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Paramount Television President Amy Powell has been fired following accusations that she launched into a racist harangue on a conference call:

The alleged incident occurred during a call to discuss “The First Wives Club,” a series adaptation of the 1996 Paramount film of the same name. The project’s showrunner is Tracy Oliver, who wrote the Universal Pictures hit “Girls Trip,” about a group of black friends reconnecting at Essence Fest in New Orleans. Her version of “The First Wives Club” is expected to feature a predominantly black cast.

During the call, Powell made offensive remarks stereotyping black people in a lengthy rant, the person familiar with the matter said. An assistant at the studio who heard the remarks reported the incident to an executive, who then went to human resources. At least four people heard the comments, the person familiar with the matter said.

Powell vehemently denies everything, but an awful lot of people seem to have heard her rant. This kind of thing is just bizarre. What on earth could prompt someone not just to do this, but to do it with a bunch of people listening, virtually all of whom are guaranteed to be unsympathetic to this kind of diatribe? It’s all but suicidal. I guess I’m pretty curious now to hear her side of the story.

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“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.

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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.

payment methods

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