NOTE: This has run before but will be run periodically. There are newer posts under this so when you’re done, keep scrolling.
Every year at this time we hold TMV’s annual fundraising drive. And this year, in keeping with the national craze, we’re calling it The TMV Bailout.
But unlike General Motors, which asked for billions, or the banks, that asked for billions, TMV’s goal is to raise a minimum of $870 within a month for two specific things:
1. TECH WORK ON THE SITE: Many readers have emailed about some of TMV’s changes the past year. Most were financed by contributions to this site from readers last year and some TMV writers. But $470 for some last minute fine-tuning wasn’t covered by it. I paid the money, even though given the economy there are now major challenges in my other non-blogging incarnation.
2. PARTIAL FUNDING FOR A NEW LAPTOP: $300 is set aside for it, but the laptop to replace my five year old Dell which writes all of the posts during the many days when I’m the road will require $400 more, as a TMV business expense. (In my nonblogging business, entertainment, January is the worst month and this year it’s coupled with the recession. I need to act quickly since I’ll be traveling some of February. The Dell is increasingly slow, barely connects to wireless on the road and is now starting to make ominous noises — after getting a new hard drive and several makeovers)
If more than $870 is raised through the fund raising period which ends Feb. 25 it will be ultimately applied to more tech work in store for later in the year and to an eventual server upgrade (we feel — and share –your pain).
If you like what we do on TMV and would like to see a site that tries to offer and link to a variety of viewpoints continue to grow, donate $10, or $20 or $50 (or whatever) by going to the DONATE box on the side to the left of this post and send your contribution via Paypal (which accepts credit cards) or Amazon.
Contributions will first be applied to the laptop. The TMV fundraiser is only held once a year. So donate to the TMV fundraiser.
UPDATE: Many thanks for the contributions so far. We have not yet hit the minimum $400 as of this writing.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.