News Used to Utter Truth to Power

Dear Common Dreamer,

Common Dreams knows that you take your news seriously. We do too.

Last Friday on Moyers & Company, Marty Kaplan of the Norman Lear Center said, “There was a time in which the press - the print press, news on television and radio were speaking truth to power, people paid attention, and it made a difference.”

But over the last few decades big money and big media coupled to turn “news” into a profit-driven entertainment and infotainment industry, leaving a dumbed down audience and a public far less informed than it should be.

“But it oughtn't be like that in a democracy. Education and journalism were supposed to, according to our founders, inform our public and to make democracy work,” Kaplan added.

When we launched Common Dreams 15 years ago our goal was simple: use the Internet to build a new, independent media that would bring people the news that matters.

Not infotainment, celebrity gossip, sex scandals or sensational crimes. No fake debates, phony notions of balance or corporate talking points. Just the truth.

We're proud of what we've accomplished with a shoestring budget and small staff. But we haven't done it alone – we've always relied on you, our readers, to help support and harness the power of independent media.

Bill Moyers has said, “Dear Common Dreamer,

Common Dreams knows that you take your news seriously. We do too.

Last Friday on Moyers & Company, Marty Kaplan of the Norman Lear Center said, “There was a time in which the press - the print press, news on television and radio were speaking truth to power, people paid attention, and it made a difference.”

But over the last few decades big money and big media coupled to turn “news” into a profit-driven entertainment and infotainment industry, leaving a dumbed down audience and a public far less informed than it should be.

“But it oughtn't be like that in a democracy. Education and journalism were supposed to, according to our founders, inform our public and to make democracy work,” Kaplan added.

When we launched Common Dreams 15 years ago our goal was simple: use the Internet to build a new, independent media that would bring people the news that matters.

Not infotainment, celebrity gossip, sex scandals or sensational crimes. No fake debates, phony notions of balance or corporate talking points. Just the truth.

We're proud of what we've accomplished with a shoestring budget and small staff. But we haven't done it alone – we've always relied on you, our readers, to help support and harness the power of independent media.

Bill Moyers has said, “Common Dreams is editing the world in a way that does not deny me what I need to know, but guides me toward what I want to know. Common Dreams is a "must" in my life and work.”