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This Thursday, February 10, Mother Jones reporter Ali Breland is hosting a special online discussion with Ellen Pao about reining in disinformation, the prospect of new regulations targeting powerful platforms, and how we can build better online spaces. 

Confronting disinformation is one of the big issues Mother Jones and our readers care about, and we hope you’ll take part:

  • RSVP for Thursday at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT to join the free and far-reaching discussion (or to receive a link to watch it if you can’t tune in then).
  • Submit any questions you might have for Ali to bring up using the form below. 

There aren’t many people who can speak as authoritatively, personally, and passionately as Pao when it comes to confronting the harms of Big Tech. She sued her former employer, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, alleging gender discrimination and retaliation in what many called Silicon Valley’s version of the Anita Hill hearings. As CEO of Reddit, she took on internet hate and became the target of it herself after banning some of the most toxic forums. And as Ali wrote in a 2019 Q&A with her, even though she’s no longer at an internet company, Pao still has a lot of thoughts on what platforms should do to stop the spread of hate and harassment, and she’s disappointed by how little they’ve accomplished. 

Sign up to join us Thursday or get a link to watch after, and let Ali and Pao know what questions you might have. 

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please 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.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

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