Please rec this up, not for me, but so as many people as possible see it. I realize that passions are high to work on the GOTV, fundraising, and continued positive messages in support of Barack Obama's candidacy, and I support that, but I hope that some of us can "multi-task".
Cursor.org has suspended publication due to lack of funding. I've posted about them before, and the response has always been overwhelmingly positive.
If you're not familiar with cursor, let me tell you just a few things about my experience with them, starting with "I took this news like a punch to the gut". They led the way in publishing the truth about the run-up to war in Iraq, and they were the first to tell me about George Monbiot's "
A War Against The Peacemaker" article that made it clear long before he stopped lying about his intent to invade Iraq that he would eventually start that unpopular war. They told me about things like PNAC having their offices in the AEI building. Cursor was the first place I learned about the
ultra-secretive RW Council on National Policy who vetted and chose George W. Bush and Sarah Palin. They've been, in effect, my eyes and ears into the "vast right wing conspiracy". In addition, their "
media transparency" site not only contains excellent original writing, but it is an excellent confirmatory source for sites like media matters and sourcewatch.
I have contributed to them in the past, and will gladly do so again, but can only afford something in the 10's to 100's of dollars. They have been, for me, "the alternative drudge report" for many years, now. Not in competetition with any of the "big" blogs, cursor doesn't have open forums and although that may be a factor in why they don't have the readership of sites like dKos and DU, I hope they can not only stay in business but keep that format, which is valuable but can be distracting.
There are a few things we could do, as a group, to
help them stay in business. Of course, a fund-raising drive on dKos, DU, and other high-traffic blogs could likely raise the $75K needed in fairly short order. I'm sure the folks at cursor would appreciate it, and I don't want to say anything to discourage doing that.
It occurs to me, though, that there may be a more effective, longer-lasting solution. I'm asking everyone who reads this to take the time to compose one letter, to be sent to every "left wing" foundation or funding organization you can think of, asking them to keep (or help keep) cursor alive. Send them the link to the site and ask them to look around. Ask them if they agree that keeping these people's voice alive is worth a meager (for a large funding organization or foundation) $75K.
Here is a short list of groups that may be able to help. I'll update if others are posted in comments.
Brookings Institute (contact is in the upper right hand corner)
Open Society Institute (George Soros, contact is in the upper right hand corner)
Here is
a list of progressive organizations at SourceWatch.
October 10, 2008
Eighteen months into our own financial crisis, Cursor is suspending publication.
In 2007, we lost our main source of foundation funding, which accounted for more than two-thirds of our budget. Since then, your contributions have kept us operating on a shoestring, but unfortunately, we don't have a large enough readership to cover our costs.
If we're getting paid, it takes about $75,000 per year to run Cursor, which could be less if another organization takes us on, or, takes us over. If that doesn't happen, we must secure commitments for enough major donations from foundations and/or individuals to reach $50,000, at which point we would lean on you for the rest.
Regardless of what happens, thank you to everyone who has contributed money, and to all of the blogs and other sites whose material we've relied on. And thanks especially to my co-writers, David Vest and Bill Stouffer, for their contribution to a production that's now about twice the length of "War and Peace," and sadly of course, heavily weighted toward the former.
Sign up to get an
e-mail if and when we restart, and feel free to contact me with any comments or suggestions. We hope you've appreciated our work as much as we've valued your readership, and with a little luck, there'll be more of both.
Mike Tronnes/editor/ mediapatrol@cursor.org
P.S. If we do restart, we'll be hiring an experienced writer for 20 to 30 hours per week. If you'd like to take a flyer on that prospect, send me links to your writing, no attachments please, and we'll be in touch with any good news.
Thank you for your time, and feel free to cross post. (I'll post here and on dKos.)
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