May 27, 2009

Oprah’s Kentucky Fried Throwdown

Image courtesy of Creative Commons user Pengrin

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Oprah’s free chicken coupon led to a Kentucky Fried throwdown this week. The Des Moines Register reported a “large, middle aged woman” hollered profanity and spat on the arm of the employee who turned down her free two-piece grilled chicken meal coupon on Tuesday. 

Oprah’s threw her unweildy star power behind KFC’s newest venture and the response overwhelmed both Oprah.com and Kentucky Fried Chicken, who couldn’t meet the demands of the salivating hordes. New York magazine chronicled the agony and the estacy of customers. Some felt discriminated against because they used Linux and couldn’t download the coupon (they’re people too, O), or are Canadian (no freebies for O Canada). Others pleaded that they needed the nearly unattainable free chicken to feed their children.

Drop in at KFC.com and you’ll understand the excitement. The website features happy chicken lovers two-fisting pieces of un-fried poultry while doing the “mix it in your bucket” dance. After redeeming millions of coupons, the company had to call a chicken hiatus and issued an apology and rain checks until chicken supply meets chicken demand.

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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.

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