September/October 1995 Issue

Newt Signs On

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During his June jaunt through New Hampshire, Speaker Newt Gingrich visited Manchester’s Union-Leader newspaper and signed reporter Jim Schaufenbil’s copy of our story about Newt’s shady book deal with Rupert Murdoch (May/June). “He just smiled and nodded,” Schaufenbil reports.

We can only imagine what he was really thinking. We had just excerpted a leaked document outlining Newt’s televised college class (“Will Newt Fall?” July/August). That document has since been included in the House Ethics Committee’s probe into Newt’s finances. The outline for the “nonpartisan” course credits “powerful institutions such as the big-city machines, the labor unions, and the left-wing activist groups (including trial lawyers and gays)” for keeping the Democrats in power. The course outline proposes political countermeasures for the GOP.

Still, few in the press have reported much on Newt’s political machine and how he spent the at least $10 million in undisclosed donations to GOPAC, his political action committee. Meanwhile, they’ve focused on the approximately $100,000 at stake in the Clintons’ fishy Whitewater investment. Even before the Senate’s Whitewater hearings began, there was a clear disparity between the numbers of stories published on each scandal:

Whitewater GOPAC
New York Times 754 61
Los Angeles Times 531 33
Washington Post 827 87
Wall Street Journal 534 40

Source: Lexis-Nexis; Dow Jones News Retrieval

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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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