In less than three weeks, Free Speech Radio News has raised more than $75,000, saving itself from the brink of silence…for now.
This is enough to keep the newscast operation floating until the end of January, but nowhere near the amount necessary to offset existing incurred costs and secure the future of this vital decade-old journalistic endeavor.
FSRN is working hard on a strategic plan with the hope of lining up at least one other major sustaining funder, further weaning itself from the troubled Pacifica teat. Leading progressive media voices such as Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill, and Bob McChesney have given impassioned endorsements of the newscast and are actively engaged in survival-assistance.
Said Scahill, “[FSRN] is really where a place where I grew up as a reporter….In this era where we have, you know, mindless actors posing as journalists on television and pundits that don’t travel the world, that only speak from their armchair warrior positions, how refreshing is it to have a broadcast like this, where you have people – reporters – reporting on on their own country about struggles for social justice; about foreign policy issues that are life-and-death.
“There’s nothing like Free Speech Radio News. And it’s a place where so many young reporters have had an opportunity to learn journalism, and to become active fighters in the social justice journalism movement around the world….I’d just put it simply like this: I wouldn’t be doing what I was doing today had I not had the experience of working with and for Free Speech Radio News.”
Although the instant crisis has been averted, the long-term viability of Free Speech Radio News remains in uncomfortable flux. A democratic society simply cannot exist without voices like FSRN in the mix. Keep spreading the word, and spare a dime if you can.
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