Campaign Headquarters > Stump Speech

For years, they've been telling us that our industry is broken. That we're dying. That young people don't read newspapers and that no one sits down to watch the evening news. That we all need to hunker down for the dark days ahead.

Many are feeling like it's become less about making good journalism, and more about the business of consolidating it. Mergers have turned our professional lives into bureaucratic nightmares. Buyouts have confronted some of us with choices we never thought we'd have to make. We're asked to invest in our craft and bring new skills to the table, to grow and change with these dramatic and changing times. But for some this is an unfunded mandate. Learn on the fly. Learn it fast. And learn it alone.

And then there's the ever-present fear of who is next in line for a pink slip.

Well, we're here to say, to declare, to shout from the top of the Space Needle and the Rocky Mountains and the Washington Monument, from sea to shining sea, that our time has come.

It's time to see past the fountain of rhetoric and to invest in our single greatest resource – our talent. It's time we roll up our sleeves and show what real journalists are capable of.

It's time to be the change we want to see in our industry.

These aren't just empty words. This is straight talk, and we're going all the way to Washington , DC – the most powerful city in the world – this August 21-24, 2008 to prove it.

That's right; we're going to Washington because there are too many HR departments struggling with how gender identity and expression should fit into EOE policies that simply aren't inclusive of everyone in our community.

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We're going to Washington because there are student journalists who are looking at the uncertain and shrinking state of our industry and thinking, “It's going to be hard enough to get a job, maybe I shouldn't be ‘out' on my resume.”

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We're going to Washington because our industry's party line on newsroom diversity is all too often not matched with action.

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We're going to Washington because relentless and far-reaching budget cuts are affecting all of us, and suddenly, we're all being asked to do much more with much, much less.

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We're going to Washington because, in the year 2008, there are still major newsrooms and prominent journalists grappling with acceptable terminology for our community.

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We're going to Washington because the challenges those of you in mainstream media face are often felt by our colleagues in LGBT media on a bigger and much more dramatic scale.

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And we're going to Washington because the stronger our connections to each other are, the louder our message about fairness, accuracy and inclusion becomes.

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We believe deeply in the power of coming together, in the palpable strength of shared experiences. That's why we're walking across the aisle to form a coalition for change that consists of night desk managers, photographers, copy editors, cartoonists, anchors, freelancers, students, page designers, public relations professionals, educators, headline writers, bloggers…everyone who is part of our industry, and therefore part of our movement.

And with this broad coalition for change, we'll be ready on day one, two, three and four of our conference to give these issues the attention we know in our hearts and in our minds they deserve. We'll be ready to offer you the skills-building sessions and the hands-on trainings that will re info rce your value in the newsroom. We'll be ready to fill your pockets with business cards that will strengthen your connections in all corners of our industry.

And most importantly, we'll be ready – on day one, two, three and four – to give you a reason to believe in journalism again.

So don't stop thinking about tomorrow. Register today, and let's do this together!