January 22, 2010

MoJo Keeps it Real With Michael Steele

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

Gosh darn you, Taj Mahal.

And you too, Joan Walsh.

For the longest time (and I mean weeks and weeks), the women of Mother Jones held the top spot at keepingitrealwithmichaelsteele.com. We had a good run of it. I’m sure if you look at this photo, you can see why. From left, Michael Steele, Assistant Editor Jen Phillips, Editorial Fellow Sonja Sharp, and me.

Are we not beauteous?Are we not beauteous?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However. Our popularity has recently been bested: first by Salon.com’s Joan Walsh, and now by one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. The site, keepingitrealwithmichaelsteele.com, cropped up after Odell Photos made public an online album of RNC Chairman Michael Steele posing for a series of inexplicably goofy photos with interns. (As soon as word spread and traffic picked up, Odell made the album password protected.) And speaking of interns, making his own appearance in the most popular photos list is former TPM intern and current MoJo Editorial Fellow Ben Buchwalter at fourth place. (Don’t mind the tin foil-wrapped books, it was his birthday.)

It has been a difficult week, and it’s finally Friday. Lighten up for a second and keep it real with Michael Steele. I also encourage you to leave links to your pictures for us in the comments, but please do not to be so popular that you bump us down any further. Cheers.


UPDATE: It appears that due to our readers’ (completely involuntary) support, we are now back to second most real with Michael Steele. Thank you, and sorry Joan Walsh.

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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