Press Foundation Launches Crowd-Source Fund Drive for Muckrakers

Spurred by WikiLeaks fallout, group seeks public funding for what it calls 'aggressive, uncompromising journalism'

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/17/2012 11:02:29 AM

The Free Press Foundation has launched a crowd-funding campaign to launch a fundraising drive for some muckraking online sites.

The sites are the WikiLeaks, the UpTake, MuckRock and National Security Archive, as well as start-ups, all dedicated to "aggressive, uncompromising journalism," says the foundation.

The foundation said the initiative was prompted by the refusal of PayPal, Visa and MasterCard to process payments to the WikiLeaks site after it published leaked State Department documents.

The campaign will bundle several groups and allow donors to identify what percentage of their money goes to each.

The foundation's board includes Daniel Ellsberg, who was sued by the U.S. government for leaking Vietnam-era classified documents that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers.