November 25, 1997

Thank You, Mr. President

An oil company kisses up to Bill and his weak global warming proposal

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The environmentalists are pissed and the oil companies are pleased — last month Bill Clinton announced the U.S. negotiating position for the U.N. global warming treaty, and it was the weakest one on the table. His White House advisers had split on the issue, the enviros urging the strongest cuts in emissions, the Wall Street types urging the weakest. Guess who won.

The big oil firms are more than relieved; some of them seem downright enthusiastic. From a source in Washington, the MoJo Wire obtained this letter written by Sunoco CEO Bill Campbell, thanking the president profusely for going so easy on his polluting industry. You might say he gushed.

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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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