The attacks on Drop Site News are intensifyingThe threats keep coming. We keep publishing.
The attacks on Drop Site News keep coming. And every one of them is a confession. After we reported that Iran privately warned JD Vance that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were exploiting their access to the Gaza negotiations for financial gain, the White House didn’t dispute a single detail in our story. Instead, it said our reporters are so “filled with hate for America” that they’ve become “full-throated propagandists for the Iranian regime.” Former IDF soldiers turned social media operatives continue tagging DOJ officials, demanding investigations into Drop Site, and smearing our brave correspondents in Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon, marking them as targets for a genocidal government that keeps murdering journalists. Pro-Israel operatives, political figures, and influencers across both parties keep amplifying those calls. Meanwhile, lawyers representing a BBC editor we exposed are still in court, betting that if they drag this out long enough, we’ll go broke and give up. We refuse. This newsroom belongs to the readers who fund it, and we’re asking those readers to step up right now. Those behind these attacks are betting that readers like you won’t show up. Let’s prove them wrong. For less than $0.25 a day, you become part of the community that makes this newsroom impossible to intimidate, impossible to exhaust, and impossible to silence. Upgrade to a paid subscription today, and for the next 48 hours, it’s 20% off. They Don’t Come After Newsrooms That Aren’t WinningUnderstand what these attacks actually are. They are an admission that our reporting is having a serious impact. JD Vance did respond to our reporting on Kushner and Witkoff, though “respond” is generous. He called the story “completely bogus,” said “no one has done more” for “peace and prosperity in the region” than the two of them, and dismissed the idea they might be profiting off their access as “absurd” because, in his words, they’re “good dudes.” Notice what’s missing from all of that: an actual rebuttal. Not one fact, document, or detail in our reporting was disputed. “Good dudes” is a character reference, not a fact check, and this is a White House that has never let the truth get in the way of a talking point. The same pattern is playing out at a much larger scale. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a summit on what his State Department is calling “political terrorism.” Days later, Ken Klippenstein exposed a State Department report naming journalists, organizations, and activists as extensions of a supposed foreign “campaign of subversion against the United States.” In substance, it’s a government blacklist, and it tells us exactly who they intend to keep targeting. Drop Site reporters have been bravely reporting on the ground in Gaza throughout the most sweeping assassination campaign against journalists in modern history. We are currently reporting from Iran and Lebanon as the war intensifies. Our team just sat down with Congressman Ro Khanna for a candid interview following his trip to the occupied West Bank, and our correspondents continue filing from Gaza and the West Bank on stories corporate newsrooms won’t touch. That is not the profile of a newsroom that powerful people ignore. That is the profile of a newsroom that scares them. Every reader who upgrades is making a direct statement: these attacks don’t work. You can make that statement right now. Can you support our work by becoming a paid subscriber today? What Reader-Funded Actually MeansDrop Site was built on a simple premise: journalism that answers to no one but our readers. No corporate owners. No billionaire backers deciding which stories are safe to publish. No advertisers or foundations whose interests shape what we cover. That model is powerful. It’s also the model they’re trying to break. The attacks will keep coming. The legal threats, the coordinated smear campaigns, the calls for government investigation will escalate as long as we keep doing work that matters. The only question is whether this newsroom has the reader base to absorb every punch and keep publishing. The answer to all of it is the same: a bigger, stronger, more committed reader community. Every paid subscriber is a vote that this model survives. Every upgrade from free to paid is a direct investment in the ability of this newsroom to keep doing work that is clearly, demonstrably making people in power uncomfortable. The institutions and governments threatened by honest, independent journalism have far more resources than we do. The only asymmetric advantage we have is you. When the White House attacks us, we publish the attack and keep reporting. When lawyers come after our journalists, our readers fund the defense. When coordinated campaigns try to paint our correspondents as something other than what they are, we stand behind them publicly and without hesitation. We answer to no one but our readers and supporters. Become one of them today. The attacks tell us we’re doing something right. Your support tells us we can keep doing it. -Drop Site News P.S. If a paid subscription isn’t possible right now, we understand — and our commitment to keeping all of our reporting free never wavers. But if you can, today is the day. And if a subscription isn’t the right fit, a one-time tax-deductible donation of any amount goes directly into the journalism. Every dollar counts. We’re just getting started, and we need you with us for year 3.
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