It's time to go big

 

Dear Members and Viewers, 

 

It's time to go big. 

 

George Will, the conservative pundit, in 2008 said on ABC's This Week, "Surely in a democracy it's time for us to quit being sentimental and say the question we settle in an election is not whether elites shall rule, but which elite shall rule". This frank admission goes to the heart of what's wrong, not only with our politics, but with television news as well. 

 

What we need is video news that doesn't represent one section of the elite or another; news with ordinary people's interests in mind. The Real News is such a network, but it has to go big. 

 

We don't accept advertising, or government or corporate funding. Our economic model allows us to act with uncompromising independence. Our goal is to provide daily video news based on verifiable facts, imbued with history and context. We investigate, report and debate solutions to the great problems of our time. 

 

Over the last year TRNN published more than 900 original stories. We featured the work of journalists like Jihan Hafiz in Cairo, Lia Tarachansky in Israel, David Dougherty in Bolivia covering Latin America, Jessica Desvarieux on Capital Hill, Hassan Ghani in London, Jaisal Noor in New York, and Oscar Leon in Arizona. 

 

Paul Jay, our Senior Editor based in Toronto and Baltimore, has interviewed outstanding analysts from around the world that help us think about "why" and "what we should do next". 

 

Our Best of the Web and Featured Columns have presented a curated selection of great video and writing. 

 

In the coming year we will expand our international and economic coverage, but we will also go local. 

 

We are building The Real News Center in Baltimore in a 31,000 sq.ft. building, one block from City Hall. Now in construction phase, it will include a 200 seat studio for Real News Live Town Hall Debates. By connecting local issues to systemic problems and solutions, we aim to further engage ordinary people in watching and making Real News. In the coming years, we hope to create similar centers in cities around the world.  

 

But we can't do any of this without you. If you are already a donating member, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If you watch TRNN but have not donated, now's the time. If everyone that watches TRNN on a regular basis donates now, we can greatly expand our coverage and our reach. We badly need money for more journalists in the US and Canada. We must have more funding to advertise and raise our reach to thousands more people. 

 

We are now in our year end matching grant funding drive. Every dollar donated up to December 12th will be matched up to $50,000. That will give us $100,000 to enter the new year with a bang.  If you sign up for a monthly donation, we can apply one year of donations to the matching grant. 

 

We have more than enough regular viewers that if they all gave $10 a month, we could qualitatively up the scale of our coverage and distribution. If you are already a member, please consider raising the amount by emailing us at contact@therealnews.com or calling us at 1-866-396-4231. We will apply one year of the increased amount to the matching grant. 

 

We are heading into critical years. Now is the time we must go big. 

 

 

Paul Jay and The Real News Team