Dear readers: OK, now we’ve heard from eight of you

Bill Weinberg

OK, we asked our readers to either show us some support or offer some criticism on what we are doing wrong. So far, eight of you have responded. Do we really only have eight readers? Our web states indicate we have thousands. We need to hear from you. Other lefty websites can reliably raise much, much more than the mere $5,000 we are asking. We really don’t get it.

As we pointed out in our winter fund drive appeal, it looks like we are going to have to pay for our long-awaited website redesign. In order to do this and continue to meet basic operating costs through the winter—like rent—we really need to raise $5,000. Yes, we know we have a clunky design which costs us readers. But we need your support to improve our design! Please don’t let this become a Catch 22. There are hundreds of you reading World War 4 Report every day. We appeal to you to support what you read.

Again, those of you we thanked in our fund appeal as our handful of long-term generous donors over our ten-year history are not requested to give again. We need to know we have more readers who care about what we do and are willing to support us. Most lefty websites can reliably raise at least that much once a year. This applies to both to those we frankly view as rivals due to their bad politics (like Counterpunch) and those we view with a fraternal spirit (see our links page). Please don’t hold our clunky website—or our independent, iconoclastic politics—against us.

With all eyes on the economic crisis, issues of war and peace still remain critical. The US is now waging five wars—Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. We daily bring you the news behind the news on US interventions and small wars around the world. But we view questions of peace and economic justice as fundamentally linked. So we are also bringing some of the most in-depth and wide-ranging coverage available in English on the global Occupation protests—reports not only from New York and Oakland, but from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Greece, Spain and around the world. As well as related labor and peasant struggles in places that rarely make headlines, like West Papua and Ogoniland. We cut through the clichĂ©s and misinformation of right and left alike on dilemmas such as Libya, we intimately cover the escalating cartel wars in Mexico, and we keep track of war criminals from Algeria to Argentina to Guatemala to the United States. We document the mounting signs of global ecological collapse, and the struggle for control of oil that fuels the whole planetary vortex. We strive to bring a big picture, and to build solidarity between local struggles across the Earth.

If you “get” what we do, it’s time to show us some love, folks.

Or send checks to:

World War 4 Report
121 Fifth Ave. #172
Brooklyn NY 11217

Please leave a tip or answer the Exit Poll.


  1. Thank you, Joe Jeffrey in Wayne, NJ!
    Our first donation is in. Joe writes:

    i am one of those people who really does check out your site almost
    everyday, because i really can find coverage of various subjects here that i won’t
    find elsewhere without a great deal of time and effort

    We do our best, Joe. Who’s next?

  2. Distorted on on Iran and Syria
    I would because i enjoy your site,however,you reporting on Iran and Syria is so distorted ,inaccurate,and misleading,i cannot..

    1. What distortions?
      Thanks for the response, but we challenge you to point out a single distortion or inaccuracy in our reporting. We’ll be waiting.

    1. OK, three readers heard from now
      Thank you, Lewis. Actually, most of what we post on Latin America does concern native rights. Can you offer any insight on why, after ten years of hard work, we receive virtually no support from our readers?

      1. IT DIDNT COMPLY,LOL IN OTEHR
        IT DIDNT COMPLY,LOL IN OTEHR WORDS,IT DIDNT FIT WITH YOUR ONE SIDED DISTORTED ,REPORTING ON SYRIAN EVENTS..COULD HAVE JUST SAID THAT…SO WHEN WILL YOU EXPOSE SYRIAS OPPOSITION?NEVER?WHEN WILL YOU EXPOSE THE FOREIGN FUNDING?NEVER?WHEN WILL YOUE XPOSE THE FAKE VIDEOS W/ FAKE BLOOD?NEVER?WHEN WILL YOU EXPOSE OPPOSITION TERRORIST NETWORKS TERRORIZING POPULATION?WHEN WILL YOU EXPOSE THAT MILLIONS AND MORE MILLIONS HAVE IN LATS 6 MONTHS MOBILIZED IN EVEYR MAJOR CITY DEFENDINGA SSAD?WHEN WILL YOU EXPOSE THAT ALBA,UNASUR SUPPORT ASSAD?WHEN ?WHEN?WHEN? I DOTN BLAME YOU FOR NOT SHOWING WHAT I POSTED,NOR ADRESSING ANY OF IT..TO DO SO,WOULD TAKE COURAGE AND INTEGRITY…WHEN YOU GET IT ,ILL DONATE HUGE SUM!

        1. semi-literate freaks are NOT who we want to hear from…
          Excuse me, read our Posting Policy. When you write in all caps and spell “other” OTEHR or “last” LATS or “don’t” DOTN, don’t expect to be taken seriously. If you can make a reasoned and documented argument to back up your idiotic conspiracy theories about the Syrian opposition, we will approve it and refute it. We are not going to approve a screen-page full of poorly formatted URLs with hyperventilating semi-literate headlines. Sorry.

  6. OK, six readers heard from now
    A reader in Guatemala writes:

    I am sorry you got such a horribly low response! WW4 does mean a lot to me, although sometimes i do not find the time to read it I enjoy the readings very much. If ever I gain some money I promise to make a donation asap. I realise such an effort yours as does not come for free and requires a lot of time and dedication.
    Kind regards frauke decoodt

    And another reader in Minnesota donated $10, bringing our total to $60 and six respondents. Thank you!

    If all of our readers would each donate just $10, we’d be doing OK…

  7. Seven readers heard from…
    Sherman, a producer at non-commercial WRFG in Atlanta, pledges to send a $30 check and writes:

    I really do appreciate your work

    as for the 1000s of readers who are not financially supportive
    we go through the same thing at WRFG during pledge drives–
    when the phones go silent — where are all the people who call in
    to voice an opinion or request a track?? — so I can empathize with you.

    Thank you, Sherman.

  8. Eight readers heard from…
    From Mike Niman of Mediastudy.com in Buffalo, NY:

    We exist. We read WW4R and appreciate the work that you do. We’re not
    the problem. How to reach more readers? Too much clutter in the media
    world. I don’t think anyone reads Alternet anymore. A few news
    amalgamtors grabbing all the eyes and trafficking them. If you are
    doing this for money, as in a survival plan, stop it. The new news
    distribution model has done away with “revenue streams.” Bad time to be
    a journalist. Worse to be an independent news enterprise not supported
    by a religious cult.

  9. No offence, but I have been
    No offence, but I have been trying to leave your site for the past couple of years without much success. I have sent e-mail after email requesting that you cancel my subscription. There is no way to affectively unsubscribe from your site as it plain refuses to do so. If you could, could you please unsubscribe me from this site.

    Thank you

    1. Bugs in the system
      The “unsubscribe” function doesn’t work? I will alert out webmaster. As I said, there are bugs e are trying to address. Send me your e-mail address (use feedback [at] ww4report.com) and I will see what I can do.

      That said, we only send out one mailing every couple of months, with (we think) interesting and vital material. It isn’t like you are getting spammed.

  10. ok,sorry for
    ok,sorry for misspelling,should have proof read but was in a hurry..anyway,when will you show us state department funding of syrias oposition?when will you show pentagons , liz cheneys iran-syria working group program to destabilize both?when will you show that dr radwan ziadeh the minister of foreign relations to new syrian national coucil,is a mmber in brittish military think tank that pushes fake raul reyes farc files?when will you show ammar abdulhammid who runs national salvation front in dc,for syria vice president khaddam(real head of syria (mb),has admitted to funding opposition and smuggling arms and sattelite technology last year?when will you show that eladers of syria opposition movement,met with enw american foundation(zionis/neocon) thjink tank in dc two months ago?when will you show the videos of millions and millions(i have dozens of videos from syria,(not state television)showing millions and more millions up until yesterday for over last year favoring and demonstrating supporting assad?when will you expose syrian national councils other leaders..Bassma Kodmani is based in France (writing books in French and oh look connected to the Ford Foundation) Bassma Kodmani is Executive Director of the Arab Reform Initiative who gets funds from ford and carnegie foundation?or Mohamad Abu Ramadan who comes from aspen institute along with kissinger,and madelline albright? or Abdulbaset Seida whos a regular at neocon/zionist hudson institute? ot Ausama Monajed who ran Movement for Justice and Development in Syria wich got millions from us state departmenta nd is a professed devotee of gene sharp (father of modern colored revolutions) ? or wissam tariff the executive director of the international human rights organization Insan (isan began in 2001 under lcci syria ,who is lcci?london chamber of commerce and industry …this is just a few exmaples of that wich you refuse to report…like i said,when you report facts,as opposed to concealing them,ill donate plenty…

    1. orthographically challenged jive
      You cleaned up the spelling a little and refrained from “shouting” (writing in caps), but you are still ignoring punctuation. Whatever. We wrote here, here and here about US exploitation of the Syrian struggle, and also noted that certain sectors of the US political elite are still backing Assad. We see absolutely no evidence that the Syrian protest movement is a creation of the US State Department, and even if that were true (which is basically impossible) it wouldn’t excuse Assad’s massacres.

      We have noted here (and elsewhere) that thousands (not millions) of Syrians have rallied in support of Assad. Plenty of dictators have been able to muster such displays through fear and patronage.

      If Bassma Kodmani is in France and Mohamad Abu Ramadan in New York with the Aspen Institute and Wissam Tariff in England with the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, then they clearly aren’t directing the protests on the ground in Syria.

      The demonization of Gene Sharp as the secret mastermind of the “color revolutions” is absurd.

      If we “refuse to report” on such figures, it is because we don’t find them relevant.

  11. Preventing WWIV
    Every time I see an e-mail from WWIV I stop, open it and read it. Why? Because it puts me where I can do my part to stop WWIV. Because I don’t have a credit card I had to use that of others to contribute. But it was worth it and this site is NECESSARY to world survival. Period!

    1. Preventing donations?
      We greatly appreciate your reading. We applaud the fact that you don’t have a credit card. If you have a bank account, you can send us a check:

      World War 4 Report
      121 Fifth Ave. #172
      Brooklyn NY 11217

  12. Does World War 4 Report mean anything to you?
    Yes, of course. I don’t know how others consume the WW4 Report, while I get it via email, I still print the articles, leave them on a pile on the coffee table and read them on Sunday afternoons. That means that despite your best efforts Bill, I don’t always get to read them on a timely basis, and the links are not that useful.

    Things needing online follow-ups go in another pile. Surely if there is something that demands immediate attention, it gets it immediately. I hope the lack of immediate response won’t put you off continuing to produce. Thank you for all your efforts, both going forward and over the years.

    ++Mark.

  13. My support
    Dear Bill and team. I love what you guys do, and I think its rare to get well-researched and regular analysis from this perspective. I am starting a new job in a few days and once my first paycheck comes in, I will smash you some cash. Much love and keep doing what you’re doing!

  14. so sorry
    so sorry to hear about the financial problems. this is really crazy.
    but I live from very low unemployment allowence and cannot support you financially.
    hope you will not give up.
    kind regards
    peter
    Belgium

    1. Unemployment is a legitimate excuse
      Thanks for your words of encouragement, Peter.

      Now what employed reader will make a donation in Peter’s stead?

      We’re waiting.