October 16, 2009

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From Ezra Klein, on the possibility that Balloon Boy was a hoax:

But whether or not the drama was staged, it certainly served as a perfect metaphor for cable news: America spent hours riveted by a powerful and gripping story that turned out to be totally meaningless, and will have no significant impact on anybody’s lives going forward.

Word.  Or whatever it is that the youngsters say these days to indicate agreement.  (I turn 51 in a few days.  I’m feeling more and more ancient lately.)

True story: I was on the phone yesterday doing our weekly podcast with David Corn, and Laura McClure made some comment about Balloon Boy.  What?  David started to guffaw.  Did I live in a shack or something?  Balloon Boy is everywhere.  I had no idea what they were talking about, but David said that literally every television he had passed in the preceding four or five hours had been tuned to Balloon Boy.  This is the price I pay for not watching cable news during the day.  I am cut off from everything that matters the most.  Like boys who turn out not to be in balloons.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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