Often, these important stories – no matter how well-reported – could find no home in a national news media, which itself had lost its way. Instead of speaking truth to power, the mainstream media had become power’s handmaiden.

So, in 1995, we started this Web site as “the First Investigative ‘Zine on the Internet.”

In the decade since, we’ve described how the Reagan-Bush crowd used dirty tricks to gain and hold power; how criminal behavior and political extremism came to permeate the American Right; and how the neoconservative concept of “perception management” evolved into a routine means for manipulating the public.

Indeed, anyone who has been a regular reader of Consortiumnews.com would not be surprised by the ugly reality that is now revealing itself around George W. Bush’s Iraq War lies and the complicity of leading news organizations in the deceptions.

But at this crucial juncture for America, we again face one of our persistent problems, a lack of resources.

Since our founding, we have been unable to secure the assistance of wealthy individuals or large foundations. They seem to fear standing up to the Establishment’s dominance of information or they don’t comprehend the importance of journalism.

So, we have always relied on our readers – and we must again if we are to continue building this truthful history. Please consider helping us in one of the following ways:

--Make a tax-deductible donation either by credit card at Consortiumnews.com’s contribution page (http://www.consortiumnews.com/cont.html) – or by sending a check to Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Suite 102-231, 2200 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201.

--Recommend us to “Working Assets” or other groups that help fund non-profits like ours. (You can find the necessary documentation of our tax-exempt status in the “What Can Be Done” file on our home-page menu.)

--Or do some early holiday shopping by buying a copy of one of my last three books – Secrecy & Privilege, Lost History or Trick or Treason. With each purchase of a new copy anywhere, $2 will go to Consortiumnews.com. Purchases can be made at the publisher’s Web site (http://www.secrecyandprivilege), at Amazon.com, or at a bookstore (the distributor for Secrecy & Privilege and Lost History is Baker & Taylor).

If Consortiumnews.com is to keep operating, we need to raise at least $25,000 by the end of 2005.

I want to thank our readers for all your support over the past 10 years.

--Robert Parry, Editor of Consortiumnews.com