Mother Jones
Mother Jones (MoJo), a news organization launched in 1976, is named after Irish-American labor activist Mary Harris “Mother” Jones. MoJo publishes a quarterly print magazine featuring investigative journalism on politics, the environment, culture and human rights to 200,000 paid subscribers.
As with MoJo’s roots, the publication’s backers, contributors and editors are unapologetically left-leaning. Activist documentary filmmaker Michael Moore had a contentious four-month reign as editor of MoJo in 1985, culminating with his abrupt firing. David Corn, the Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones, also serves as an on-air analyst for MSNBC
MoJo’s carefully researched stories make it a credible source of opinion. Headlines from a recent issue demonstrate its depth, diversity and timeliness:
Hooked: How a loosely regulated rehab industry baits recovering drug users into a deadly cycle.
We Will Bot You: Artificial intelligence could put a lot of composers out of work — and transform the way we make music.
The April MoJo cover story about Facebook generated a lot of interest among the editors at luckbox, who had just awarded Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg the dubious distinction of naming him luckbox of the month. That issue of luckbox also contained excerpts from Jonathan Tepper’s The Myth of Capitalism that were critical of Facebook (along with Google) for monopolistic business practices and undue influence on news, speech and censorship. It’s a theme that will be revisited frequently in the pages of this magazine.
MoJo CEO Monika Bauerlein and editor in chief Clara Jeffery warn that Facebook may inflict even more damage on America. Like Tepper, they call for the kind of regulatory action that ensued when the likes of Standard Oil, AT&T and Microsoft had “amassed an unacceptable degree of power over the fate of our society.” Some additional excerpts:
F’d: How Facebook Screwed Us All: Facebook talks about connecting us, but it’s tearing us — and our democracy — apart.
“…what we now know is that, for years, Facebook has been aware that user data was being shared with outside actors and that its platform was being turned into a disinformation machine.”
— Jeff Joseph
