Mother Jones

Corruption Isn't Just Another Scandal. It's the Rot at the Core.

THERE’S AN INFAMOUS SAYING often attributed to Josef Stalin: One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. In the Trump administration, you might say: One scandal is an outrage, a million scandals is the new normal.

That’s something we’re thinking about as we work on how Mother Jones can most effectively cover the critical 16 months ahead. What do you, our readers, need us to do to get beyond the day-to-day crazy and show the full picture? Where can our work have the most impact?

There’s an idea we keep coming back to, and to illustrate it, we wanted to open the box a bit about the way journalists work. Rewind for a minute to early March. Amid the buzz and speculation about the impending Mueller report, the broke a story involving New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who had been charged with soliciting prostitution at a massage parlor. It turned out the former owner of the parlor,, claiming the story implied she owned the parlor at the time of the alleged solicitation. The paper stands by its reporting.)

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Mother Jones

Mother Jones4 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
Chatbot Quacks
NOT LONG AGO, I noticed a new term trending in social media wellness circles: “certified hormone specialist.” I could have investigated it the old-fashioned way: googling, calling up an expert or two, digging into the scientific literature. I’m accus
Mother Jones6 min readAmerican Government
Party Crashers
EVEN BEFORE THE last shots of the Revolutionary War were fired, John Adams wrote a friend to warn, “There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the Republic into two great parties.” Alas, political scientists will tell you the winner-takes-all
Mother Jones14 min read
Unnatural Selection
THERE’S SOMETHING UNSETTLING about the Venus flytrap. When it eats, it behaves more like an animal than a plant, ensnaring unsuspecting insects in its fragrant snapping trap in as little as a third of a second. And while one can understand, rationall

Related Books & Audiobooks