Webcasters Counting Down to Day of Silence

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mojo-photo-radiosilence.jpgWith just over four weeks until online royalty rates are set to increase, internet broadcasters and the people who love them are starting to get nervous. I wrote about this back in March, and amusingly, it looks like “Save the Streams,” the organization set up to help stop the rate hike, got my message about their icky name and folded themselves into a new group: SaveNetRadio. Whew! Anyway, these new rules would reportedly increase fees by up to 1200%, putting many broadcasters out of business, and on Monday, the SaveNetRadio people held a concert outside of the Capitol to raise awareness of the issue. Unfortunately, nobody had ever heard of the bands who performed: Yugo, Nadir, and, um, The Mother Jones Band. Talk about royalties — shouldn’t we get a dollar every time they sell a T-shirt? The new rules are set to go into effect July 15th, and actually sound pretty unfair, the most troubling aspect being that the same rates are applied to both commercial and public broadcasters. And thus, next Tuesday, June 26th, a coalition of webcasters are participating in a “Day of Silence” to protest the new rules, and yes, that means no KCRW for 24 hours, unless you actually live within range of its 39 (or so) actual FM transmitters! Gulp!

I’m not sure how seriously to take all this, considering it has all happened before, five years ago to be specific. Additionally, SoundExchange (the company that actually collects the money) says that the ten largest webcasters account for over 80% of internet royalties, and that SaveNetRadio is just a “front” for profitable webcasters like Yahoo! and AOL, who can easily afford the higher rates. Hmm. Oddly enough, the proposed replacement bill (now sponsored by 118 representatives) applies a flat fee not only to internet radio, but also to that musical distribution system at the forefront of modern technology: the jukebox. Well, if jukeboxes unite in a day of silence, you’ll know we’re really in trouble.

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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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