Mother Jones Reader,

Did you see the email yesterday from David Corn, our Washington, DC, bureau chief? I think you'd appreciate what he had to say about his fear that too much of the media isn’t up to the task of covering the potential damage a second Trump administration can cause.

David also got a jump on recruiting your help in making the most of a $50,000 digital matching gift that Mother Jones received for Giving Tuesday. That’s a lot of money for us to try to raise in a very short time. The deadline is tonight. But we made a good head start yesterday, and with your help, I know we can get to the goal. Please take a minute to make your gift right now.

We can’t afford to miss this matching gift opportunity. It’s your chance not only to help strengthen truth-telling independent journalism at a time when a vengeful incoming administration is vowing to crack down on the press, but also to have that support matched dollar for dollar. I wouldn’t be urgently asking for your donation if it didn't really matter. Every dollar counts, so please make a gift before tonight’s deadline—and it will go twice as far.

David was right to question whether today’s corporate media can handle the responsibility of covering Trump 2.0. On one hand, the industry has been decimated in the past two decades, with a sharp decline in news reporters on the beat. Having fewer watchdogs allows grifters, miscreants, and outright crooks to get away with wrongdoing.

On the other hand, there’s what David described as “the gravitational pull within this business” toward normalizing (or, in Donald Trump’s case, sanewashing) politicians and avoiding making judgments. Business-as-usual coverage is not going to cut it in the months ahead. The American public will need constant reminders and reports on the Trump crowd’s authoritarian plans, extremist policies, and schemes. That’s the kind of coverage our nonprofit newsroom was built to deliver. That’s the kind of truth-telling independent journalism you’re supporting when you help us earn the $50,000 Giving Tuesday digital matching gift.

Here are two numbers on my mind on this Giving Tuesday that I’d like you to consider:

Typically, only about 1 in every 1,000 people who uses MotherJones.com as a news resource chips in with a financial contribution. Around the election, it was a little higher than that—and we’re really hoping to keep that momentum going.

Forget what we’d be capable of if that donor-to-reader ratio was 1 in 10 or even 1 in 100—my brain would start to hurt if I dreamed that big. But CAN YOU be that 1 in 1,000 who stands up for independent, nonprofit media right now? We need you.

Mother Jones these days is reaching audiences it never did before—not just on our website and via our magazine, but on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Those platforms, which younger people in particular rely on for news, are notoriously overrun with disinformation, but Mother Jones is fighting back with the truth. More people getting truthful, fact-checked reporting means more people engaging with the real world and more possibilities for positive change.

The bottom line is that delivering top-quality journalism costs real money. In a democracy that relies on people having access to the truth, it's also enormously important. We can do it only because readers like you help pay for it. Will you please help us make the most of the $50,000 digital matching gift? No matter what amount you send before tonight’s deadline—$10, $100, or $1,000—it becomes twice as much. Every tax-deductible gift and every donor really does make a difference.

Thanks for everything you do to make Mother Jones what it is. Our work would not be possible without you.

Onward,

P.S. Producing the kind of top-quality journalism that I’m talking about above is going to cost a lot of money. Fortunately, MoJo has always had supporters who are willing to pay for the news they rely on. My hope is that you’ll join those ranks today and help us make the most of this Giving Tuesday matching gift.