Membership Drive — The Bette 500
Extended the ‘Monster’ sale through tonight as we slouch toward 500 members!
I launched Bette Dangerous a year ago, betting on myself. I was at a crossroads — go to City Hall with my winning candidate and leave behind independent investigative journalism in a time of well-funded lies — or find a way to sustain myself and continue my path of fighting for democracy with my words.
So while in my campaign office — on the brink of victory — I created a substack. What to call it — I was on the phone with my friend Holley Atkinson — a New York activist for media accountability. The name Bette Dangerous popped into my mind and I told her, “I think I’m going to call it Bette Dangerous. She said, “I like that.”
So that’s how Bette Dangerous was born.
Bette Davis was my first muse when I left corporate broadcast news behind. Her films of struggle, hope, passion, survival, the very life she led — she taught me how to swim in trouble waters. Her tombstone reads, “She did it the hard way.” That, too, I relate to. I look at Linda Yaccarino taking her six million dollars to deliver ‘soft fascism’ to America — distorting minds with lies each day — ‘Goebbels in Prada’, as I call her — and I’ll take the hard way any day. Yesterday, in our Happy Hour David Pepper thanked me. My heart is paid in full.
The ‘Dangerous’ inspiration came not only from the work — independent investigative journalism is the most dangerous job in the world — but from the film Bette Davis made of the same name (I’m a sucker for the double entendre). In ‘Dangerous’, she plays a theatre actress on the alcoholic slide, convinced she’s jinxed, dangerous. She won the Oscar for her performance, but it was a consolation prize for having had the Oscar stolen from her for her incredible wicked performance in ‘Of Human Bondage’. She was on loan out from Warner Bros. so they blocked her chance of winning an Oscar for another studio.
Here is a clip of Bette in ‘Dangerous’ performing Shakespeare ‘drunk’ in a Speakeasy.
Watch her timing as she hits the wall — perfection.
As I hit my one-year mark of this bet I made on myself, I just wanted to let you know that I am at 2,100 subscribers, and 33 shy of 500 paid! Some of those were gifts from me and others, but 500 would be a nice milestone to hit by Christmas.
I’m a sucker for a happy ending.
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Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members. Thank you as well to all those who support my work with your generous coffee tips and who buy my ebooks. Some of you prefer making subsidizing donations via venmo, and it’s always greatly appreciated.
Members access all content and receive invites to our weekly Happy Hour, and our Speakeasy guest events. Here is a recap of our latest Speakeasy:
Founding Members who support me at the premium level will be invited to our monthly Founder’s Day events — please upgrade to Founding Member if you would like to join us for these special intimate occasions to meet global experts. Our most recent Founder’s Day with war photojournalist Paul Conroy was magical. Here is a print recap:
Also, a private link to an annual membership discount for older adults, those on fixed incomes or drawing disability, as well as activists and members of the media is available upon request at bettedangerous/gmail. 🥹
More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
We just have to see that the battle for democracy is broader. It's deeper.—David Pepper
I need people to see they're on the frontline. Wherever you live, if you’re doing this work, you are the frontline.—David Pepper
The message should be a fair deal… fairness everywhere.—Martin Sheil
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“I say a silent prayer of thanksgiving as I walk upon the earth.”-Audrey Peterman.
“May the viral hope for truth and humanity wash away the chaos of these years.”-S.C., Bette community member
“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, who can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member
“Nothing but blue skies from now on…”-Irving Berlin
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