Friends, please help me crowdfund my investigative journalism and my current investigation, titled "Jesus, Sex and Politics: Nathan Peternel, Micah Beckwith and the Ravages of Ambition"
If you're reading this, you've probably seen my work at my independent news site, 24sight News. I reported published the scoops on Beckwith's deepfake porn imbroglio and, more recently, the revelations of the sex abuse scandal inside Beckwith and Nathan Peternel's Life Church -- including scoops about Peternel pressuring teens to talk about graphic details of their sex lives and shaming them into keeping things hidden for years, even decades.
I'm trying a crowdfunding approach on this in part because there's such a large community of support for the survivors of what's been happening at Life Church. I've told a lot of my sources on these stories how proud I am of them in their courage stepping forward, and I personally am proud and honored to help bring their stories to light.
Reporting this takes a lot of time and energy (mentally, psychologically and emotionally), but is innately gratifying for the good it is doing. We're peeling back the curtain on decades of behavior which some very powerful people have kept hidden up until now.
Please give what you can so I can continue putting all of my efforts into this investigation and outing other instances of abuse as I find them.
And thanks, friends. Please help spread the word, it takes a village - this village.
Tom LoBianco
Editor, 24sight News
More at www.24sight.news
About me:
I'm Tom LoBianco, longtime reporter and author. That's a photo of me at the Red Arrow Diner in New Hampshire covering the 2024 presidential primary there. That's the week I said, "The hell with it," after the newsroom I was working in laid me off along with a bunch of other fine journalists, before the whole thing collapsed.
So I went independent and never looked back.
I started 24sight News with two weeks of severance in the bank and my laptop. I wasn't entirely sure what to do back then, I just knew I had to cover the story, and for me, back then, it was the race for the White House.
I love reporting and helping the public, uncovering the stories which powerful people want hidden, and giving the public -- all of us -- the choice to decide what to do with that information.
I need help paying my utility bills, electric, my phone, my internet.
I used to take that stuff for granted when I had previous reporting jobs, but I don't anymore.
I could report a newsletter for rich people, for lobbyists, for tech bros, for Wall Street barons. I could choose a side and push right or left. But I don't. I believe in the mission of journalism, and I think I'm pretty good at it.
Here's what those utilities have paid for in the two years since I started 24sight News:
Scoops on Paul Manafort secretly advising the Trump campaign in 2024
A scoop on the DOJ looking at Elon Musk's million dollar giveaway for voters
On the ground reporting from the Republican and Democratic conventions, Pennsylvania, Virginia and more.
A regular podcast which brings on smart guests to help us understand what's happening in our country
An investigative series which resulted in Indiana's lieutenant governor coming under criminal investigation
An ongoing investigation of a horrific criminal case which has struck at the center of the Indiana church which doubles as that lieutenant governor's political operation
And more
I don't do the screaming and the constant anxiety, I report what I can, thoroughly and reveal the findings. I've been reporting on government and politics since I was in college (a longish time ago) and I'm good at unearthing some really stunning stories, I just don't want to be in newsrooms where there is exorbitant political and financial pressure making it hard to cover the news. And I have an endless well of respect for my colleagues still on the inside, who tough it out every day to detail what's happening.
I've covered two statehouses -- Maryland and Indiana, three races for the White House, Congress, the White House, the Trump-Russia investigations and more. I wrote a biography of Mike Pence a while ago. My reporting has landed on the late night shows, spurred resignations and investigations and I was once retweeted by Luke Skywalker back when it was still Twitter.
And I'm raising my daughter.
Thanks friends for any support you can, I believe in the power of journalism
Tom LoBianco
Organizer
