May 27, 2020

Good News About Fake News: Twitter Is Labeling Trump’s Lies

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Twitter added fact-check warnings yesterday to two Trump tweets for the first time in history, a major move to curb his spread of lies and conspiracy babble, which could be the most encouraging news all…week? The world’s largest ego and lyingest president is being brought to size or at least facing efforts to do so. But should we rejoice? Or keep pressing Jack Dorsey on why he hasn’t banned or suspended Trump for repeated violations of terms applied to everyone else who abuses, harasses, and threatens users? Listen to Dorsey weigh that question and tell me if you think he’s right at recharge@motherjones.com: Should Trump get a hall pass because he’s a powerful world figure whose lies we need to record regardless of violations? Take cheer where you can: Fact-check tags begin.

More Recharge boosts:

Birthday strength. Yesterday’s news was rounded out by the shared birthdays of Lauryn Hill and Miles Davis. Hill did what she’s cherished for: educated the world, this time by encouraging a graduating class with words of wisdom before her birthday. Boost yourself with her live recording of “Killing Me Softly” from ’96, “Redemption Song” from ’99, “I Gotta Find Peace of Mind” from 2001, or “Ready or Not” from 2012.

Miles Davis’ birthday was celebrated just two days after the loss this week of Kind of Blue drummer Jimmy Cobb. Salute both with this timeless, replenishing recording of you know what.

Brushing up. Murals are popping up on boarded-up restaurants in Oakland and San Francisco in an organized effort to create canvases for artists. Check out Paint the Void’s Helice Wen.

Calling all kindness-doers: Remember the good landlord who canceled rent for three months and told tenants to keep the cash or spend it at local businesses? Here’s a pledge: Send your stories in this vein to recharge@motherjones.com and you’ll get a Mother Jones shout-out.

Start the presses. Newspapers are on financial life support, but a community turned up to keep one going: A librarian launched a weekly paper in Weare, New Hampshire, and when the librarian died and the library where it was printed closed, six residents stepped up to keep the paper humming. H/T to Recharge reader Dave Beard for the inspiring bite.

Spin the daily blog at motherjones.com/recharge, and make it shine at recharge@motherjones.com.

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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.

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