Kossacks, The Other 99 has been a primary source for information on the Occupy movement. Some of us have been in Zuccotti park since the first day, and all of our contributors have been there since the third. We need your support, and we need it badly.
For the past few months we've been trying to create a platform we can use to get content out. We've tried using Ipage and Wordpress, and we've been posting all of our content here at Kos. To date, DailyKos has been the only reliable platform we've had. And that's been awesome, but we can't use it forever.
Every day, we get tons of information. If we posted every article we wanted to post here at Kos, the recent list would be all us all the time. And that's not acceptable. There's so much amazing citizen journalism here at DailyKos that posting 10 or 12 diaries in an 8 hour period would be, frankly, abusive. There's a reason we had a One-Diary-A-Day rule recently, and while DKos 4.0 has opened that up, 10-12 diaries a day from Will (OllieGarkey,) Hank (HankNYNY), myself, and our other contributors would drown out vitally important stories here.
We need our own site. And we've been trying to set it up. The bottom line is, we just don't have the skills in house to write the code we need. We've found someone who will set that up for us, but it's going to cost $2500. We also need legal help in setting up a nonprofit, another thing we've been trying to do by ourselves. In addition to that, we need to stop occupying bars and coffee shops, spending money on coffee and food just to justify our presence. We need an office, and we've got one that's about the size of a closet, but at this point we won't be able to keep it without your contributions.
On the one hand, we almost wanted to ask to use the code here at DailyKos and give our site a different look. But that wouldn't really work for us for one reason. Daily Kos is designed to be a community site. We already have one of those. It's called Daily Kos. We want to create a news platform.
We're reaching the point where we're struggling to provide for the day-to-day needs of our people. We need to pay for food, medicine, and rent. One of us is sleeping in Zuccotti park, and while he wants to be there, he doesn't have anywhere else to go, and he's taking showers and doing laundry in our tiny apartments. During a fury of cleaning at the park while he was streaming live, someone took down his tent (loaned to him by OllieGarkey) and we haven't seen it since. He's been sleeping there unprotected, and we don't have the means to provide him with more equipment.
Content wise, we've been really successful. Our articles have been quoted by business insider, our videos have been seen on national television, and we've been a consistent primary source for information on the occupy movement. We were the ones who posted the first Anthony Bologna pepper spray video. We've had people live-streaming every major march, including one where protesters stole the NYPD kettling net that I witnessed being used on protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge. We're the only national news group talking about the situation in Tulsa, and were the first ones reporting on the occupation of Jamie Dimon's hotel in Seattle. We've been interviewed by the BBC, The Guardian, France 24, NHK World, and other major international news services. Sometimes they weren't completely accurate about us, but they've been covering us.
The Occupy Movement is being attacked by our corporate media. The New York Post's front page article recently was “Zoo-cotti Animals go Wild.” Limbaugh and Fox have accused us of drug use and orgies. We need to make sure that the truth is getting out. We're in a unique position to do that. But we can't do it without the support of the people.
The last few weeks have been more than I ever expected, and that is to say the least. I have begun writing a book about my experiences at Occupy Wall Street from the beginning until my return from Oakland to NYC. This project will require that I write 4 hours a day for a few weeks, and this will, sadly, limit my participation on DailyKos a touch. In reality that means only 3 or 4 diaries a week out of me instead of 7 or 8, but I hope everyone will understand, I'm not leaving, this isn't a GBCW by any means, I'm just letting everyone know I am going to be writing diaries a little less and will probably be commenting a little more for a while. I haven't signed any contracts with an literary agents yet, so Markos, or anyone else, if you know a good agent or have any advice, I could use it. This is just my way of letting you know I am writing this new book on the fly with the intention of selling it later while other friends of mine prepare the "Americana" book I have been touting for distribution hopefully in time for the end of the year.
In the time since HankNYNY met me down at #OWS until now things have turned upside down in an amazing way. A core group of Daily Kos writers and a few new friends have banded together to form what is in reality a kick ass news aggregation organization, with the ability to write, report and set up multimedia (YouTube, livestream, twitter, FB, etc) on the fly, we were the ones who posted the Tony Baloney pepper spray video, we brought you the video of Marine Vet's telling Sean Hannity to "F*** off", frankly, we've been doing the legwork that the Corporate Media refuses to do.
I thought it would be fair to be honest and open on this matter, as in all things. I am still just getting by, but I thought it would make more sense just to start writing this book about #OccupyWallStreet instead of waiting to write it. I thank you for your support and understanding and look forward to more and better in the future.
When I first started working with HankNYNY and OllieGarkey,I didn't think I would be where I am right now, and even without my participation while I was on the road they have built an impressive news outlet. I want to keep that going and contribute as much as I am able to. Eventually we want to be able to travel and report on location at places like Tulsa and D.C. and wherever the news that the corporate media is missing isn't being reported. I think this will be a good place to start.
Cheers.
Peace and love to all,
MoT/@JesseLaGreca on Twitter
We really need your support. Will you contribute to our Ideas Lab and Media Fund?
(A note, a significant amount of the Media Fund has been spent on equipment, rent, food, and donations to the occupiers at Zuccotti. We don't have a $27 thousand war chest. We have significantly less than that.)
We will put all of our expenditures online when we've got the capability to do it. We don't have a scanner, but we do have a well-organized box of receipts.
3:25 PM PT: Sorry for taking this long to update, the internet at our office went out for a bit.
Here's what we've got: The Media Fund is to be used for everything we need: Food, Housing, Etc.
The Idea Lab fund was envisioned to provide us with a few months of office space, so that we could have a location guaranteed.
For those of you who want our Snail Mail address to send us checks (or even well wishes, we'd be happy to know you support us in spirit even if you can't donate) mail to:
The Other 99
154 Grand Street
New York City, New York, 10013
Thank you, all of you, for your support and for your contributions. We wouldn't have had the successes we've already had if it weren't for you.