September 2, 2006

It’s a Good Day to Take Out the (9/11) Trash

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In yet another classic Friday-afternoon “take out the trash” maneuver to bury bad news on a slow news day (how much slower can it get than the Saturday of Labor Day weekend?), the Transportation Department’s Inspector General is recommending discipline for FAA executives who gave the 9/11 commission false information, reports the New York Times. Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this; for our part, CYA looks like a perfectly good explanation, especially from an agency that has a lot of A to cover when it comes to 9/11. For more on that, see Jim Ridgeway’s summary of FAA failures as part of his call for nine new congressional investigations in the most recent issue of Mother Jones; for even more, check out Michael Scherer and Barry Yeoman’s MoJo piece, which among other things shows how much of this was known well before 9/11, here.

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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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