May 13, 2019

Just Stop It

From the Washington Post:

This story has all the usual markers of internet reporting idiocy. It’s got the overwrought headline. It’s got the faux outrage from a tiny number of tweeters. It’s got the ending quote from an academic:

Alicia Jessop, a sports law professor at Pepperdine University, said IHOP’s Mother’s Day tweet, and the blowback it received, should serve as a lesson for companies on what not to do the next time they want to pay respect to mothers on their big day. “This Mother’s Day is a case study in social media strategy,” Jessop said.

Yesterday the Post ran a similar story about two (2) Republican members of Congress criticizing Rep. Rashida Tlaib for completely made-up reasons—which the article acknowledges. Then why write it? Why even give it the publicity? Is invented outrage from two (2) idiots in Congress really enough to justify the headline “House Republicans criticize Rep. Tlaib over remarks on Holocaust, Israel”? Or to justify writing anything at all?

Stop it. Just stop it. We don’t have to give endless publicity to cranks and idiots—or PR stunts—just because it’s a slow news day and social media stories are easy to write. These aren’t real controversies and the Post knows it.

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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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