August 22, 2007

Music Piracy Destroying Economy

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ArrrrYou thought it was the subprime mortgage crisis behind recent global economic instability? Wrong! Remember that mp3 you downloaded the other day? That’s what did it. I hope you’re sorry. Yesterday, the Dallas, Texas-based Institute for Policy Innovation released a study that says worldwide piracy of recorded music costs the US $12.5 billion and 71,060 jobs annually. The Institute came up with those numbers by combining jobs in sound recording and retail, as well as lost earnings and taxes, and then multiplying them by ten thousand, apparently. And yes, their Dallas headquarters should give you a clue as to their political leanings: the IPI was founded by Dick Armey, and was ranked as “super freaking conservative,” by a conservative research center. So these are the people angry at Bush for being too liberal.

No word on whether the study took into account all the glamorous blogging jobs that have actually been created by this whole downloading trend.

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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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