Renewable Revolution

October 12, 2018


Anthony:

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote for the Washington Post, was just apparently killed on the eve of his wedding — and news reports suggest that the Saudi government was responsible.

We are heartbroken. But we are not surprised.

The Saudi government has a long history of cracking down on dissidents and murdering civilians. Meanwhile, U.S. news outlets have consistently propped up the image of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince as a reformer, giving him a free pass to continue executing activists, bombing Yemeni children in school buses, and using starvation as weapon of war in Yemen.

The New York Times and The Economist just announced they are pulling out of the Saudi government’s upcoming high-powered investment conference in the wake of Khashoggi’s apparent murder. This could be a watershed moment.

We’ve got to jump on this momentum and demand other U.S. media companies also stop legitimizing Saudi government repression and back out of this conference. Add your name now >>


BREAKING: All companies but Fox Business have pulled out. Fox must follow suit!
The man who reportedly masterminded Khashoggi’s death is Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. This isn’t his first violent repression of critics. U.S. news outlets hailed bin Salman as a progressive reformer when he lifted Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving — but stayed silent about his brutal crackdown on women’s rights activists, including his attempts to use the death penalty against feminist activist Israa al-Ghomgham.

Mohammed bin Salman is also the chief architect of the bloody, brutal, U.S.-backed war in Yemen. Bombing campaigns targeting hospitals, school buses, and weddings that have killed thousands of Yemenis. Deliberately starving millions more. Blocking access to medicine amid the world’s worst recorded cholera epidemic. These murders are on bin Salman’s hands too.




U.S. support of Saudi Arabia has made the war in Yemen possible. And mainstream media’s refusal to sound the alarm has sealed the deal.

That’s why this is SUCH a huge moment. Influential U.S. media outlets like the New York Times and The Economist are drawing a line and refusing to legitimize Saudi government repression any longer.

If we can get the other media companies sponsoring the Saudi government’s fancy, feel-good conference to turn their backs, we will send a powerful signal that upends the United States’ unquestioning support of Saudi Arabia and jams the door wide open to ending the Saudi-led war in Yemen for good.

Add your name: U.S. media companies are complicit in Saudi repression and the slaughter of civilians in Yemen. They must back out of Saudi Arabia’s upcoming investment conference and speak out forcefully to defend freedom of speech and end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Thank you for working for peace 🕊,

Amy, Sunjeev, Kate, and the Win Without War team