Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Legal Schnauzer Now Is Accepting Donations


Murphy Abigail Shuler:
the schnauzer who
inspired a blog
Since Legal Schnauzer started in June 2007, we have been a strictly nonprofit organization. A more accurate description might be that we've been a "no profit" organization--as in making no money.

But we've decided to join the band of bloggers who attempt to "monetize" their online efforts. Quite a few readers have told us over the years that they would like to provide financial support for our reporting on legal and judicial corruption. My response always has been something like this: "Thank you, but I didn't start this blog with the idea of making money, and I kind of like the purity of spirit that comes with that approach. We appreciate your thoughts, but we don't have a mechanism for generating funds from the blog."

The chorus of folks wanting to help has grown to the point that we've decided to add a PayPal donation button, which now can be found in the upper left-hand corner of the blog. Purity is nice, but our work involves quite a few expenses, and we definitely could use help with those. We have a motivated, intelligent, engaged audience, and it seems quite a few readers feel strongly enough about our work to lay some money down.

Legal Schnauzer has evolved in many ways over the past six years, and this is just the latest example. We recently were ranked No. 37 in an international ranking of the top 50 independent law blogs in North America. When you consider that there probably are several hundred thousand law blogs out there, that makes a pretty powerful statement about the reach and impact of our little enterprise.

Based on my research of the top 50, as determined by the Chicago-based social media/marketing firm Cision, it appears that Legal Schnauzer is the only blog on the list with no affiliation to any law firm, university, publishing firm, or interest group. In other words, we probably are the one truly independent blog on the list--the only one that stands on its own feet, with no supporting institution behind it.

Hopefully, our new donation button will help change that, allowing us to continue providing the kind of accurate, insightful, hard-hitting justice reporting that all-too-often is missing in mainstream publications.

Are we making a difference? Just consider the past two days, and our reports on the photos of U.S. Circuit Judge Bill Pryor that showed up in the 1990s at the gay-porn supersite badpuppy.com. Pryor has been staunchly anti-gay throughout his career, and our reporting has unmasked him as a monumental hypocrite. It also raises serious questions about possible irregularities in the FBI and U.S. Senate investigative process that led to his confirmation under President George W. Bush.

The facts of the Pryor story have been out there since at least 1997, but they remained dormant and under the radar until we launched about a six-month investigation that dug them up. (Schnauzers are known for digging things up.) Leading legal blog Above the Law picked up on the story yesterday, so the public now has insight on the federal judiciary that it didn't have before.

To those of you who decide to click on the button and support us with your hard-earned funds, we say a hearty "thank you." And we say that on behalf of Murphy Abigail Shuler (1993-2004), the beloved schnauzer to whom our work is dedicated.

Please know that our mission statement remains the same: "The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice."

13 comments:

Unknown said...

You are a top professional Legal Schnauzer. And Murphy's puppy pic always makes me cry a river, gotta tell you as you know, was raised myself with Schnauzers so the memory bank is full with love for the great digger dog.

Time you get some funds. Long past time in fact.

Anonymous said...

Best of Luck. Thanks for the good reading!!!

Anonymous said...

pob for non traceable 'money' orders?

Anonymous said...

You are fighting to restore our democracy, and I can't think of a more noble cause than that.

Anonymous said...

You have my support, and I don't live anywhere near Alabama. This is a national blog, with a powerful voice. Many thanks.

Anonymous said...

I'm one of those readers who has asked about a donation button. So glad to see that it's finally there. Bravo!

legalschnauzer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
legalschnauzer said...

Appreciate the kind comments from everyone. Sort of a new era for the blog. Thanks to everyone.

Anonymous said...

The Bill Pryor story is a classic example of this blog's power. You made a federal judge crap his pants. And I bet he will be crapping his pants well into the future.

legalschnauzer said...

You are asking about a post-office box for money orders, @8:58? Is that something that is needed? Not familiar with how that works, but let me do a little research on it.

Anonymous said...

Love the blog and love the picture of Murphy, your Schnauzer!

Anonymous said...

Legal Schnauzer should be No. 1 on the list of law blogs. You do more to serve the public than all of the others put together.

Anonymous said...

huge story at justice integrity!!!