September 19, 2009

O’Reilly Bans Media From Speech

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Conservative TV host Bill O’Reilly headlined the Friday night session of the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, ensuring a good turnout for Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s stump speech. I confess to having burned out after nine hours of Christian political speeches yesterday, and I skipped the evening events in favor of a much-needed cocktail in the hotel bar and dinner with my husband. Apparently I made the right choice. As it turned out, O’Reilly banned the media, without advance notice, from his speech. I would have been stuck in the bar either way. Bob Ellis, a conservative writer from Dakota Voice, confirmed that one of the conditions of O’Reilly’s appearance at the summit was a media blackout. Ellis was deeply annoyed at being shut out. He writes:

I’m sorry, but that seems more than a little hypocritical of Bill O’Reilly to say the least.

After all, the man (who I like very much to watch and agree with on most things) gives no quarter to anyone on his show.  That’s essentially how a good reporter should be: not put up with the spin.

Yet he’s afraid to have the media report on his speech?

Say it ain’t so, Bill!

So while I now have a transcript of Pawlenty’s bland speech, I couldn’t tell you what O’Reilly had to say. Which is too bad, because there was some action last night. Adele Stan over at AlterNet reports that hotel security forceably ejected blogger Mark Stark from the room during O’Reilly’s speech.

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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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