The Vlogger MoJo and Maddow Love

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If you watched The Rachel Maddow Show last Friday, you may have caught vlogger Jonathan Mann performing his cheeky tune “Hey Paul Krugman.” Mann’s Rock Cookie Bottom website, where he posts an original music video every day, has more than just Maddow buzzing. Want to know more? Check out MoJo’s podcast interview with Mann (excerpt after the jump).

Mother Jones: Were you surprised by the success (of the Krugman video), and can you explain what that led to?

Jonathan Mann: So the Paul Krugman song was number 77, and to me it was no different than 76 or 78. It was just another song. It was literally how I was feeling at the moment. I was like reading Paul Krugman’s blog, listening to Tim Geithner, and thinking to myself, man I really wish that Paul Krugman, who when he speaks makes perfect sense to me, was actually calling shots…The song just blew up. I think the first blog to get it was this one called Calculated Risk, and from there it went to the Huffington Post, on the front page, and from there it just totally blew up on the internet. It ultimately led to an appearance on this show called 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on MSNBC, where the host David Schuster is apparently this huge fan of mine. So I wrote them this song and all this stuff, so it’s been pretty nuts.

Listen to MoJo’s full podcast interview with Jonathan Mann here.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. The deadline’s almost here. Please help us reach our $150k membership goal by May 31.

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