January 24, 2009

Stephen Colbert Demands Remixers Avoid His Lessig Interview

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It didn’t even occur to me to ask readers to remix my review of copyright reform champion Lawrence Lessig’s book Remix, but Stephen Colbert is totally smarter than me. The Comedy Central host has issued a challenge to would-be copyright infringers, demanding that they do not remix his interview with Lessig or throw in any excerpts from his audiobook, “particularly Chapter 7, entitled ‘Homosexuals.'” Well, of course some sampling enthusiasts out there took the bait, and then Colbert himself put together a ridiculous rave-up of a video, “as a warning to others.” Fluorescent face paint: always good for a laugh.

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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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