Announcing our new Fellows and Progressive Op-Ed Program
With the goal of providing an opportunity for local and national news outlets to publish opinion and commentary from a progressive political perspective, the Commonweal Institute will produce and distribute weekly op-ed columns starting July 1, 2009.
A new lineup of Commonweal Institute Fellows, public intellectuals who have organically developed large audiences and authority in their fields through their blogs, publications and academic work, will write the columns on a rotating basis.
UPDATE (8/6/09): Columns will be made available for exclusive use by news outlets for a limited time and then released with a Creative Commons attribution license and posted at Commonweal Institute's Uncommon Denominator Blog.
The spark for this program came from a Commonweal Institute supporter seeking an alternative to the conservative and libertarian perspectives regularly featured in their local newspaper’s op-ed page. This person contacted their local newspaper’s editor who said they would publish progressive columns if they were made available. Starting July 1, 2009, the Commonweal Institute will provide progressive opinion op-eds free of charge to any media outlet that wishes to publish them.
Among the topics that will be covered in the op-ed columns: Sustainable Living (food, design, architecture and urban planning); Corporations and Society (civil justice, labor rights and transparency); Progressive Strategy (psychology, progressive political infrastructure, the conservative movement); and Justice and Equal Rights (LGBT rights, gender equity, immigration and racial justice).
Most conservative editorials usually argue for underlying conservative values even if this is not the specific subject of the articles themselves. Similarly, our progressive op-eds will relate topics in the Fellows' area of expertise to Commonweal Institute's research about underlying progressive values.
If you have any questions about the program, please contact Noah Sloss, Communications Manager: nsloss@commonwealinstitute.org
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