August 14, 2017

Jesse Watters Destroys His “America Is Not a Racist Nation” Claim With Racist Clips

Fox News distilled into one beautiful transition.

With tensions still simmering after the deadly, white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, Fox News‘ Jesse Watters went on the air Sunday and described those in Charlottesville as “fringe fanatics who don’t represent this country.” He went on to passionately assert that America is not a racist nation.

“It’s time we stop acting like it is,” Watters said, in remarks that implicitly defended the president’s initial, stunningly mild response to the violence. Trump’s remarks were widely criticized by members of both parties who demanded a more emphatic condemnation of white supremacists. 

Watters then paused awkwardly, apparently unaware of what segments were to follow. “Not sure what we’re going to do next, but we have a great show.” He then read into the teleprompter to preview two blatantly racist segments: The first insinuated Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, two African-American women, could be siding with North Korea. The second showed black men waving guns and supposedly threatening Trump over food stamps–impressively packing multiple stereotypes into a two second clip.

Watch the beautifully timed transition below:

h/t Think Progress

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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.

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