Five days a week, you turn to Democracy Now! to tell you the truth about what’s happening in the world. Today, I write to ask you to support independent media, and make this vital coverage possible. Your support today allows us to bring you the stories and voices that you simply won’t hear anywhere else. On our program, leading climatologist James Hansen shared the true facts about the devastating impacts of climate change. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discussed how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the U.S. between three and five trillion dollars - despite the fact that discussions about these wars were largely absent from commercial media coverage of the recent midterm elections.Democracy Now! travels the globe to bring you the news you need. From WikiLeaks' release of the Iraq War Logs and diplomatic cables to the climate change talks in Cancun, Bolivia and Copenhagen; from the New York City Islamic Cultural Center controversy to the fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the catastrophic BP spill; from the epicenter of the earthquake in Haiti to health insurance executive-turned-whistleblower Wendell Potter exposing how the insurance companies wanted to “push Michael Moore off a cliff;" Democracy Now! brings you the news from the front lines of the issues that you care about the most. Make a donation to Democracy Now! in honor of a friend or family member this holiday season. We'll let them know that you've chosen to honor them by giving the gift of independent media with a donation to Democracy Now!Because of your past help, Democracy Now! has become one of the leading independent media resources in the world. On the eve of the WikiLeaks release of the Iraq War Logs, we interviewed legendary whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. This interview was embedded in the New York TImes website and the WikiLeaks homepage. Its image appeared on every major network. The interview has been viewed over three million times online.Media corporations are making a killing - over 3 billion dollars in this last midterm election alone - selling advertising to corporate-backed millionaire political candidates, instead of reporting on the records and actions of those candidates., brought you the voices from the front lines of grassroots movements working on issues like healthcare, financial reform, climate change, and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.In this rapidly changing media landscape, it’s hard to know what news to trust, and the pundits’ sound bites can leave us wondering which healthcare news stories are brought to us by big pharma, or what war reports are paid for by the weapons manufacturers.As you know, Democracy Now! is fundamentally different from commercial media. We don’t take money from corporate advertisers. We rely on donations from people like you to maintain our editorial independence. I see the media as a huge kitchen table, stretching across the globe, that we all sit around, debating and discussing the most important issues of the day: war and peace, life and death. If you care about hearing about these issues from the people most directly impacted by them, ensure that they have a place at that table today by making a donation to Democracy Now! Your generous donations helped Democracy Now! achieve two major landmarks this year; we are now broadcasting on over 900 public television and radio stations in more than 35 countries and to a rapidly growing online audience at democracynow.org . Nearly 300 of those stations carry our headlines in Spanish. And, Democracy Now!’s new studio received LEED Platinum certification - the highest possible ranking for environmentally sustainable construction - making ours the greenest broadcast studio in the country.As we move into our 15th year as your daily, global, independent news program, I hope that you will join us in achieving so much more byYou can, or mail your donation to:Democracy Now!207 West 25th Street, 11th FloorNew York, NY 10001Your financial support, story ideas, and activism sustain our work. Thank you for making Democracy Now! what it is today, and what it can be tomorrow.