October 16, 2009

Quote of the Day

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From Ezra Klein, on the possibility that Balloon Boy was a hoax:

But whether or not the drama was staged, it certainly served as a perfect metaphor for cable news: America spent hours riveted by a powerful and gripping story that turned out to be totally meaningless, and will have no significant impact on anybody’s lives going forward.

Word.  Or whatever it is that the youngsters say these days to indicate agreement.  (I turn 51 in a few days.  I’m feeling more and more ancient lately.)

True story: I was on the phone yesterday doing our weekly podcast with David Corn, and Laura McClure made some comment about Balloon Boy.  What?  David started to guffaw.  Did I live in a shack or something?  Balloon Boy is everywhere.  I had no idea what they were talking about, but David said that literally every television he had passed in the preceding four or five hours had been tuned to Balloon Boy.  This is the price I pay for not watching cable news during the day.  I am cut off from everything that matters the most.  Like boys who turn out not to be in balloons.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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