May 18, 2011

Just Another Day At Fox News

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Pretty remarkable Fox News segment a few minutes ago between Martha MacCallum and Monica Crowley. In a piece about Fox’s latest 24/7 obsession they announced that 20% of all healthcare waivers had gone to Nancy Pelosi’s district! And they were all going to high-end steakhouses! They’re exempt from the healthcare reform law even though Pelosi was one of its biggest supporters! And this was all obviously due to political pressure from Pelosi’s office!

OK, not so remarkable, I guess. But for the record: it was 20% in the month of April only, mainly because a benefits servicing company that does a lot of work in California submitted a whole bunch of waiver applications at once. And it’s not because San Francisco steakhouses are freeloading, it’s just the opposite: it’s because a San Francisco ordinance requires companies to provide healthcare, which means more of them need waivers for their plans than in most places. And they’re not exempt from healthcare reform, they’re just getting a waiver through 2013, something that was anticipated by the law. (The idea was that inadequate coverage would be taken care of when the law fully kicks in in 2014, but until then even inadequate coverage is better than nothing.) And none of this came within miles of Pelosi’s office. It’s all just wending its way through the ordinary federal bureaucracy.

All of this is common knowledge because Suzy Khimm has reported it here and here. But the Fox reporting team didn’t even acknowledge this aside from a brief, pro forma comment from MacCallum that there were a few people who denied anything was amiss. Crowley just snorted at the idea and the segment wrapped up.

Anyway, not remarkable. Just the usual Fox News light touch. But if you’re interested in what’s really going on, just click the links above.

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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.

payment methods

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