December 9, 2009

Mother Jones Beats Salon at Trivia Showdown, Begins Beautiful Friendship

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It began with a tweet.

Some fighting words were exchanged.


And last night, after much online trashtalking, the long-awaited trivia battle between the staffs of Salon and Mother Jones took place deep in the heart of San Francisco. The intensity was palpable, as the two teams wrestled over the most important issues of our time, like how many bones are in a baby’s body at birth? And what was 1885 Biff’s nickname in Back to the Future III?

 Team MoJoTeam MoJo
Team SalonTeam Salon
Also, there may or may not have been some livetweeting going on from across the room.

Yes, muckrakers are also nerds.Yes, muckrakers are also nerds.

Long story short, your very own hellraisers triumphed. 60-51. Yes, it’s true. We hippies store extra knowledge in our leg hair.

Salon was a great sport, and their staffers were kind enough to present us with an award, a fancy Ralph Waldo Emerson quote emblazoned with a tiny Salon logo. We tried to understand the meaning of this quote paired with the tiny logo, but the sweet taste of victory and/or malt beverages distracted us from Chris‘ full explanation.

Thank you, we accept.Thank you, we accept.
In any case, great fun was had by all. We met some cool people. We succeeded in wrenching useless information from our brains. And we won an award. It is now proudly displayed in our conference room, nestled among, you know, some other awards.

 

Thanks to everyone for showing up, and keep those trivia hats at the ready. We’re still scanning the San Francisco media horizon for the next poor, unsuspecting publication to defeat.

P.S. Salon has courageously requested a rematch. The liberal elite, what can I say, they’re just suckers for pain.

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

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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