The text messages the White House doesn't want you to seeWhen the most powerful office in the world attacks a newsroom by name, it’s because that newsroom is doing something rightOn Monday, Drop Site News broke the story that Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has been privately texting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, asking to start talks. Two Iranian officials told us directly: Witkoff reached out, and Tehran has been ignoring him. The White House responded by calling Drop Site News “abhorrent” and accusing us of “America Last behavior.” They offered no evidence that our reporting was wrong. They didn’t dispute a single fact. They just called us names. When the most powerful office in the world attacks a newsroom by name, it’s because that newsroom is doing something right. We are going to keep exposing the truth and holding those in power accountable, but we need your help to do it. For less than $0.25 a day, you can fund the reporting the White House wishes you weren’t reading. And for the next 48 hours, we’re offering 20% off annual subscriptions. Here’s what happened next.Less than an hour after we published, an anonymous U.S. official ran to Axios with a flipped version of events: actually, it was Araghchi who reached out to Witkoff. Araghchi himself then went on the record denying it, saying his last contact with Witkoff was before the war started and that the claims were designed to mislead oil traders and the public. The anonymous official’s response? “He is lying.” A senior Iranian official then told Drop Site directly that the anonymous Trump administration official is the one who is lying. Let’s lay this out. On one side: accurate reporting, on-the-record sources, including Iran’s Foreign Minister, all saying the same thing. On the other side: anonymous U.S. officials offering zero evidence. This is the easiest possible thing for Witkoff to dispute. These are text messages. They “exist” on a phone. If Araghchi really texted Witkoff, show the texts. It should take ten seconds. And don’t try to fabricate them. We’ll know. They won’t show them, because they can’t, because Drop Site News accurately reported what happened: Witkoff initiated contact, and he has been ignored. So why are we telling you all of this? Because this is what reader-funded journalism actually looks like. No corporate owner called us to kill the story. No advertiser threatened to pull their spend. No billionaire decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. The White House attacked us, and we’re still here, still publishing, still reporting — because we answer to you, not to them. That’s not a slogan. It’s the financial reality of how Drop Site works. Every story we publish is free to read, no paywalls ever, because we believe accountability journalism shouldn’t be gated. But that only works if enough readers decide this kind of reporting is worth funding. Right now, if you’re reading Drop Site without a paid subscription, we’re asking you to change that. Not because we’re desperate. Because the White House just told you exactly how much they fear what we do, and your subscription is the reason we never have to care. We refuse to back down when governments try to bully us into silence. With your support, we never will. Thank you for making this work possible, Ryan Grim P.S. — We will never paywall our journalism. If a paid subscription isn’t in the budget right now, we completely understand. You can support us by sharing this story or forwarding this email to someone who should be reading Drop Site. And if you’re able to make a tax-deductible donation of any amount, that goes directly into the reporting too. But if you can swing it, locking in 20% off right now is the single best way to make sure we can keep doing this work.
|
EXPERIENCE THE JOURNEY OF... KIM, TIM AND MOLLY MYERS AS THEY TRAVEL TO CHINA TO BRING HOME ANNIE!
Friday, March 20, 2026
The text messages the White House doesn't want you to see
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.