October 12, 2009

Where’s Salin Palin—on Twitter?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Where’s Salin Palin? On Twitter, that is.

Before resigning as governor of Alaska in July, Palin had become a prolific Twitterer, sending out news of her official doings to about 150,000 followers. She also shared with them quotes from Aristotle, Thomas Paine, and other big thinkers. On July 17—nine days before her resignation was to take effect—she wrote this tweet:

10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site.

That seemed a promise: as soon as she left office, she would trade her official governor’s Twitter account for an unofficial one and start firing off 140-character missives, telling the world what she really felt about things.

Well, it’s been three months since then, and Palin has disappeared from Twitter. There’s no new account for her and, thus, no “less politically correct” tweets flying from her fingertips.

What does this mean? Did she consciously decide to pull back for a while? Can she not handle tweeting while writing her book? There’s been no explanation for her Twitter silence. Maybe she’s too busy with Facebook.

By the way, see my most recent PoliticsDaily.com column for more on the latest Palin news—or non-news.

Daivd Corn is still on Twitter. Check out his feed to follow his latest postings and media appearances.

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.

payment methods

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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate