism there have been times when our finances have fallen short of even that.

One of my biggest regrets was that in the pivotal election year of 2000, my failure to raise enough money forced us to make the Web site a part-time operation while I took a job as an editor at Bloomberg News to pay off the bills.

We did what we could over the next four years, publishing articles about how George W. Bush stole the White House in 2000 and how he fabricated a case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but we were tightly constrained by time and resources. It wasn’t until spring 2004 that I decided to leave my Bloomberg News job and resume Consortiumnews as a full-time operation.

Yet, despite the wealth of quality journalism that we have produced since then, including insightful articles from Ray McGovern and other former CIA analysts, our finances have remained touch and go, with our “doomsday clock” getting down to two weeks earlier this month.

Again, it was our “small donors” who stepped up to push the minute hand away from midnight. And I deeply appreciate their generosity.

For anyone wanting to make a donation to buy us more time, credit card contributions can be made at the Consortiumnews.com Web site or a check can be sent to: Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ); 2200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 102-231; Arlington VA 22201. To use PayPal, our account is named after our e-mail address: “consortnew @ aol.com” (Since we are a 501-c-3 non-profit, your donation may be tax-deductible.)

Also, book purchases, through the Web site, would help, with a portion of each sale going to Consortiumnews. (And shipping is now free.)

As always, thanks for your support.

Robert Parry

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 and timidity of the mainstream U.S. news media.