May 9, 2018

Fox News Is Going Out of Its Way to Avoid Covering Michael Cohen

Kanye, the Met ball, and Kathy Griffin are this conservative network’s top priorities.

Late Tuesday, multiple news outlets including the New York Times and NBC News confirmed a bombshell allegation by Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels, that last year a firm connected to a powerful Russian oligarch gave $500,000 to President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen—money that was in part allegedly used to pay for an agreement to keep Daniels quiet during the campaign.

The explosive reports instantly dominated the news cycle and cable news outlets. But over on Fox News—no stranger to completely ignoring any damaging news concerning the president and the ongoing Russia probes—there was barely any coverage of the documents involving Cohen, according to the progressive organization Media Matters. 

Here’s what the network’s rigorous reporting looked like instead—another classic example of Fox News’ inability to deal with bad news cycles involving their favorite viewer, and Cohen’s client, the president of the United States. 

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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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