September 10, 2015

You Have to Watch Stephen Colbert’s Bernie Sanders Joke


Stephen Colbert blanketed radio airwaves yesterday promising that his second performance on The Late Show on CBS would rank among his best two Late Show performances.

With first-night jitters now behind him—along with a hair-raising tale about how Tuesday’s debut barely made it to air—Wednesday’s broadcast offered samples of what anyone who loves Colbert knows he does best: surreal sketches (ScarJo on a blanket staring at the stars talking about her feet!), improvisation-fueled interviews (Elon Musk, are you a supervillain?), and on-the-money political satire, like this segment on the idiotic range of merchandise you can now buy from presidential candidates. Stay for the “Feel the Bern” mug, and Jeb Bush’s radically overpriced “Guaca Bowle.”

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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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