July 31, 2019

Debate Night 2: Better Than Night 1, But a Little Too Nasty

Hey, maybe the 15-second rule and the constant interruptions from the CNN anchors weren’t as bad as I made them out to be yesterday. By staying tough on the time guidelines, the anchors made it clear to everyone that they needed to play by the rules, and tonight they mostly did. So maybe it was the right call.

Also, I thought the anchors were a little bit less harsh than they were last night. But I might just be imagining that.

Poor Joe Biden. You almost have to feel sorry for the guy. He just stood there taking incoming from every person on the stage. Unfortunately, I don’t think that was his real problem. His real problem is that he was noticeably hesitant and unsure on multiple occasions. Nobody had to make even a veiled reference to his age because it was obvious that he wasn’t at peak sharpness all the time. I suspect this is going to become more and more obvious as time goes by, and it will doom him.

Was Cory Booker the big winner? The CNN anchors seemed to think so, but I didn’t. He was hardly the target of any attacks—and did poorly on the one big attack he got from Biden—but nonetheless never really got a consistent vision across. At least, I didn’t think so.

Kamala Harris did OK, but I’m surprised she didn’t have better answers to attacks on her record as California attorney general. It’s not like she hasn’t had months to prepare for them.

All told, I found the whole thing sort of dispiriting because I hate to see Democrats engaged in such personal attacks. But that’s politics, I guess. In any case, I sure wish they could start winnowing down the field. If you can’t even manage to poll at 1 percent after two national debates, it’s not clear to me that anyone owes you any more TV time.

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“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.

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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.

payment methods

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