If a Golden Globe Falls in the Forest and Nobody’s There to Watch It…

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


mojo-photo-goldenglobes.JPG…Are they more likely to give them to deserving shows? Answer: kind of. Honestly, I’m being a bad journalist here since I didn’t actually see any televised reading of the winners; apparently Nancy O’Dell and Billy Bush chuckled their way through a list of winners on NBC and the E! network featured a half-hour reading at some point. When I was flipping through the channels last night, my Comcast program guide showed a “Golden Globes Pre-Show” leading directly into a “Golden Globes Aftershow,” giving the impression that the event had been compressed into a single point like a black hole. And when Time Magazine headlines their article: “The Golden Globes – Who Cares?” you know things are bad.

Perhaps the voters had a bit of a “screw it, nobody’s watching anyway” attitude, since at least some of their TV awards went to relatively surprising and deserving programs: AMC’s smoky “Mad Men” won best dramatic TV series, with their lead Jon Hamm wining the actor award; Ricky Gervais’ “Extras,” which came to a strange and bitter end last year, won for best comedy series. Why David Duchovny won for best actor in a comedy series is anybody’s guess, although name recognition always helps. Tina Fey’s acting win for “30 Rock” was the only award for broadcast television the whole night. On the movie side, “Atonement” and Daniel Day Lewis both won and both look like Oscar locks, Cate Blanchett won for her Bob Dylan impression, and best director went to Julian Schnabel for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” his harrowing and uplifting portrayal of a French stroke victim who, unable to move anything but his left eyelid, dictates his memoirs by blinking in code. I know, oof, but seriously, go see it.

Above photo from Gothamist

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.

payment methods

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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate