The triumph of ‘wealth porn’

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The mainstream media is so drunk on the so-called economic prosperity of the past five years that they gloss over issues of economic inequality and now unapologetically wax salaciously rhapsodic about wealth and the wealthy, according to an essay in the COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW.

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As new money magazines pop up, mainstream news outlets struggle to compete — with bigger business and Wall Street sections and new technology fetishist inserts — rather than taking the opportunity to show the other side of ‘New Wealth’: New Poverty and its economic, social, and moral impact for millions on the wrong end of the boom.

Writes author Gary Andrew Poole: “America is doing well, thanks, and the press is reporting the phenomenon. But do we over-celebrate the New Wealth, giving the reader the impression that he’s the only one who isn’t loaded, or that being rich is all that matters? Are we analyzing the ramifications of the new prosperity?” To which we say, do you really have to ask?

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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.

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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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