September 14, 2019

Yet Again, Trump Attacks a Prominent Black Journalist

There’s a pattern here.

Ronen Tivony/ZUMA

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

On Saturday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted an attack on MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid.

While the timing of the attack could be explained by the fact Reid recently wrote a book targeting the president—The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story—it was far from the first time Trump has made it a point to insult a prominent journalist of color.

In August 2018, he called CNN anchor Don Lemon “the dumbest man on television.”  In November 2018, the National Association of Black Journalists wrote an open letter protesting Trump’s recent “disrespect” toward three black female journalists in public question and answer sessions; he’d called them or their inquiries  “nasty,” “racist,” and “stupid.”

“The most powerful man in the free world is verbally abusing journalists… The past two years have been filled with assaults on the media and Donald Trump’s comments this week have reached an all-time low,” NABJ President Sarah Glover said at the time, adding that his remarks were “appalling, irresponsible, and should be denounced.”

One of the journalists attacked by Trump and cited in the NABJ letter, American Urban Radio Networks longtime White House correspondent April Ryan, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post with a simple conclusion: “He leaves little doubt about what he really thinks of us.”

 

 

 

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