Contact Media Companies and Demand They Report on the Destruction of USAID

The dismantling of USAID is a disaster that is unfolding in real time with dire consequences. More people will die and probably by now are dying! Preventable illnesses will go unchecked and valuable medical research will be brought to a halt. Add to that the decimation of US farming communities and substantial job losses in tech and healthcare and you have a story that is woefully underreported in the media. We need you to reach out to media outlets to bring their attention to this situation and/or tag online, where and when the opportunity presents itself.

Here is what we want you to tell the media to do:

  • Request press conferences and/or interviews with former USAID workers, current administration officials (State Department, Department of Agriculture) and tech executives who have lost contracts with USAID as a result of the closure. We want the media to get answers which will help expose this issue and provide greater transparency.

  • Request press conferences and/or interviews with representatives and senators, on both sides of the aisle, and ask them specific questions related to the closure of USAID to help build a story.  

  • Provide in-depth media coverage to elevate public awareness of what has been lost and what will be lost if the destruction of USAID is allowed to stand unchallenged.

  • Tell the media to elevate the increasing public discontent with the incompetent, unprepared cabinet members whose only loyalty is to Trump and how they are complicit, as in the case of USAID, in the destruction of our country.      

  • Ask news outlets if they are aware of the full scope of this issue and if they are willing to receive detailed information that you can provide that will help them to build a story.

  • Write a Letter to Your Editor!  Don’t know how?  Follow this outline from Indivisible National:
    How to Write Letters to the Editor that Really Get Attention

How to conduct oneself:

You can be courteous, or you can be firm, but no threats, nor foul language are to be expressed. If speaking with a government official, do provide your first name, (last name may be necessary, in some cases for some officials as well as your zip code) and specify the name of the person you wish to direct the issue to.)

Outlets to contact:

Since we cannot always rely on national legacy media, such as the New York Times or Washington Post alone, and since local news is of primary importance to our communities, we are providing a resource for local California media sources and also national and international media sources to help with your outreach.

California media directories

  • From the Media and Democracy Project (Be sure to donate to these excellent folks!), here is a list of California media outlets. We recommend you reach out to outlets near you and include those who cater to Spanish-speaking populations. This directory includes our own San Francisco Standard, Mission Local, 48Hills, and more.

  • From EinPressWire, this is their California Media Directory, which includes our local SF GATE, SFist, and a number of other local news sources.

For those outside of California

Since this is a national disgrace, use the Media and Democracy Project link below to select states outside of California. Be sure to share resources with folks outside of California! 

International news agencies

Yes! We are being strategic by wanting you to reach out to foreign media outlets because of the global impact of this move by the Trump Regime. We clearly cannot rely only on the US media, particularly since many Americans regularly get their news from foreign sources. And frankly, the foreign media tend to have higher journalistic standards than that of the United States and offer better coverage, sadly even for our own US affairs!  Some news stories will take off here in tThe States only after they are covered in foreign news outlets. Additionally, many of these foreign outlets have a wide -range of global audiences to which their affiliates may further offer coverage through their own local reporting.

We recommend these outlets:

 

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