November 28, 2006

Michael Crichton Plugs Mother Jones

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Well, not exactly. In our big package on global-warming deniers last year, Bill McKibben dinged Michael Crichton’s State of Fear for combining “all the clichés of pulp fiction (heaving breasts, cannibals, poisoning by octopi)” with a deliberate misreading of the science of climate change. After quietly stewing for two years, Crichton has struck back. From today’s New York Times review of his latest distraction for cross-country fliers: “Next does occasionally turn ham-handed: one of its resident idiots is a whiny environmentalist who reads Mother Jones and thinks genetic modification could make cool protest art.” Snap!

Meanwhile, having conclusively disproved global warming, Crichton has moved on. According to his website, “Michael has completed all interviews/speaking engagements regarding State of Fear and related themes and will not be revisiting these subjects in the future.” Guess not even breasts and cannibals could convince Hollywood to buy that screenplay. Better luck with this one, Michael!

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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