March 1, 2016

This Post Is Not About Donald Trump

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In response to my final post of last night, I got this in comments:

GreenAnura: Two days straight, nothing but Donald Trump posts. Will we go a third day?

SpecialNewb: Maybe we’ll get a post on how the media is covering Trump too much.

Oof. A touch, I do confess. But Quiddity comes to my rescue:

Since 21 January (arbitrary start date), over 40 days, Kevin has made 48 posts critical of Trump out of a total of 228. That’s 1 per 4.75.

Data! Now we’re talking. And 21 percent isn’t so bad, is it? Especially when all these posts have been monolithically critical of DJT.

Still, this hits me at a sore spot. Yesterday I didn’t post much. That wasn’t because I was snoozing the day away or playing hooky at the movies. It’s because I wrote three straight Trump posts and couldn’t stand the thought of writing another. Unfortunately, with everyone finally coming to the conclusion that Trump is actually going to win the Republican race, the political news is nonstop Trump. I couldn’t really find anything else to write about, so I gave up. I finally wrote another post in the evening, but it was about….Donald Trump.

Then this morning I started out with yet another post about Trump. Finally, just before lunch, I wrote a post about Apple and the FBI. My streak was broken! Hooray! But today is Super Tuesday, so it’s not likely to last. Aside from some Bernie/Hillary news, today is going to be all about Trump.

I genuinely feel conflicted about this. I really hate being consumed by Trump. But these days, is there any bigger news in American politics? What to do?

And is this yet another post about Trump? Or should it be filed under “navel gazing”? I’ll let Quiddity decide.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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