Freedom of the Press Foundation launches: crowdsourcing funding for transparency and accountability

I'm proud to serve as a board member for the newly-launched Freedom of the Press Foundation, dedicated to helping promote and fund aggressive, public-interest journalism focused on exposing mismanagement, corruption, and law-breaking in government. The project accepts tax-deductible donations to an array of journalism organizations dedicated to government transparency and accountability. The board includes Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow, actor and activist John Cusack, and other journalists and activists with whom I'm honored to serve.

Early news coverage: New York Times, Huffington Post, Firedoglake. An op-ed by Barlow and Ellsberg is here. A press release on the launch is here. A list of beneficiary organizations here. Twitter: @FreedomofPress.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: human rights • investigative journalism • News • press • secrecy • transparency • whistleblowing • wikileaks

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The org’s twitter account has been suspended.

Any pro bono opportunities for attorneys?
- http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin
  
  Nah. Seems like a goof, we’re on it.
- BillStewart2012
  
  I read about the foundation first on Twitter, because it accidentally got suspended by a spam filter :-) It’s back now.
  
  Xeni, thanks to you and your fellow foundation members for starting this!
DanEGT

Just give directly to ProPublica and you won’t have 8% of your donation siphoned off to a middleman like Freedom Of The Press Foundation
- sqyntz
  
  and what percentage does ProPublica siphon off?
  - DanEGT
    
    ProPublica doesn’t siphon anything off because it is an acutal “newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.” Freedom of The Press Foundation is an organization that charges 8% to distribute funds to news organizations.
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

I prefer freedom from the press.
- BillStewart2012
  
  Then you should do your posting as “Anonymous Coward”…
Mitchell Glaser

Very brave of you, Xeni. You are now on the CIA’s shit list for sure. I admire you taking on this risk for all of us.
http://twitter.com/xraydelta1 John T.

Does it really need to be mentioned – again – that John Perry Barlow used to be a lyricist for the Grateful Dead? Are you certain that gives him the same cred it used to in, say, 1992? Let’s all get on the WELL and call each other “Netizens” again while we’re at it.