January 19, 2020

Senators Will Get to Ignore Trump’s Tweets for Six Hours a Day

A mandatory digital cleanse, courtesy of 19th century impeachment trial rules.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) checks his phone.Alex Wong/Getty

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The Associated Press reports that the US Senate is about to launch a weeks-long experiment in which its members will be forced to put away their smartphones and maintain “silence, on pain of imprisonment.” This mandatory unplugging, based on a 19th-century senatorial tradition, is meant to improve senators’ focus and sense of decorum. Tweeting, Googling, sneaking in poker games, and checking the news will not be permitted for up to six hours a day. The digital cleanse could last between six and eight weeks, according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

This occasion for this self-imposed isolation, of course, is President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, where senators will be reminded daily that talking or cellphone use are not allowed in the chamber. 

“It’s going to be a new experience for a lot of my colleagues to not be able to talk and not be able to consult our email or text messages,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told the AP. “But we’ll live through it, it’ll be all right.” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) joked, “There will be some withdrawal symptoms. We might have to take some tranquilizers.”

As journalist, I can empathize with the pain of being cut off from my electronic limb. While it is not known how many Americans suffer from Internet Addiction Disorder, the condition has been linked to “depression, anxiety, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, and psychoticism,” according to Current Psychiatry Reviews. Studies show that excessive screen time for adolescents (often held up as benchmarks of politicians’ maturity) may lead to difficulty making friends, less emotional stability, and inability to finish tasks.

The AP documented several senators who seemed unprepared for the return to an analog workplace. Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) “stole a few moments on her cellphone,” before being distracted by an aide who “motioned to her that it was time to escort Chief Justice John Roberts into the chamber.” During the day’s session, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reportedly “clapped his hands quietly as if he was ready to get moving.” Sanders said he would have rather been campaigning in Iowa (where he would surely have had internet access). “But I swore a constitutional oath as a United States senator to do my job and I’m here to do my job.”

While senators may gripe about feeling disconnected during the workday, I, for one, envy their chance to tune out the president’s latest tweets as his impeachment trial proceeds. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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