Sunday, September 23, 2007

MediaChannel Visits Wall Street

MediaChannel News Dissector Danny Schechter reports from
Wall Street on the day the interest rate is cut. Watch Here »

ANNOUNCING OUR "FALL OFFENSIVE"

MediaChannel's Survival is Now In Your Hands.

Last Spring, MediaChannel faced a serious funding crisis.
Our original funders had moved on to new projects, and
an earlier than usual Presidential race was literally
vacuuming donations into the coffers of a dozen political
campaigns. Even as our circulation grew — with millions
of hits monthly - our contributions were not keeping pace.
We held our nose and opened our pages to advertising;
some of it turned out to be objectionable, but we
urgently needed revenue streams. With a shrinking staff
and no fulltime development effort, we were unable to
sustain our efforts.


We were ready to call it quits... but tried something else
instead. We went to you, our readers, and were
gratified by your response. Many of you opened your
checkbooks or made donations online. We didn't achieve
our goal but we kept going. You kept us alive!


Rory O'Connor and I long ago stopped drawing any
compensation for our editorial or administrative work
on MediaChannel. All money raised went directly into
sustaining MediaChannel. We're now down to one
paid part-time employee. And for those of you who
noticed, this unique site was able to keep going all
summer long with timely original content, diverse
perspectives and global input. We were breaking
stories, offering distinctive videos every day and
building our subscriber lists.


We are proud of what we are doing, but like that old
story about the bear, we were making tracks without
getting anywhere. Our accounts are now totally
depleted. A recent server problem has increased our
expenses. We seem to be back on that plank, hoping
once again not to fall over the edge.

Please click here to make a tax deductible donation.

And so, we are coming back to you as we explore some
new and potentially exciting prospects: turning MediaChannel
over to one of our leading affiliates, trying to hand over the
site to another entity or find a media school to use it as a
teaching platform. In the meantime, we need your help again.
We didn't pester you this summer, but that season of giving
has come around again.



Our needs are relatively modest: One salary, rent and utilities,
technical assistance, hardware, software, servers… But without
more funding, we will have to bid you all adieu, say goodbye,
auf wiedersein, sayonara and move on.

That is not what we want to do as the fight against the war,
violations of our constitution and economic inequality deepens.
We are the only global media website of its kind out there in
cyberspace, and the only one covering all of these issues in
depth every day - with the help from blogs, the best of the
world's reporting and informed analysis from hundreds of
sources. We don't let partisanship get in the way of our
journalism, and we open our pages to your comments and
commentary.

As our media system devolves even further into show biz
values and corporate interests, our mission is needed more
than ever.

We would rather not solicit individual donations, but we are
not too proud to beg. We would prefer to find foundations or
wealthy donors willing and able to be more generous, but we
may have worn out our welcome with too many appeals over
too many years. Seven and half Internet years is quite an
achievement — but as you know, we are not subsidized by
big media companies, governments or special interests. We
can only survive if you want us to, if you are willing to do
your share in keeping this experiment in media accountability
alive. We need your help more than ever, and do we ever!


Please make a tax deductible donation




or send a check made out to:


THE GLOBAL CENTER

575 8th Avenue

Suite 2200

NY, NY 10018

USA


Yes, we can cash foreign currencies. Donors over $200 will
received a free DVD from the GlobalVision library.
(See Globalvision.org for a list of our titles.)


You have always been there when we called on you in the
past. We are calling on you now. Save MediaChannel and
help create a media that serves the values of democracy.


Please share this appeal with your friends and consider
yourselves an insurgent fundraiser in our FALL OFFENSIVE.


If you have ideas or suggestions, please write to Dissector@mediachannel.org

REMEMBER: THE SITE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN.





Make a tax-deductible donation today.

You can send a check made out to our fiscal sponsor:
THE GLOBAL CENTER
575 Eighth Avenue, Suite 2200
New York, New York 10018

or

[CLICK HERE TO DONATE ONLINE]

If you have ideas or suggestions, please write to Dissector@mediachannel.org

REMEMBER: THE SITE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN.

Thank you!

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