With This Pen

A five-point plan for restoring

journalism and demanding justice

Congress shall make no law

respecting an establishment

of religion, or prohibiting

the free exercise thereof,

or abridging the freedom of

speech, or of the press,

or the right of the people

peaceably to assemble, and

to petition the Government

for a redress of grievances.

first amendmentOf the constitution of the United states of america

We believe the First Amendment empowers all peo-ple to act as journalists. We embrace the techno-logical revolution that put the means to produce news media in the hands of many.

We seek to make citizens into better journalists and journalists into better citizens. This booklet contains our vision, our plan for achieving it and our movement’s guiding principles.--BNM Editors

Bay News Movement“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”--George Orwell

News Magazine

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ourselves as the con-nection between the stories that need to be told and those with the skill and desire to tell them honestly. We believe that by uniting all profes-sional and citizen jour-nalists under a single code of ethics and guid-ing principles, we can harness the energy of a rapidly changing media landscape and use it to promote the public good. The core of our work is education. We want to teach citizen journalist the tech-niques and ethics of classical journalism and teach professional journalists ways to stay connected with the com-munities they serve and the values that brought them to journalism in the first place. There is no doubt that our work is needed; an unprecedent-ed number of journalism

majors and former jour-nalists are abandoning our trade to work in the more lucrative field of public relations. It seems that while the commercial fund-ing for investigative reporting has all but dried up, corporations still have plenty of money to pay for slick ad copy and media spin that explicitly favors their financial bottom

line. We have set out five points of action we believe we can im-plement immediately to counteract the negative trend in investigative reporting and the qual-ity of the United States news media in general. But without your involvement and will-ingness to do the work of journalism, our en-tire vision amounts only to words on a page.

We e n v i s i o n

our five-point planeducate new journalists

empower the public

demand transparency

hold power to account

promote freedom

There are an unprecedented number of journalists and jour-nalism majors abandoning our vital work to shill for clients and money at public relations firms. We aim to revitalize the craft with a new crop of passionate, knowledgeable reporters.

We live in an increasingly disconnected and poorly-informed society, despite an unprecedented level of technological ad-vancement in the field of communication. We aim to harness the power of technology and synthesize it with the core eth-ics and practices of classical journalism.

Democracy cannot thrive without civic institutions that give journalists broad access to records and policies that protect whistleblowers from reprisal. We aim to disrupt government and corporate secrecy by combating misinformation.

Money buys power that extend into all facets of public life, particularly when it comes to media influence. We aim to even the playing field by facilitating an open and equal exchange of ideas free from any commercial influence.

We view the work we do as vital to democracy and freedom. We aim to give voice to the public’s desire to be truly free.

our five principlestruth

We must seek out and tell the truth, in all circumstances and against all obstacles: truth is an empowering force that arms the oppressed against oppression and inoculates society from corruption. As journalists, we must live and die by the truth.

We must work in solidarity with professional and citizen journalists all over the world and always be prepared to as-sist a fellow journalist anywhere, in any way we can.

unity

honor

courage

freedomWe must demand a free and equal society and work to promote its growth with our work. All human beings have inviolable freedom from unjust confinement and repression and all peo-ple are equal before the law, regardless of all else.

We must adhere to our ethical code and never stray from it, unless doing so could save a human life. We must reject all attempts to compromise our ethical code for money or profes-sional recognition: we must serve only the public interest.

There are people and forces who seek to silence those voices that speaks the truth too loudly; we must speak it anyway. We must do our work fearlessly and without hesitation. We must go where others will or cannot and bear witness to the truth.

Bay News Movement“I fear three newspapers more than a hun-dred thousand bayonets.”--Napoleon Bonaparte

We want to publish an in-depth, investiga-tive news magazine on a monthly basis so that we can cover a single topic from multiple angles. We want to build a magazine that brings comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues that are “too big” for the 24-hour news cycle. We know that it isn’t enough to publish a list of facts inter-spersed with quotes; we want to give our read-ers’ social, political and historical context for the stories unfold-ing all around them. The Bay Area has a lot of newspapers serv-ing a lot of very spe-cific communities and neighborhoods. Those publications serve a vital function, but they are all tied up in the business of advertis-ing -- a business that,

What happens next?in addition to creating friction between con-tent and commerce, is rapidly drying up as a reliable source of revenue for the press. We know that money can help us secure re-sources and pay report-ers to put in the long hours needed to do this work, but we also know the corrupting influence it can have on a publi-cation’s editorial line. We are convinced that the best way for us to provide ethical news coverage is to cre-ate a news publication that is ethical by de-sign. We believe that by excluding the possi-bility of any organ of The Movement being co-opted and reorganized as a commercial vehicle, we are embedding in-tegrity into the fab-ric of our organization. We know that we

can’t do this work for free, but we also know that if we can reinvigo-rate the purpose of the press and regain the trust of a skeptical public, we won’t have to. We are not setting out to make profit, so as long as we can pay re-porters to do the work of seeking out and telling truth, we have met our goal. Because that’s what journalism is about to us; telling stories that matter, whether there’s money in it or not. This view is con-trary to the grand schemes of some poli-ticians and adminis-trators who want to “update” or outright eliminate journalism education from the cur-riculum of our colleges, and we have decided it is not enough to oppose them with our words. They think they can kill the next gen-

Bay News Movement“Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one”--A.J. Lieblingeration of investiga-tive journalists before it grows, by cutting classes, by undermining campus publications, but we will defy them; we will educate ourselves. Because as long as you have a pen and a de-sire to speak truth to power, you have all the tools you need to be a first-class journalist if you are willing to practice your craft with patience and respect. It’s easy for jour-nalism professionals, especially editors, to get bogged down with deadlines and bottom lines and caught up in the minutia of scru-tinizing copy or or-ganizing workflow. So it isn’t hard to see how any journalist working under constant deadline pressure, especially at a commercial paper in today’s market, could lose touch with the idealistic spark that originally attract-

ed them to our craft. We aim to include them in our work. We do not reject their sin-cere efforts as mean-ingless and we seek out their guidance. There is much to be admired in the body of work pro-duced by journalists at traditional publica-tions in our lifetime. But the system that produced those previous generations of reporters, the engine that carried our craft for decades, has sput-

tered out and we are left at a crossroads. We must decide: will we abandon our work in the face of dif-ficulty, or will we sus-tain it through the icy winter it is facing? We chose the latter. We chose to con-tinue our work, not be-cause it is easy, but because it is hard.

But we need your help to do it. --BNM Editors

I AM READYto stand up for freedom and speak truth to power. I want to receive more information about Bay News Movement projects and publications near where I live.

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if i have a camera

i will point it at injustice

so injustice cannot hide

If i have the means to broadcast

i will broadcast the truth

so it can be heard by all

any tool i can get my hands on

i will use to build a free world

but if all i have is this pen

then this pen will be a shield

To defend the cause of knowledge

with this pen I will comfort the afflicted

I will give voice to the voiceless

I will promote the public good

If all I have is this pen

Then this pen will be a sword

to conquer the forces of ignorance

With this pen I will afflict the comfortable few

I will expose the charlatan

I will defy the tyrant

with this pen

i will write the defeat of injustice

with this pen

i will write the victory of freedom