February 21, 2009

The Senator from Blago-land

Senator Roland Burris, Blago’s pick to fill Barack Obama’s Senate seat, did not have a good week. He’s under investigation for making contradictory statements about his fundraising connections to the disgraced ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich; new Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and a coalition of black ministers have called on him to resign; the White House has urged him to think about his future; an Illinois newspaper discovered he did not reveal all his lobbying clients (including mortgage bankers and the tobacco industry); and his key Capitol Hill staffers have fled his office. The question is, can he hold on and resist the calls for him to pack it in? On Friday night, I pondered the Burris matter on Hardball:

DOES IT FEEL LIKE POLITICS IS AT A BREAKING POINT?

Headshot of Editor in Chief of Mother Jones, Clara Jeffery

It sure feels that way to me, and here at Mother Jones, we’ve been thinking a lot about what journalism needs to do differently, and how we can have the biggest impact.

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We aim to hire, build a team, and give them the time and space needed to understand how we got here and how we might get out. We want to dig into the forces and decisions that have allowed massive conflicts of interest, influence peddling, and win-at-all-costs politics to flourish.

It's unlike anything we've done, and we have seed funding to get started, but we're looking to raise $500,000 from readers by July when we'll be making key budgeting decisions—and the more resources we have by then, the deeper we can dig. If our plan sounds good to you, please help kickstart it with a tax-deductible donation today.

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Signed by Clara Jeffery

Clara Jeffery, Editor-in-Chief

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