Facebook’s Public Option

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


Some 23 federal agencies already have Facebook pages, according to the blog FederalComputerWeek, but we can expect still more to sign up now that the social media site has launched a new Facebook and Government page (nearly 500 friends already!) to help timid bureaucrats reach out to the public. Among its inaugural Wall postings were an unveiling of NATO’s own new Facebook pages, a primer on the administration’s “White House Live” app, which allows video streaming of events, and a military media link heralding 20,000 fans for US Forces Afghanistan’s Facebook page—an item that was already a bit stale, since USFA boasted more than 28,500 fans as of yesterday. There was also a link to a blog post by the Army’s Director of Online and Social Media, entitled “Connecting and Sharing the Army Way,” and another to the Army policy for Wall comments: No graphic, obscene, explicit, abusive, hateful, or racial comments, or “comments intended to defame anyone or any organization.”

Apparently some federal agencies already know precisely how to reach America’s young people—well, at least until they enroll.

Follow Michael Mechanic on Twitter.
 

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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