Because Fox News has "actual journalism."

  [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, If I were a billionaire media mogul, maybe I'd want my network to be more like Fox News, too. It seems to have been good for the Murdoch's bottom line. But it's terrible for democracy, and since I have the strange belief that journalism should serve the truth instead of shareholders—and I suspect you do too—I wanted to talk about media ownership today in asking you to [support Mother Jones during our fall fundraising drive](. We need to raise $325,000 from our online readers over the next month to keep our independent journalism charging hard. Here's what reporting the truth is up against right now: Media, in America, is a corporate business, dominated at the local level by [predatory hedge funds](, and by [billionaires]( and their [platforms]( on the national level. Corporate media produce a lot of good journalism. But when the going gets tough—and in an uncertain economy, the going gets tough fast—the owners' financial goals win, and the system becomes ripe for exploitation. That's the story of the Trump era, though of course he didn't invent this style of propaganda: He stole it from corporate America. Big Tobacco executives famously declared that "[doubt is our product](." So long as they could convince people that the truth about tobacco was just one side of a debate, they were winning. (Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit because Big Tobacco was a mainstay of advertising revenue for magazines back then—we knew they wouldn't fund our work, so we hoped [readers would pitch in](, and you always have!) Mainstream networks are no longer airing Trump's [increasingly terrifying]( rallies live, and they do more often call a lie a lie. But they still far too often fall for the fallacy that truth is found in the precise middle between two "sides." Even if one side is authoritarian extremists and the other is the [vast majority]( of Americans. Case in point: CNN, whose corporate owners are in the process of reshaping its content. Back in 2016, CNN's parent company, Warner Media, announced that it was merging with AT&T. The Trump administration sued to block the merger. AT&T stood its ground, and the merger went through, but the signal did not go unheeded in media executive circles. AT&T then turned around and sold Warner Media to Discovery, which is partly owned by cable billionaire John Malone. Malone has [let it be known]( that he would very much like CNN to be more like Fox News because Fox News has "[actual journalism](." What that meant became clear when CNN's new CEO, Chris Licht, dumped Brian Stelter, host of the network's longest-running show, Reliable Sources. Stelter is no partisan firebrand, but he has been one of the most prominent journalists to shine a light on attacks on democracy, urging his own network and others to rise in its defense. Conservatives cheered Stelter's firing. So did Malone, who [pointedly reiterated]( that he wants "the 'news' portion of CNN to be more centrist." In fact, Stelter's show was very centrist, in the sense that it bent over backwards to present opposing points of view. When he recently [invited]( MoJo's editor-in-chief, Clara Jeffery, on the show to talk about our decade-plus investigative reporting on gun violence, her counterpart was Stephen Gutowski of the gun-rights newsletter The Reload. An odd equivalence, but there it is. The thing is, you can't balance an [unbalanced problem](. Yet that's the direction CNN chief Licht seems to be heading in. He has told his staff to [avoid]( the term "Big Lie" because it's Democratic "branding." He went on what conservatives gleefully called an "[apology tour](" among Republican US senators. Soon after firing Stelter, he dumped the network's White House correspondent, [John Harwood](, to more right-wing gloating. In Harwood's [last on-air appearance](, he issued a stark warning about media missing the true danger to democracy right now: "We're brought up to believe there's two different political parties with different points of view and we don't take sides in honest disagreements between them… But these are not honest disagreements." It's not complicated: CNN, like every other news outlet, is struggling with declining viewership, and Warner Discovery has tasked him with turning the business around. That means drawing [more corporate advertisers](—and if there's one thing advertisers hate, it's being associated with "controversy"—so much of the national media becomes journalists dittoing each other, instead of having the independence to call it like it is with fear, favor, or false equivalence. Mother Jones doesn't have to shy away from controversy or chase the same headlines everyone else is. That's because [support from readers lets us go after stories behind the headlines]( that actually reveal the way power works. Like Noah Lanard's [in-depth profile]( of Blake Masters, the right-wing Senate candidate bankrolled by his former boss, Silicon Valley billionaire [Peter Thiel](. Or our recent collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Enlance Latino NC about Big Tobacco (there they are again) [backing the election]( of a farmer who is accused of making it harder for farmworkers, many of whom pick tobacco, to speak about against abuse. It's not been easy, and right now with all the attacks on truth-telling, it's possibly harder than ever. We run up against the power of big money at every turn, from [endless litigation]( against our journalists to the tech platforms that can [suppress our reporting]( with the flick of a switch, to the [skyrocketing cost of paper]( (because, ironically, paper mills are booked up making Amazon Prime shipping boxes). And as stressful as it can be needing to raise $325,000 in donations from our community of readers over the next month, there's no way I'd rather have it. We know what media looks like when it's left to corporations, and we know that reporting like Mother Jones' is as essential as it ever will be. If you can right now, [please help us keep charging hard for all the work ahead with a donation today](. Thanks for reading, and for everything you do to make Mother Jones what it is. I'm glad you're with us whether or not you can pitch in today or ever. [Monika] Monika Bauerlein, CEO Mother Jones P.S. If you're able to pitch in with [monthly donation](, I'd be particularly grateful. Reliable revenue from sustaining donors gives us the stability to invest in ambitious stories. [Donate](   [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755