2 important investigations

And we have a dollar-for-dollar match to double your impact! MoJo Reader, Normally, with less than a week left in our fall pledge drive and $75,000 still to raise, I'd keep this email short and focused singularly on the task at hand: [announcing that we have a limited-time matching gift to double your donation](, and asking readers like you to [support our independent journalism with a tax-deductible gift.]( But these aren't normal times, and I've learned a few things over the last couple of weeks. When we [asked]( readers how you're handling the chaotic news cycle, a lot of you said you're eager for forward-looking stories that break free from the dizzying headlines. I've also taken to heart that it's important to keep a level head in the Trump era. By recognizing the playbook and focusing on the developments that rattle the foundation of our democracy, we can keep the strength and wit we'll need for the long haul. We just published two investigations that do that. So I wanted to make sure you see them, and of course [I hope you'll decide this kind of reporting is worth your support](—especially when donations of up to $1,000 will be [doubled]( by the Democracy Fund, the Knight Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation, up to $28,000 total, as part of the News Match challenge. First, we sent senior reporter Ari Berman to Wisconsin to investigate what role voter suppression played in tipping the state to Donald Trump. The 2016 election was the first one held under a voter ID law that Wisconsin Republicans put in place amid much discussion of how it could suppress Democratic votes. And sure enough, Ari found that as many as 45,000 Wisconsin voters were unable to cast their ballot on November 8, many of them voters of color and students. Trump won the state by 22,748 votes, and you can do the math. You can also read more in Ari's latest feature, [Rigged: How Voter Suppression Threw Wisconsin to Trump](, but here are a few things that I think really make the case for why Mother Jones' reporting is so important in the Age of Trump. These laws are looking to solve a problem that doesn't exist. In court, Wisconsin could not cite a single case of voter fraud that stricter ID laws would have prevented. And Republicans in Wisconsin made clear that disenfranchising younger voters and people of color was a feature, not a bug, when they debated the voting restrictions behind closed doors—as then-state lawmaker Glenn Grothman (now a congressman) said, "What I'm concerned about is winning. We better get this done while we have the opportunity." That's galling enough on its own. But it also lays bare the style of politics the media needs to be prepared to cover. Remember how Trump claimed millions of people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton? Too often, those kinds of claims are covered as "he-said-she-said" news stories that fly by as just another item in the headlines. Rarely does anyone go back and crunch the numbers on the reality of voter suppression or give it the attention it demands: From June 2016 to July 2017, less than 9 percent of TV segments on voting rights discussed the impact of voter suppression. More than 70 percent were about Trump's voter-fraud bluster. And to the extent voter suppression did get attention, it was mostly to dismiss it as an issue. The voters Ari talked to didn't sit out the election because they didn't care, as the pundits claim. They tried very hard to exercise their rights and were stymied. But the only reason Ari could take the time to go to Wisconsin, listen to these voters' stories, dig up the evidence on what Republicans were trying to do, and crunch the numbers that present an incontrovertible case was because of your support. There's no way advertisers would have paid for that kind of journalism. To keep doing this work—especially as the critical midterms approach—we need readers to [step up and support more investigative reporting on voting rights and voter suppression](. We also need readers like you to put the information we dig up into action—by refuting lies and sharing the truth. Every time someone does that, it makes it harder for the disinformation artist to get away with deception. Here's the other great danger we face: media that is not just hoodwinked or spun, but turned into straight-up propaganda. In [Ready for Trump TV? Inside Sinclair Broadcasting's Plot to Take Over Your Local News](, MoJo's Andy Kroll investigates Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns local news stations all over the nation. (There's a link to see if yours is on the list at the bottom of the story.) The broadcast company already reaches 2 in 5 American households and is on a path to become the next Fox News: If the White House helps it get approval for a big merger with Tribune Media, its stations could reach 72 percent of America overnight. This is a company that uses its vast reach to push relentless pro-Trump propaganda—far-right commentary that it requires stations to slip in among the weather and sports reports, to audiences for whom local TV is often the only, and most trusted, source of news. You won't see Sinclair's name in your nightly newscast, so it's up to us—and that includes you—to make the company a household name. I hope you'll take some time to read these important investigative stories amid the chaos and confusion of the Trump presidency—they need to be told. I hope you'll share them with your circles to push back against the lies and falsehood. And I hope you'll agree there needs to be more in-depth reporting like this, and that you'll [join Mother Jones with a tax-deductible donation](—especially since the next $28,000 we raise in gifts of less than $1,000 will be [matched dollar-for-dollar and go twice as far](. Thanks for reading, and for everything you do to make Mother Jones what it is. Monika Bauerlein, Chief Executive Officer Mother Jones [DONATE]( P.S. If you've donated in the last several hours, thanks—and please accept our apologies for sending you this friendly reminder. --------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To stop receiving Mother Jones' fundraising and subscription emails, or manage your preferences for our emails, click [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [www.MotherJones.com]() 222 Sutter Street, #600 San Francisco, CA USA 94108