If impact is the name of the game in journalism (spoiler: it is), then Mother Jones continues to be a major player. Our journalism contributed to the expulsion of a corrupt congressman, exposed anti-democracy political groups and corporate greed, and helped provide the basis for a Senate investigation. We launched a creator-in-residence program that helped us reach new audiences in new places. Most importantly, thanks to your support, our journalism made a difference in the lives of our subjects, sources, and readers. Here is a look back at a few of the most powerful stories of 2023:
Shoe-leather journalism: Checking in on George Santos’ donors
Providing a bit of comic relief mixed in with his corruption, the story of erstwhile congressman and committed fabulist George Santos bookended (and, frankly, threaded through) 2023. By the end of the year, Santos had been expelled from Congress after a damning ethics report. But let’s cast our minds back to January 2023, just after the never-ending list of lies about his past, finances, and campaign surfaced at the end of 2022. Every news outlet was looking into his claims, but reporter Noah Lanard, in collaboration with DC Bureau Chief David Corn, decided to run down his list of donors, placing calls and door-knocking in Long Island, only to find that many didn’t exist, and many of those they could find had not donated at all. This story caused a ProPublica editor to tweet: “The best reporting often looks so obvious in retrospect. Jealous we did not do this.” One has to wonder if that editor was even more jealous in October when Santos was indicted specifically for the fake donor scheme first exposed by Mother Jones.
Unmasking the secret group working against trans rights
In March, reporter Madison Pauly got a hold of a trove of leaked emails between anti-transgender doctors, lawyers, and activists working with elected lawmakers to push trans health care bans across the US and broke one of our most impactful stories of the year. Her investigation revealed a coordinated effort from major religious-right groups to shape and pass anti-trans legislation as far back as 2019, which, in classic Mother Jones fashion, connected the dots between networks of power players behind the scenes and the impact they have on people’s lives. The story was cited by dozens of news outlets, including New York magazine, The Guardian, HuffPost, Vox, and Vice, and shared widely by other journalists and lawmakers.
Exploding our social following
Mother Jones’ first-ever creator-in-residence, Garrison Hayes, focuses his work on the devastating impacts of white supremacy and anti-Blackness in the US. In an exceptional journalistic coup, he gained unparalleled access to the Tennessee Three, the state legislators expelled in April for their participation in a gun reform protest. Garrison’s video, featuring an exclusive interview with Rep. Gloria Johnson, garnered 1.56 million views on X (formerly known as Twitter) alone. He also scored one of the first comments from Rep. Justin Jones as he left the statehouse floor. These videos, along with others in this series he published about this crisis of democracy in his home state of Tennessee, drove more than 7,000 new followers to Mother Jones’ social channels.
NEW: “I feel like North Korea has more democracy than we do in the state of Tennessee, and it's terrifying to me that we're in this march to fascism,” @VoteGloriaJ tells our @garrison_hayes in this exclusive sit-down on the eve of her possible expulsion from the TN Assembly. pic.twitter.com/mj95VLR7mY
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 6, 2023
How to electrify everything
In April, we published the first dedicated package in our long-term reporting project on the Great Decarbonization. Featuring a cover story from leading environmentalist Bill McKibben that struck straight to the heart of progressives’ tendency toward saying no, the package called for a YIMBY movement to help save our planet and included a passionate exploration of our housing crisis from Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz tweeted upon its publication, “Damn this is so good.” Enough said, but many others had more to say, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and many prominent climate activists and journalists. McKibben’s work was featured prominently on both the Ezra Klein Show and Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast, and our deep dive into the push for microgrids, highlighting the work of a small Latino-majority city, was republished several times.
Exposing a third-party spoiler
In a trio of stories over the summer, David Corn exposed political outfit No Labels’ ties to a firm that raises money for right-wing extremists, a dark money group, and its efforts to set up state parties. With a third-party candidate bound to be a spoiler in an expectedly tight presidential race in 2024, interest in No Labels’ activities was high. David’s stories were cited by MSNBC, Politico, and Salon, among others, and David appeared on the Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast podcast to discuss his discoveries.
Hanging with the Moms for Liberty
Senior editor Kiera Butler spent her summer vacation with the Moms for Liberty, and her feature story on her return visit to their conference caught the attention of news outlets and prominent journalists as the nation grappled with the havoc the group has wreaked on school systems nationwide. Kiera charted their rise to political prominence over the year and a half or so since their founding and is now one of the go-to experts on their influence. She appeared on several radio stations and podcasts to discuss her story, including Slate’s What Next podcast, which asked the question, “Can Moms for Liberty Swing an Election?” (Turns out they can’t.)
Investigating foster care for profit
In late October, senior reporter Julia Lurie published her yearlong investigation into Universal Health Services (UHS), the nation’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain, and its large, highly profitable, and often-overlooked patient base: foster kids. Told through the story of one former foster child in Alaska, this project was based on records requests to every state, interviews with more than 50 people, and thousands of pages of medical and court records. Immediately after it was published online, we got word that the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions would be passing the story to investigators who’d already begun looking into UHS. A legislator in Alaska reached out to a lawyer quoted in the story about getting help on legislation to stop the unwarranted institutionalization of kids in the state. A different lawyer in Alaska helping foster kids sent this email to Julia: “I intend to use your piece tonight to block OCS [Office of Children’s Services] from placing a teen in North Star. One kid at a time. Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”
Other outlets mentioned Julia’s investigation, and prominent watchdogs and journalists tweeted about it, but this is the kind of impact we seek with our journalism: a real-world difference for those who need it most. And this story marked the most recent example of our collaboration with Reveal when Julia’s story aired on the radio show and podcast in October. You’ll see much more of this in 2024 now that Mother Jones and Reveal will be housed under one roof, thanks to the recent merger between Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces Reveal.
At a true crisis point for journalism and our democracy, our larger and more powerful newsroom is poised to bring even more independent investigative journalism to people and communities across the country. Thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting us.
