Copyrights, Paywalls Protect Free Speech

Hello friends,

Yes, democracy dies in darkness… and it only thrives in the light. 

Things that seem “free” on the Internet are never really free: someone has paid for it but doesn’t want to tell you who. In many cases, “free” content on the Internet is selling you to advertisers. 

Substack and YouTube has opened the public square to an explosion of new voices fresh, non-mainstream points of view, but many unidentified channels spout disinformation and AI simulations that make emotional appeals to our lowest instincts with catchy tunes and colorful cartoons.

Our subscriptions are our only defense. In spite of its faults and compromises, the American tradition of a free press depends on curated, edited newspapers, magazines and journals that follow traditional standards of accuracy, verifiable fact-based reporting and philosophically and morally sound reasoning, 

Subscriptions of $10 to $15 a month are a small price to pay to light candles in the darkness. 

For this website, I pay $1,126 a year for newspapers and magazines. Here is my annual budget:

Washington Post $12/month = $144/year
New York Times $12/month = $144/year
The Guardian $10/month = $120/year
HaAretz $14/month = $168/year
New York Review of Books $50/year
The Atlantic Monthly $50/year
Harper’s $10/month = $50/year
Mother Jones $40/year
The Nation $40/year
Chris Hedges Substack $150/year
National Catholic Reporter $50/year
Crux Now $10/month = $120/year

Expensive? It’s nothing compared to what the billionaires pay for corruption.

Best wishes,
David