March 1, 2007

Byline: Angelina Jolie?

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Angelina Jolie, the famous film star, adoptive mom, and UN Goodwill Ambassador, has a new title to add to her resume: journalist. Or at least, that’s what the Washington Post seems to think. Ms. Jolie recently penned an op-ed for the Post about her work in Darfur.

The first thing that struck me was, why is a celebrity writing on Darfur? Doesn’t WaPo have actual, trained reporters to do those kinds of things? I trust the Washington Post because I assume its writers are well-versed in their fields and have years of experience writing for the media. Having celebs—and I’m sorry, but that’s what Angelina Jolie is—write may boost your circulation, but it just furthers the trend, seen on News Wars, of media outlets pushing themselves as entertainment, rather than reliable sources of information.

Speaking of reporting, even though Angelina is a UN Goodwill Ambassador, she can’t get into Sudan. A camp in eastern Chad is as close as she can get, the UNHCR told her, because aid workers are increasingly at risk of attack. However, Ms. Jolie did talk to some refugees who asked for better accommodations and war crimes trials for the men who raped, tortured, and killed their families.

“Accountability is a powerful force,” Ms. Jolie wrote. “It has the potential to change behavior — to check aggression by those who are used to acting with impunity. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has said that genocide is not a crime of passion; it is a calculated offense. He’s right. When crimes against humanity are punished consistently and severely, the killers’ calculus will change.”

The writing sounds more fit for a rubber-chicken fund-raiser dinner than for the Washington Post, but all snarkiness aside, it is brave of Ms. Jolie to leave the sheltered, pampered world of Hollywood and schlep all the way to Africa to witness the aftermath of a violent genocide. And it is admirable that she is working hard to bring awareness to the issue. More than that, it’s sad that it takes a movie star to shine a light on the situation. Peace treaties, as Angelina points out, have repeatedly failed. If Angelina, the Tomb Raider, can’t make our government sit up and take action, who can?

–Jen Phillips

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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.

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