July 15, 2020

Always Click the Link

White House trade adviser Peter NavarroEvan Vucci/AP

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President Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro, kicked up the war against Anthony Fauci today with an op-ed titled “Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.” That’s quite an indictment. But it turns out to be just the latest in an increasingly common conservative genre: a piece that links to articles that literally make the opposite of the point the author is claiming. For example, Navarro’s first charge is this:

In late January, when I was making the case on behalf of the president to take down the flights from China, Fauci fought against the president’s courageous decision — which might well have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives.

But if you click the link, here’s the headline—the headline!—of the fact-checking piece Navarro claims as backup:

Did Dr. Fauci Disagree With Trump’s Decision to Curtail Travel From China?
No.

Most of the others were the same. It’s not that the links just go to dubious sources, they literally go to sources that say the opposite of what Navarro claims. He must be really, really sure that no one will ever bother to click the links and actually read them.

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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.

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