FAIR

March 2010

Dear Friends,

Last year PBS announced that "Now" and the "Bill Moyers Journal" would be off the air in April. Fourteen thousand activists signed FAIR's petition to demand that PBS not abandon hard-hitting journalism.

NPR's "All Things Considered" aired an obituary of Howard Zinn that included this rant by far-right bomb-thrower David Horowitz:

There is absolutely nothing in Howard Zinn's intellectual output that is worthy of any kind of respect.... Zinn represents a fringe mentality which has unfortunately seduced millions of people at this point in time.

Over 1,400 FAIR-instigated letters later, NPR's ombud acknowledged that the obituary was inappropriate.

Examples like these inspire us to put in the work necessary to expose and correct inaccurate and biased reports. We give activists the information they need--and the tools to take action. But to keep doing this work, we need your support now.

To stay independent, we don't take ANY advertising or corporate dollars. It's your support that keeps the landlord from the door and keeps our critical media-monitoring going. So please consider giving to FAIR--and if you give $35 or more, we'll send you a great new book by Robert McChesney and John Nichols as an expression of our gratitude.

In The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again, McChesney and Nichols locate the crisis of modern journalism in the historic conflict between commercial values and public service. McChesney and Nichols remind us that the Constitution's framers not only guaranteed a free press in the First Amendment--they supported it as well, with printing and postal subsidies.

This book provides a framework for a desperately needed conversation about journalism's ills. Rather than sounding the death knell of journalism, The Death and Life of American Journalism is a call to action on behalf of the people's need to know.

Please help us continue to challenge media bias by sending a tax-deductible donation. Donate today, and we'll send this important book to you--and take your support as a mandate to keep fighting every day for the future of democracy.

Sincerely,

Deborah, Janine, Jim, Julie, Peter, Sanford and Steve

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