July 17, 2008

IvyGate to Facebook Gen: Watch Out

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IvyGate, the snickering blog that chronicles the goings-on of all things Ivy League, is keeping a steady eye on your potential gaffes. Don’t take that in an entirely Big Brother-y way—they’re only watching you if you’re at all related to the Ivies (Because that’s where they think America grooms all its leaders.)

Of course, IvyGate is only a fraction of the machine that allows raunchy nights of adolescent debauchery to live on in virtual eternity. Perhaps the real lesson to politicians currently in office is to keep a closer eye on their Generation Facebook kids and relatives.

Remember last year when Rudy Giuliani’s estranged daughter was revealed as an Obama supporter?

Or how about when Jonathan Frist, son of Bill, was caught wearing some homemade beer belt and Confederate-looking garb on his Facebook profile? And who can forget Julia Corker, daughter of Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), dancing in her underwear and making out with another girl—on Facebook.

“The upshot?”—IvyGate editors ask—”America’s standards for personal embarrassment, political scandal and appropriate disclosure are sure to change in the years to come.”

Meaning what, that America will be quicker to forgive the next White House intern sex scandal?

—Joyce Tang

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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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