In the April issue of Extra, which is the magazine for FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), a progressive media watch dog has apparently fallen on hard times at a time, as cost cutting fails to keep pace with lost revenues and at a time when such a group is so vital to keeping the US mainstream media honest by knocking down the fiction and propaganda that often passes itself off as facts, thus distorting journalism, the first draft of history as it's called and in doing so misinforms the people in need of the facts to make democracy in government work. Thomas Jefferson put it so well when he said that "An informed populace" is essential "for democracy." With ever greater concentration of the US media in fewer hands, and thus even less diversity in coverage of events than ever before, people are getting an ever more narrow view of events at a time when a wider view of events is essential for public debate in the USA as it is elsewhere. I say this as someone who has backed FAIR almost from the start.

Just to get right to the point. George Soros and other better off progressives need to get into this one big time. This is about making sure the American people are informed at a time when they need that information so badly to cope with current crises.

As to those progressives in show business such as Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, and others; a fund raising event of major proportions wouldn't be a bad idea at all. Your help is most definitely needed to save not just FAIR, but a real debate about the crucial issues facing this country.

This organization which has been going strong since 1986 when Jeff Cohen got it started and while doing so got the strong support of I F Stone, one of the greatest US journalist of all time-- right up there with George Seldes; Both of them did what they could to keep the US press honest. Seldes doing so earlier from a more establishment background with heavier access to those in authority, with Stone doing so more as anti establishment figure with little reliance on those in authority, but with both being solid progressive figures providing a voice and eyes for those too much locked out of the US mainstream media.

Nor will the internet be able to do enough by itself to offset the bias of the US mainstream media so overwhelmingly in favor of big business and the status quo with all its quid pro quo, which it is becoming more and more a part of.

A misinformed America is not an option for a democratic state, let alone a progressive one!