October 26, 2009

Chamber Uses Yes Men ‘Attack’ to Fundraise

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The US Chamber of Commerce is turning their run-in with the Yes Men last week into a fundraising opportunity.

TPMMuckraker got a hold of a fundraising email sent to Chamber supporters late last week, calling on them to send money because the “U.S. Chamber is under attack.”

Help us fight back!As you probably have seen in the news — the U.S. Chamber is under attack.

MoveOn.org and other extremist groups are harassing our members…

A group of pranksters held a fake news conference falsely claiming to be the U.S. Chamber…

They’re attacking us for having the audacity to oppose legislation that would be harmful to American employers and cost vital American jobs.

The letter is signed by the Chamber’s senior vice president and national political director, Bill Miller. It takes supporters to a webpage where they can make a donation to the Chamber. “Don’t let them muzzle us. Stand up for free speech by making a contribution below,” it urges.

Meanwhile, the Chamber has unleashed their lawyers on the Yes Men in order to get their parody Chamber site yanked from the interwebs. Because they truly believe in free speech, of course.

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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