August 24, 2006

Out-wit, out-last, out-race! Literally.

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CBS show Survivorannounced yesterday that it would divide this season’s 20 contestants into tribes based on race: there’ll be African American tribe, Asian American tribe, Hispanic tribe and White tribe. Which means that in an amazing twist, in addition to subsiting on grubs and subjecting themselves to humiliating displays of desperation, cast members will also have to be super self-conscious when hurling insults at other tribes. Apparently inspired less by neo-Darwinism than pure cluelessness, host Jeff Probst (a non-Hispanic White) appeared on “The Early Show” today to explain the organic process by which this amazing moment in American popular culture came about:

“It wasn’t until we got to casting and started noticing this theme of ethnic pride . . . that we started thinking, wow, if culture is still playing such a big part in these people’s lives, that’s our idea, let’s divide them based on ethnicity.”

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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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