Walter Cronkite Dead at 92

Courtesy flickr user mychatham

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The world of journalism takes another hit. Walter Cronkite was the voice of a generation, maybe not mine, but he shaped media for decades, not in the anchor chair necessarily, but in people’s living rooms. From what I remember, and from what my grandfather would tell me (he just passed away at the age of nearly 101), Cronkite made people feel a part of the news as it unfolded. “He was right there,” he’d say, “giving you the straight scoop!”

 

Cronikite shaped what people cared about at a time when there weren’t the Twittering masses to do the telling. And he knew what he was talking about, all the time. Not that we necessarily want to return to such a narrow sieve through which we hear the day’s truths, but he did a fine job with such a weighty task.

 

And that’s the way it was.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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