April 5, 2004

Profile: Stephen L. Bing

Producer, Shangri-La Entertainment <br>Los Angeles, California

Photo: Getty Images

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Stephen Bing may be best known for his Hollywood lifestyle. The screenwriter and producer has been linked romantically to Uma Thurman, Sharon Stone, and — most memorably — Elizabeth Hurley. But Bing is no simple film industry gadfly. He is the grandson of New York real estate mogul Leo Bing, with a personal worth of more than $500 million. And he is one of the Democratic Party’s most consistently generous donors.

That combination of playboy reputation and liberal politics has earned Bing a special place in the hearts of conservative pundits. Still, Bing’s liberal leanings are no passing fancy. His father worked for both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as a public health doctor. But it is as a campaign contributor that Bing the younger has made the greatest impact.

Since 1999, Bing has contributed more than $9.5 million to federal candidates and parties, including more than $8 million in soft money given to the Democratic National Committee. Last year, he gave $100,000 to embattled California governor Gray Davis. This year, with the soft money pipeline into the parties shut down, Bing has followed the same path as other generous Democratic donors, contributing heavily to liberal soft money issue groups. He has contributed nearly $2 million to the Media Fund and just less than $1 million to MoveOn.org.

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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.

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