In February, I last asked you for a donation to keep the Citizen going. At that time, I thought we had enough to last into the Summer. Now the cool weather has finally come, and we are still publishing about double taxation for flood control, about the city wanting to cash in on turning scenic, conserved land into new housing developments for the massive influx of population filling our streets, about beauty in the land all around us. Thank you for donating.
But now we are down to our last few hundred dollars. We have enough to get us into October, not even to the elections. So, once again, we are staring into the darkness. Please, again, send some money.
We are a hand-to-mouth operation. We do not think non-profits should be holding assets. Here is a tentative budget for next year (if we are still around) to show you how frugal we are. It’s about as cheap as you can get if you want in-depth reporting that informs you how the government you elect spend your tax dollars in Truth or Consequences and in the county. But we do more than that. We publish 2 articles every 3 days on the environment, on the arts scene, on water in the state. It all takes a lot of time and work.
Expenses
Kathleen Sloan Contract (Articles) $4,200
ReadyWeb Service Contract (Website Maintenance) $ 820
Mailchimp fees (Email Service) $ 170
Namecheap fees (Domain Name Renewal) $ 46
Miscellaneous fees (SCP-IJP corporate renewal) $ 10
Total $5,246
191 people have signed up on the website to be notified by email of new articles. An average donation of $27 dollars would cover next year’s hundreds of articles.
Please donate using the donation button in the hamburger drop down menu, or send a check made out to SCP-IJP at SCP-IJP, P.O. Box 156, Hillsboro, NM 88042.
Thanks for reading and thinking.
Why would I donate money to an electronic newspaper that practices censorship. I have had a number of comments not included because someone on the staff did not like what I said.
“misinformation or make dubious claims are likely to go unpublished.”
Who makes this determination? In Kathleens article I perceive dubious claims which could be challenged by scientific papers. Free speech is the foundation of what little Democracy we have left – let’s make an effort to save it!
“Censorship,” “free speech,” “Democracy”: big words, but do you really mean them?
When a publisher rejects your manuscript because the facts are wrong, the text poorly written, because the ideas are old-hat or cribbed, is that censorship? It is not. In fact, the rejection is a kind of free speech, the speech of the publisher who publishes, makes public, that speech. Every writer has to deal with rejection of what they write, but to scream “censorship” when the writing is rejected because an argument is unsupported or unreasonable, when sources are not critically perceived but just gathered to make an impression, or when the writing is just b.s., just doesn’t cut it.
As for “free speech,” you can speak as much as you want, but if it isn’t worth listening to, why should we or anyone listen? Or are you suggesting that Democracy means everyone must listen to whatever you are free to say. That doesn’t sound like Democracy but Dictatorship (a word that comes from the Latin “dictare” meaning to say something repeatedly — free speech?).
Why should you give to a publisher that is critical, that has standards of writing, argument, evidentiality, and thinking? The reason is that we perceive the morass we get into when everything is just expressing an opinion, without critical thinking, facts, or understanding. We try to do that, and we think that is worth contributing to.
If you perceive that something Kathleen wrote has “dubious claims” in it, then write us an argument that is convincing rather than just an opinionated assertion.
I appreciate the forum of different ideas and helpful information that you provide, specifically Kathleen Sloan. Thank you for all your diligent hard work! I will donate when I find where to do so.
Where to donate: 1) on the opening page (Home page), click on the three parallel lines in the upper right-hand corner. The menu which appears will have “Donate” on it; or 2) send a check made out to SCP-IJP to SCP-IJP, P.O. Box 156, Hillsboro, NM 88042.