April 13, 2010

The Truth in Propaganda Act

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Barack Obama has apparently decided on a plan to fight back against the Citizens United decision that allows corporations a nearly unlimited ability to spend money in political campaigns:

The White House and leading Democrats in Congress are close to proposing legislation that would force private companies and groups to disclose their behind-the-scenes financial involvement in political campaigns and advertising, officials involved in the discussions said Monday. One provision would require the chief executive of any company or group that is the main backer of a campaign advertisement to personally appear in television and radio spots to acknowledge the sponsorship, the officials said.

Well, corporations can already spend unlimited sums on initiative campaigns in California, and I wouldn’t mind seeing a law like this in place here. Sort of a corporate version of the “I approve this message” that we require from actual human candidates.

My current bête noire is Proposition 16, a slimy little initiative called the “Taxpayers Right to Vote Act.” (Great name, isn’t it?) It’s the brainchild of Pacific Gas & Electric, which is outraged by the effrontery of public utilities that compete with it and wants to require a two-thirds vote before any public utility would be allowed to launch or expand its public power service. You probably couldn’t get a two-thirds vote in most places to pass a Mothers Day resolution, so Prop 16 effectively shuts down PG&E’s competitors completely.

Their current ad is narrated by the most reasonable looking soccer mom you’ve ever laid eyes on, and it’s in heavy rotation financed by PG&E’s millions. The opposition, ironically, isn’t allowed to really oppose the measure at all since public utilities aren’t allowed to spend public money on political campaigns. Sweet, isn’t it? There’s nothing much to be done about that, but it would be nice to even the scales just a wee bit by requiring Peter Darbee to append his corporate mug to the end of every one of those ads and say “I’m the chairman of PG&E and I approve this message.” People ought to know just whose pocketbook is being lined here, after all.

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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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