April 30, 2020

Let’s Dial Back the Elon Musk Coverage, OK?

Ding Ting/Xinhua via ZUMA

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Periodically the press anoints someone as worthy of nonstop coverage. Sarah Palin had that honor long after most losing VP candidates have drifted back into obscurity. (Quick: who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate?) Still, Palin was a former VP candidate. More recently Donald Trump has had that honor, which is arguably defensible since he’s the president of the United States.¹

But why Elon Musk? He doesn’t get Trumpesque coverage, but still, every single thing the guy does or says makes the news. Maybe not on the front page, but somewhere, and I don’t get it. He runs a couple of interesting little companies and he’s got a big mouth that writes checks his IQ usually can’t cash, but that’s about it. Is he really that fascinating?

¹Right? I have to rattle my brain a little bit every time I write that sentence.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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