Many of us have been escalating our efforts to post comments to articles related to our issues in national and international news organisation websites.  This is great and will increase our voice.  But couldn’t we try another approach in parallel?   I propose that we check the websites of local news channels for the 3 main networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) in every one of the 50 state capitals and all of the major cities we can think of and see if the search function on their site shows any articles for FATCA or other keywords related to our issues.  If not, we could write them an email inviting them to look at recent articles in the national and international press that we have commented on as well as IBS, ACA and other sites of interest.   Here is a sample email I just tried on a CBS affiliate:

Dear Editorial Staff:

I just did a search on your site for stories about FATCA in the past year and in the archives of your station’s website and didn’t find anything.

You might want to cover this topic in a news story as the US press is really quiet about what the IRS and Congress are doing to make the lives of US citizens abroad miserable.  The US treats its persons abroad much like the Crown treated the colonists prior to the Revolution of 1776.

Here are some links to get you started:

Recent news article about why the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act should be repealed: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2012/05/08/Outside-View-Why-FATCA-should-be-repealed/UPI-86461336473000/?spt=hs&or=an

A blog started by US citizens living in Canada, covering FATCA, FBAR, Double Taxation, Volontary Disclosure and many other issues.  Lots of heavy debate from participants all around the world:.  http://www.isaacbrocksociety.com/

A not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of US citizens abroad: http://www.aca.ch

A lawyer in California who discusses issues of taxation abroad on his blog: http://www.hodgen.com

I really hope that you could make an interesting story about these issues.

Jeff

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