Nygaard Notes #368

Nygaard Notes
Independent Periodic News and Analysis
Number 368, April 11, 2007

On the Web at http://www.nygaardnotes.org/

Special Spring Pledge Drive Issue!


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1. “Quote” of the Week
2. Making a Pledge of Support to the Notes: How To
3. Where Does Your Pledge Money Go?
4. How Much Should Your Pledge Be?
5. Nygaard Notes: An Example of Values-Based Journalism

This week’s edition of Nygaard Notes is entirely devoted to the spring edition of the twice-a-year event known as the

* NYGAARD NOTES PLEDGE DRIVE! *

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when I ask you to make a pledge of financial support to the independent media project you have in front of you. It happens twice a year, usually in April and October, and it’s similar to the pledge drives you hear on public radio and television, except that I don’t give out free coffee mugs or Garrison Keillor CDs.

Fundamental to the purpose of Nygaard Notes is that I make it available at no charge to anyone who wants it. That’s why I do not—and will not—charge a subscription fee. It’s free, but it takes time and money to produce it, so that’s why we have Pledge Drives.

I spend anywhere from 10 to who-knows-how-many hours each week producing Nygaard Notes. How many hours I spend depends on the difficulty and amount of research needed. How often it comes out is a function of how much time I have to spend at my other jobs. The more money I receive in the form of Pledges, the less time I have to spend at my other jobs. In practical terms, MORE PLEDGES means that one of two things will happen:
1. The Notes will come out more often (my goal is once per week);
2. More of the issues will be of the labor-intensive sort. That is, heavier on the investigative, super-researched stories.

Not only does Nygaard Notes not charge a fee for subscriptions, it also takes no advertising, accepts no grant money, and receives no government assistance. In other words, the ENTIRE budget for the Notes comes from YOU, the faithful readers. Some of you have been meaning to send in your check and already know how to do it. If you are in that category, you can skip the rest of this issue (except for the last essay “Nygaard Notes: An Example of Values-Based Journalism,” which you’ll like). If you know you want to make a Pledge, just make out your check right now to “Nygaard Notes,” and mail it to:

Nygaard Notes
P.O. Box 14354
Minneapolis, MN 55414

For the rest of you, this issue explains the process, how and why to make a Pledge, and so forth. I invite you to read as much as you need to, then consider making a Pledge of support for this example of Values-Based Journalism. People tell me that it’s a unique and important thing, this Nygaard Notes. I hope you agree.

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Greetings,

This issue, obviously, is aimed at people who have not yet made a Pledge of support to Nygaard Notes. Many of you HAVE already made your Pledge. THANK YOU! You’ll receive a personal letter in the mail when your Pledge renewal is due (maybe you already have), so you don’t need to read this issue, although you may want to read the final essay, “Nygaard Notes: An Example of Values-Based Journalism.”

Nygaard

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1.
“Quote” of the Week

Here are a few words from the 2007 version of the annual report “State of the News Media,” from the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ):

“This is the fourth edition of our annual report on the state of the news media—the status and health of journalism in America. The broad context outlined in earlier editions remains the same: the transformation facing journalism is epochal, as momentous as the invention of television or the telegraph, perhaps on the order of the printing press itself.

“...Journalists have reacted relatively slowly.

“There are signs, meanwhile, that those the press is charged with monitoring, including the government, corporations and activists, have reacted more quickly. Politicians, interest groups and corporate public relations people tell PEJ they have bloggers now on secret retainer—and they are delighted with the results.”

They’re “delighted,” that is, because their under-the-table payments are resulting in more effective propaganda.

Just to reassure you, Nygaard Notes is not on anybody’s secret retainer. The ONLY money I get comes from you, the readers, through your generous pledges of support. And, by the way, even though most copies of Nygaard Notes go out over e-mail, it is not a “blog.” It’s a newsletter.

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2.
Making a Pledge of Support to the Notes: How To

When you make a Pledge of support to Nygaard Notes, what that means is that you donate some money to support the project. The reason I call it a “Pledge” is that I hope you will consider it an ongoing thing, like a subscription.

How it works is simple: You send in a certain amount of money as a Pledge of support for this project, using one of two options:

OPTION #1: MAIL YOUR CHECK TO
Nygaard Notes
P.O. Box 14354
Minneapolis, MN 55414

OPTION #2:
Go to the website right now — http://www.nygaardnotes.org/ — and look for “Donate to Nygaard Notes.” Follow the instructions.

Once I receive your Pledge, I mark down when I got it, then I wait for a year. At the end of that year (your “Pledge Period”), I will send you a note and ask you to, in effect, “re-subscribe.” Of course, if you don’t want to, you will continue to receive the Notes, as always. That’s why I call it a pledge, and not a subscription.

The System is Changing

Some of you may recall that the last time I did a Pledge Drive—and for the past couple of years—I defined a “Pledge period” as a certain number of issues. That is, I tried to guess how many issues would come out in the coming year, since a year is what most people think of when they think of a pledge period, and then I would tell people that their Pledge was good until Issue Number 368, or whatever.

That was too complicated, so I am going back to the “old way” of recording Pledges. That is, the way it was before the past couple of years.

Now, rather than crediting your Pledge for “X” number of issues (which was supposed to add up to a year’s worth of Nygaard Notes) I am going back to crediting your Pledge simply for one calendar year. In other words, if you send in your Pledge in January, your Pledge will be good through the next December. Then, if all goes well at Nygaard Notes headquarters, you will get your renewal notice sometime in December or January. Of course, if you’re the kind of person who keeps track of these things and you want to send in your renewal before you get your reminder, that’s great!

So, how many issues will your Pledge cover? Oh, about 40 or so, I imagine, if history is any guide. In recent months I seem to have been putting out three or four issues a month, on average.

So, if you do choose to make a pledge of support to Nygaard Notes, it will be good for one year from the date it is received. Simple!

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3.
Where Does Your Pledge Money Go?

Here’s what happens when I receive your Pledge of support for Nygaard Notes:

1. I take ten percent and apply it to office expenses like postage, fees, computer maintenance, paper, etc.

2. I take the other ninety percent and divide it into twelve parts, and each month I “pay” myself that amount, added together with 1/12th of every other pledger’s amount. The total makes up my monthly income for doing Nygaard Notes.

Just so you know, right at the moment my total monthly income from Nygaard Notes adds up to a bit less than $500 per month. (Yes, I do have another couple of jobs to help pay the bills). This probably works out, on an hourly basis, to a little more than the minimum wage, given the amount of time I put into it. And, as always, the higher the level of pledges I receive, the more time I will be able to put into that worthy activity and the less time I will have to devote to my “day job.” Or, jobs, as is usually the case.

And that’s it! No trips to Hawaii, no golden parachutes, no stock options, no lobbying expenses. Just me and my office expenses, that’s where your Pledge money goes.

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4.
How Much Should Your Pledge Be?

For those of you who have not been through a Pledge Drive before, here are the three methods that I suggest you can use to determine the amount of your generous donation. You may, of course, come up with your own method; these are simply suggestions.

Method #1: Traditional

The traditional way of pledging, or subscribing, is to attempt to determine what each issue is “worth.” That would involve a look at the “market,” which would mean finding other newsletters like this one that charge per issue and trying to be competitive with them. This “traditional” method is not my favorite, since it makes it seem like each issue is “worth” a certain amount, which is not the way I think.

Still, it is one way to do it. Since one year in Nygaard Notes-land usually comes to about 40 issues, figure it like this: If each issue is worth a dollar to you, then you could send me $40. Fifty cents each? Then it’s $20.00. If you would be willing to shell out about one thin dime for each issue, then send a check for four bucks. Simple!

Method #2: Income/Wealth Calculation

A second way to think about what amount to pledge is to relate your contribution to your own income or wealth. Are you willing to devote one or two hour’s worth of your wages each year to supporting Nygaard Notes? Then send me that amount. If you make minimum wage, I am more than happy to accept $5.15 or $10.30 for your annual subscription donation. If you make closer to the median hourly wage for United Statesians of $14.15 (2005 figures), then you would make an annual contribution of something like $14.00 to $28.00. You could get more specific, too. The mid-level wage for an astronomer, for example, is $50.32, so the Astonomer Pledge would be $50.00 or $100.00.

In a related way, you could send one-tenth of 1% of your net worth. Since the median net worth for all households in the United States is about $93,000, this would be roughly $93.00. (For help in figuring out your own wealth, the median household income, etc., see Nygaard Notes #138, “Wealth in the United States.”)

Method #3: Whatever

You may think up your own Pledge amount based on some outrageously complex system that is impossible to reproduce here. Or, you may just wing it. Whatever works for you is fine with me!

Whatever you decide to send, I will record it and then I will contact you in a year and ask you to renew your Pledge. (Most people do renew, but you don’t have to.) I will even send a pre-addressed and stamped envelope—that’s about as easy as it gets.

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5.
Nygaard Notes: An Example of Values-Based Journalism

[Parts of this article originally appeared in Nygaard Notes #65, ‘way back on April 7, 2000.]

How do our moral beliefs and your values affect our thinking? When we see something on the television news, we all see the same thing. But, depending on our beliefs and values, we interpret it—that is, we “think” about it—differently. Here’s an example: If your belief is that terrorism is a result of some people who are irredeemably “bad,” then the only thing that makes any sense is to kill them or lock them up.

But if you believe that terrorism has something to do with politics, power, economics, and social conditions, then a whole set of different responses begin to make sense. This is part of the reason why people with access to the same facts end up “thinking” differently about an issue.

That’s just one example. Every time we interpret something we are relying on our values and beliefs. Similarly, every time we direct our attention to one thing and ignore something else, we are making a choice, and that choice reflects our values. This is not an “objective” process, nor should it be.

This is why people who want to be clear thinkers need to become conscious of our values. And it is also why our thinking will improve if we act on our beliefs. Not only will we begin to see how the values and beliefs of the larger, dominant, culture have affected us spiritually and morally, but we will become aware of the biases and prejudices that we have internalized, and of how they shape our mental processes.

Values affect everyone’s thinking, including writers and editors. To use a very concrete example, if a “white” reporter has not taken the time in her or his life to work on challenging their internalized racism, then they will often fail to understand how racism impacts the stories they are covering. Then, when they put together their journalistic puzzle—their “story”—a huge piece may be missing, and usually they won’t even be aware of it.

Back in Nygaard Notes #65 I said that I call my type of writing “Values-Based Journalism.” I haven’t used the phrase since, but I think it’s pretty accurate.

Nygaard Notes is very up-front about the values upon which it is based, that is, the values that it uses to select and interpret the things that appear in these pages. Those values are Compassion, Justice, Democracy, and Solidarity. (It says so right in the mission statement, which is on the home page of the Nygaard Notes website.)

I think Values-Based Journalism is a more honest term for what every journalist does, and must do. We all make decisions to focus on one news item and not another, or to believe one person and not another, or to put one thing on the front page and one on the back, and we all base those decisions on our values. What else WOULD we base them on? The difference is that I don’t go around saying that I am “objective” when I do it; I just I try to make my biases and my principles very obvious.

Making a Pledge of support to Nygaard Notes is a small way of supporting Values-Based Journalism. I hope you’ll consider making your Pledge during this Nygaard Notes Pledge Drive!

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If you have received this issue of Nygaard Notes from a friend, or by accident, or through some other bizarre quirk of inexplicable fate which leaves you with no useful return address, be aware that you can receive your own free subscription by asking for it in an E-mail sent to Nygaard Notes at Or visit the Nygaard Notes website at http://www.nygaardnotes.org/

I would like to continue to provide this service for free. You could help by making a voluntary contribution (anything you can afford, whether $5.00 or $500.00) You can donate online by going to the Nygaard Notes website at http://www.nygaardnotes.org/ Then just get out your credit card and follow the instructions. Of course, you can always just send a good old check through the mail. Make checks payable to “Nygaard Notes” and send to: Nygaard Notes, P.O. Box 14354, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Thank you!

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Jeff Nygaard
National Writers Union
Twin Cities Local #13 UAW
Nygaard Notes
http://www.nygaardnotes.org