Samantha Power and the Poison Pen

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(Samantha Power is a friend, so factor that in as your read.)

How weird is it that Peggy Noonan, of all people, argued for Samantha Power not to lose her job with the Obama campaign after she let the truth slip out? Ok, after she bellowed to the skies her anger and frustration at Senator Clinton. I’m all paranoid now, what with the Limbaugh-ites giggling about voting for Hillary so they won’t have to face Barack in November, but the piece rings true. I think she actually means it.

Noonan’s argument is:

A) Campaign staff are human. They’re exhausted. Of course they end up loathing the competition. On the rare occasions when all of those three collide, cut them a break.

B) For all her mega-accomplishments, Power is a political newbie and (unbeknownst to Noonan) perhaps the most honest, and earnest, person on the planet. So again, with the break.

C) (And the most interesting point) Journalists should not swarm her because we’re always complaining that political operators speak only in well-rehearsed soundbites of nothingness. When someone goes off script for once, we chop them off at the knees.

Sounds good, but … according to The Scotsman, Power knew she was on the record. I tell my students everyday that you can’t let folks go off the record after they’ve said something, so Noonan should be more specific; exactly which officials do we cut a break, and in what circumstances? As David Corn points out, Capitol Hill types regularly call the opposition everything but a child of God in his presence. They just make sure to do it off the record and he doesn’t print it even though it would make him more famous.

D) Noonan suggested that Clinton take this opportunity to sheath the claws she’s been sharpening on Obama’s back for so long and not make Power the poster-girl for his ineptitude and cunning. Unfortunately, her campaign did just that and Power resigned just minutes after Noonan finished filing. Not that it would have made any difference.

The gotcha! is all that matters these days. There’s little difference between outing Power during a weak moment in one of a hundred book interviews she’s been giving, and publishing a photo of her with the back of her dress caught in her underwear. There have been many times in my career when I didn’t report something bone stupid a subject had said or done while on the record, not if all that was to be gained was a little notoriety for me. They were the right calls. I don’t regret any of them and I plan to end my career without ever having the opposite regret. Sometimes journalists need to be ruthless assholes. Only the reporter from The Scotsman who got this scoop knows if this was one of those times.

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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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