August 22, 2009

Crash and Burn

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From the Washington Post today:

“Anything with Z seems like there’s some slight irreverence about it. So it was as simple as putting Z in front of politics!” explains Republican media consultant John Brabender….With a four-program lineup, Zolitics bills itself as a bipartisan potpourri of “original scripted content, current events with a twist, and reality based shows unlike you have ever seen before.”

….It’s the place to see, for example, Rick Santorum squire Donna Brazile to a NASCAR race….The NASCAR sojourn is what Santorum has expressed interest in doing for the debut episode of “My America,” a show that will pair ideologically divergent bedfellows and allow each to show the other “their America.” The show, Zolitics crowed in a press release this week, “just may also become America’s favorite buddy story.”

….Santorum calls himself “a great fan of Donna’s” and looks forward to milling around with the “red-blooded Americans out there” while watching cars go Zoom.

This sounds like possibly the worst idea in the history of western civilization.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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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.

payment methods

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