Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC Ads Get “Cornographic”

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Last we heard from Colbert Super PAC, the satirist Stephen Colbert’s political action committee, it had nearly created a massive loophole in the nation’s laws regulating money in politics. (In the end, the nation’s top campaign finance cop ruled favorably for Colbert and pro-regulation groups.)

Now, with the Republican presidential candidates descending on Ames, Iowa, for that town’s straw poll this weekend, Colbert Super PAC is at it again with a pair of campaign ads that are hilarious parodies of the typical pre-election spot. With Colbert as narrator, his PAC bashes outside political groups urging Iowans to write in Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the Ames Straw Poll, then tells viewers to write in “Rick Parry”—with an “a”—instead. “We want you to vote for Rick Parry, too—but not their Rick Perry, our Rick Parry,” Colbert intones.

Oh, and there’s some “cornography” in Colbert PAC’s ad. Really. Watch for yourself:

First ad:

And the second ad:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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