April 26, 2000

D-I-S … N-E-Y: B-U-L-L-Y

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The Happiest Corporation on Earth is looking a little nasty these days. A jury has ruled unanimously that the Walt Disney Company bullied an executive who was dying of AIDS into forfeiting millions of dollars in benefits, according to E! ONLINE.

Disney claimed that Robert Jahn, who died in 1994, willingly gave up $2.3 million in unpaid stock options, life insurance and deferred bonuses to avoid being fired for taking kickbacks. They said he confessed to his crime just before his death, but jurors didn’t believe that fairy tale. Lawyers for Jahn’s estate denied he ever swiped a dime, and said he was too sick to fight the corporate giant.

A US district judge will decide how much Disney should pay Jahn’s estate.

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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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