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Anniversary-wise, the big news right now is the upcoming 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. I’ll have a bit more to say about that later. But there’s another milestone that’s right around the corner too: the 10th anniversary of Friday Catblogging.

The actual anniversary is still a few days away, but I figure you want the whole catblogging story, don’t you? So this is where it started: with the post on the right ten years ago today. The world seemed awash in troubles that day, but when I looked outside, Inkblot seemed to have the whole thing all figured out. Just snooze your troubles away! So I took a picture and put it on the blog. Four days later that led me to the next fateful step on the road to Friday Catblogging. I’ll have that for you on Monday.

NOTE: Many thanks to my old friends at the Washington Monthly, for helping recreate these historic blog posts, which had sadly fallen into disrepair over time. The internet, as we all know, is not an archival-quality medium.

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From the desk of Mother Jones CEO, Monika Bauerlein...

Newsrooms can be funded in many ways. One of the most controversial (and volatile) ways is by a for-profit corporation or a billionaire owner. We see it across the headlines on a weekly basis: the claw backs in public media, the gutting of The Washington Post, the bending over backwards to appeal to Trump and his allies.

But not here.

When Mother Jones first started publishing 50 years ago, our founders made a critical decision: to be a reader-supported nonprofit. They knew that no corporate owner would be interested in a muckraking newsroom; they also knew that no muckraking newsroom would be interested in following the agenda of a corporate owner.

And so, we’ve been reader-funded for half a century. We rely on contributions from our readers—readers like you—whether it’s $50, or $15 a month, or whatever fits your budget. People give what they can, and every donation makes a difference for our newsroom, which has grown tremendously—in size and reach and renown—since its inception in 1976.

You may be wondering: What does it take to publish an investigation? And what does my donation actually fund? The answers are one and the same: It takes people, resources, and time. And that’s what your donation funds directly.

Every donation Mother Jones receives from readers fortifies our newsroom, whether we’re covering underreported scandals out of Washington, DC, or the most important news of the day. And right now, each donation will be doubled because of our $50,000 match. So when you make a donation—$5, $50, any amount—it’ll go twice as far.

Your support keeps us going. If you’re able, donate today.

Thanks for reading.

—Monika

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