April 25, 2008

Obama to Finally Do Fox News… Why?

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News is out that Barack Obama will finally end his boycott of Fox News and sit down with “Fox News Sunday” for a pre-taped interview on Saturday. “They realized they’ve got a problem after Pennsylvania,” [Fox host Chris] Wallace told the Hollywood Reporter. “In the end, they do it for their own reasons, not ours. But they realized he needs to be able to reach out to working-class, blue-collar Democrats, moderate to conservative, and that’s our target audience.”

Fox News has been slamming Obama non-stop, to such a degree that members of the Fox team have objected on-air and Brave New Films has released a much-watched film on YouTube documenting the phenomenon:

Obama’s boycott of Fox was a good thing for the progressive movement. If he had taken the White House without appearing on the network, it would have proven that Democrats could win without dipping into Fox’s toxic waters, and it would have raised awareness of Fox’s nasty habits. Obama’s campaign is saying he’s going on to “take Fox on.”

The one thing we know for sure: Fox will spend the entire time focusing on the “manufactured issues” of the campaign — flag pins, “bitter”-gate, Weathermen, etc. Obama’s going to get punched. If he punches back, he comes off as confrontational in front of Fox’s blue-collar, moderate and conservatives viewers (who probably aren’t inclined to vote for him anyway, right?). If he doesn’t punch back, he disappoints progressives and the blogosphere, who see a blown opportunity to ostracize a pernicious network.

So tell me. What’s the upside, here?

Update: Brave New Films has more excellence on Obama and Fox News here.

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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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