Chuck Hurley, former statesman and current president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, reflected on the past year in an e-mail to supporters today. Above all else, it seems, Hurley is thankful for journalists.

According to an independent media monitoring service, IFPC’s television media presence reached an audience of over 5 million viewers this year. News stories that included information from IFPC totaled over 4 ½ hours of video in 2008. That free “earned” television reporting represented nearly $200,000.00 in real world value. When the newspaper articles, radio interviews, and internet posts are taken into account, the monetary value of the work produced in our media department is well over a half a million dollars.

Your voice is being heard in the secular media each time a story runs that includes information from IFPC. The media comes to IFPC for insight into issues that shape society because we are the group that does research, informs citizens, lobbies legislators, and consistently articulates a clear and concise message based on a Biblical worldview.

Hurley closed the correspondence by indicating that he and the IFPC are prepared to “stand strong as your voice in the public arena” in 2009, but that the group requires financial support to complete the mission.