Editor’s note: Since our last letter, we’ve made some great additions to our team like Paula Tracy and her statehouse coverage and new column, A Winter Run. This first ran just before Christmas 2018 and is now an InDepthNH.org news pants tradition. Donations welcome here.
Dear Santa News Pants,
We have been good girls and boys at the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism all year long. OK, maybe not perfect, but we do our best.
We report important stories that matter to New Hampshire, stories that are often overlooked because we don’t have enough reporters in the state. (You know, the Internet and other stuff happened.)
We work hard, often for nothing or next to nothing, posting our daily online news outlet InDepthNH.org abiding by all the old shoe-leather reporting ethical practices combined with the latest innovations (some still being innovated – cutting edge stuff.) We considered doing our next podcast in Pig Latin, but alas, I fear that is a dying language. (Holy Moe, Larry, Curly)
Why do we do it? Because we believe democracy is a thing of the past if we don’t step up right now to tell you what your government is doing. It’s our job to encourage civil discourse (that means no fist fighting) and guide you to take civic action (that means voting, running for office, writing letters to the editors and in general standing up and being counted, not sure by whom).
InDepthNH.org tells stories about people who matter and don’t get the attention they deserve like the men and women locked up in the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the men’s prison just because they are mentally ill. Garry Rayno keeps you posted on what’s happening at the State House now as he gets ready to work even harder in January as we expand our coverage for the 2019 Bicentennial anniversary of the State House.
We need to keep you posted on which of your elected and appointed officials are being nice – and which are being downright naughty. And we need you and your tax-deductible donation to pay for all of this, but listen, your generous dollars will be doubled until Dec. 31 by NewsMatch, a grassroots campaign to help support nonprofit news across the country.
Santa News Pants – we only have two weeks left for this 100 percent match for all individual donations up to a $1,000 per person and we have about $5,000 left to raise. Ugh, Santa News Pants. We need your help getting the word out.
So when squeezing down chimneys to drop off gifts this year to the good boys and girls across the world, please leave a little note about NewsMatch and InDepthNH.org. Or just share it on your FaceBook page or Twitter. One favorable Santa Tweet would go a long way. Either works for me.
Santa News Pants, I suspected you wore tidy whitey’s but our intrepid investigative columnist/author/photographer/artist Wayne D. King (yes, the former state senator) caught you doing your own wash getting ready for the big night. Mrs. Claus, I heard is busy preparing for president.
Any help you give us is earmarked for our expanded New Hampshire State House news coverage. It’s the famed gold domed building’s Bicentennial anniversary in 2019 and we are going to rock the news coverage.
And just who is this “we” I have been going on and on about. Here’s just a few of us. (Leaving out the really naughty people on purpose.) Tomorrow we will list all the names of people who have made donations so far.
We are Garry Rayno, State House Bureau Chief; Paula Tracy, senior writer; George Liset, Writing on the Fly; Roger Wood, Associate Publisher; Bob Charest, Why You Should Care NH; Susan Dromey Heeter, Joyful Musings; Michael Davidow, Radio Free New Hampshire; Wayne D. King, View From Rattlesnake Ridge; Monica West, Monica Reads; Bob LaPree, Chief of Photography; D. Maurice Kreis, Power to the People; Michael Marland, editorial cartoonist; and John Harrigan, View from Above the Notches.
Thanks Santa News Pants,
Nancy West
OUR FEATURED NH COLUMNS
