February 20, 2010

More On the CPAC Gay-Basher

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Media Matters has the full video of Ryan Sorba’s rant at CPAC Friday night. He’s the young man who used his two minutes to address the thousands of people gathered in DC to bash conference organizers for letting a gay conservative group staff a table in the exhibit hall. Turns out this wasn’t the first time Sorba has riled up a crowd with his views on gay civil rights. The representative of the California Young Americans for Freedom spends his time going around to college campuses lecturing on the “Born Gay Hoax.” Two years ago, his speech at Smith College was shut down by protesters, which explains why he dismissed hecklers at CPAC by saying, “the lesbians at Smith College protest better than you!” Apparently CPAC organizers consider his presence another example of their inclusiveness.

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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.

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