Mother Jones

Past editors include Michael Moore, Adam Hochschild, Paul Jacobs, Richard Parker, Deborah Johnson, Jeffrey Bruce Klein, Mark Dowie, Amanda Spake, Zina Klapper, and Deirdre English.²

The foundation was established in 1975 and the publication in 1976 with the declared intent to preserve journalism from corporate influence and interference, and has sought to write often about corporate interests.³ Foundation for National Progress is a regular recipient of left-of-center billionaire George Soros’ money through donations from his Open Society Foundations, as well as donations from other progressive organizations and special interests.⁴

In February 2024, Mother Jones merged with media outlet Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) where the two groups would operate as a single organization while still producing, according to the announcement, “[the] Mother Jones’ magazine and website, the Reveal radio show and podcast, and documentary films, such as The Grab, which investigates efforts to control the planet’s supply of food and water.” ⁵ Monika Bauerlein, who was previously CEO and co-editor of Mother Jones was appointed the CEO of CIR while Clara Jefrey, who was co-editor of Mother Jones with Bauerlein, was appointed as editor-in-chief of CIR. ⁵

Background

According to the magazine, in early 1974 Paul Jacobs, an activist and journalist, and Adam Hochschild, a journalist and mining heir, organized a series of meetings in Jacobs’ living room to discuss starting a magazine.³

Mother Jones played a large role in reporting and pushing the controversy over the Ford Pinto’s safety in the late ’70s. The magazine’s circulation peaked in 1980 at 238,000.⁶ At times, Hochschild used his inheritance from his father’s mining interests to finance Mother Jones’s considerable deficits. In 1993, it became the first general-interest magazine to publish its articles on the internet.¹

In February 2024, Mother Jones merged with media outlet Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) where the two groups would operate as a single organization while still producing, according to the announcement, “[the] Mother Jones’ magazine and website, the Reveal radio show and podcast, and documentary films, such as The Grab, which investigates efforts to control the planet’s supply of food and water.” ⁵ Monika Bauerlein, who was previously CEO and co-editor of Mother Jones was appointed the CEO of CIR while Clara Jefrey, who was co-editor of Mother Jones with Bauerlein, was appointed as editor-in-chief of CIR. ⁵

Left-Wing Criticism

The magazine has faced criticisms from the left alleging it has failed to live up to the legacy of its namesake, pioneer union organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones. Jones was a socialist and labor organizer who lived from 1830 until 1930, best known for recruiting miners and other workers to labor unions, particularly the Industrial Workers of the World, and organizing strikes and demonstrations throughout the United States around the turn of the 20th century.⁷ She also helped found the Social Democratic Party in the U.S.⁷

In a 2010 essay in Swans Magazine, Michael Barker lamented the role wealthy liberal elites play in the editorial direction of openly liberal media outlets such as Mother Jones: “Mother Jones presents the perfect illustration of a left-leaning magazine that acts as a mask for the soft power of liberal elites and their not-for-profit corporations, as liberal philanthropists from the ruling elites provide over 56 percent of the magazine’s total annual revenue.”⁸

In an essay in Paste Magazine, a progressive commentator cites a supporter of self-described socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) to levy criticism of Mother Jones: “it doesn’t make sense, given the namesake. It’s truly angering that a poor woman laborer who fought tirelessly (and was arrested) for poor workers and even socialism is being represented by smug elites who viciously go after a fairly mundanely left candidate (Bernie) for the temerity of challenging a corporatist shill.”⁷ The essay’s author condemned Mother Jones for conceding to the interests of the corporate center-left: “Even that goal [opposing corporate interests] fell away during the election when the dominant voices of the magazine took to championing Hillary Clinton, notorious for her alliance with Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, and TD Bank, to name a few.”⁷

This concern from the left over MoJo’s commitment to the legacy of its namesake goes all the way back to its early years. In a 1978 National Affairs essay called “Would Mother Jones Buy ‘Mother Jones’?,” in which he essentially argues the negative, Michael A. Scully summarizes the critique with “Affluent societies produce affluent critics.”⁹

Funding

Mother Jones magazine’s corporate parent, the Foundation for National Progress, has received substantial contributions from Democratic-aligned donors. George Soros’ Open Society Foundations gave the Foundation for National Progress $485,000 in 2008.⁴ Between 2000 and 2013, another project of the Foundation for National Progress started in 2006, the Media Consortium, was given $675,000. The Media Consortium is a network of left-of-center outlets, come together to coordinate efforts and share data.¹⁰ Mother Jones has also received significant grants from the MacArthur Foundation, including a $300,000 grant in 2014, and a 5-year $1,500,000 grant in 2016.¹¹

Activities

In 2012, Mother Jones released clips and stories based on a surreptitiously recorded video of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser in which he described 47 percent of voters as believing they were “victims” who could not be convinced to take “personal responsibility and care for their lives.”¹² The recording and subsequent backlash is sometimes credited with having seriously hurt Romney’s chances in the election. Mother Jones’ writer David Corn’s research into Romney leading up to this was heavily aided by James Carter, the grandson of President Jimmy Carter, whom Corn admits “possessed a deep personal motive for unearthing material on Romney, who routinely disparaged his grandfather.” Corn claims not to have known Carter’s relation to the former president when they began their partnership. The video was acquired from an anonymous source.¹²

In 2014, Mother Jones senior writer Shane Bauer worked undercover as a prison guard at a privately operated prison in Louisiana.¹³ Bauer wrote a 35,000-word expose of the for-profit prison industry published in 2016. Mother Jones published despite a legal threat already lodged by the parent company of the prison, Corrections Corporation of America. Bauer used his own name and Social Security number to apply for work as a guard for CCA, and noted his employment by the Foundation for National Progress in his application. After his four-month stint as a guard, he and the magazine spent 14 more months reporting and fact-checking for the story.¹⁴

Association with Michael Moore

Mother Jones’ past editors include Adam Hochschild, Paul Jacobs, Richard Parker, Deborah Johnson, Jeffrey Bruce Klein, Mark Dowie, Amanda Spake, Zina Klapper, Deirdre English, and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore.² In 1986, Moore’s dismissal from the magazine prompted national controversy and a $2 million wrongful termination lawsuit.⁶ Moore alleged he was fired after four months on the job, having previously been editor of The Michigan Voice, for opposing the publication of an article critical of the left-wing Sandinista government of Nicaragua led by Soviet- and Cuban-backed caudillo Daniel Ortega.⁶

At the time, the Foundation for National Progress board contested the claim that ideological difference led to the firing, charging general inadequacy. The New York Times reported that senior staff of the magazine believed that Moore had been “so rigidly ideological that he opposed publication of a legitimate article because of his disagreement with its conclusions,” though Moore argued the piece was simply wrong. Moore succeeded in his lawsuit against the magazine and ended up being awarded $58,000, all of which he put into starting his documentary filmmaking career.¹⁵

Merger With the Center for Investigative Reporting

In 2024, Mother Jones merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), publisher of the magazine Reveal, forming a joint nonprofit newsroom of about 120 staff based in San Francisco, Washington, and New York. The merger followed years of costly defamation litigation, including a high-profile lawsuit filed by Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot over a 2012 Mother Jones article about his political donations, which the magazine ultimately won. The merger, supported by $21 million in philanthropic commitments, was designed to consolidate resources for fact-checking, insurance, and legal defense amid a growing wave of lawsuits against nonprofit and investigative media. Operating under the name “Mother Jones and CIR,” the newsroom also launched CIR Media Services, a consultancy to help independent outlets strengthen their financial and operational resilience in what they claim to be an increasingly hostile legal environment for journalists. The combined organization produces print, digital, audio, and video journalism, including Reveal’s associated podcast and investigative series such as 40 Acres and a Lie. ¹⁶

Other Controversies

Since beginning an internship program in 1980, Mother Jones has had more than 800 interns work for it.¹ In 2013, Vice News documented Mother Jones’ participation in a trend among progressive media organizations of failing to match their labor practices with trade unionist rhetoric about minimum wages and labor union rights in intern compensation.¹⁷

In 2016, Mother Jones wrote a controversial profile of white supremacist leader Richard Spencer.¹⁸ The magazine published a significant profile of Spencer which described the advocate of ethnic cleansing and Assad regime apologist as “dapper” in its original headline.¹⁹ The profile was condemned for its fluffiness, including highlighting Spencer’s abilities with chopsticks and his enjoyment of Domino’s pizza, and its relatively uncritical tone.²⁰

In 2004, Mother Jones gave space for anti-vaccination arguments in an article titled “Toxic Tipping Point,” which allowed for speculation that “the CDC, the FDA, and other health agencies” were “covering up evidence that a mercury preservative in children’s vaccines caused a rise in autism.”²¹

In 2017, then-Editor-in Chief Clara Jeffery and then-CEO Monika Bauerlein announced an investigation into allegations made against Mother Jones writer David Cross, which accused him of inappropriate workplace behavior and “insensitive discussion of difficult issues in the news.” ²² The investigation stemmed from emails written by former employees in 2014 and 2015 accusing Corn of inappropriate touching of female colleagues and joking about topics of sexual violence and rape. Both Jeffery and Bauerlein claimed that the allegations had been addressed with Corn when the email were written and that such behaviors by Corn had stopped. ²² Both acknowledged that they had determined that Corn’s behavior was not “misconduct.” ²²

Leadership

Following the merger of Mother Jones with the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) in 2024, Monika Bauerlein is the CEO of CIR. She previously served as CEO and co-editor of Mother Jones (along with Clara Jeffrey). ^{23 24}

Clara Jefrey is the Editor-In-Chief of the CIR, which produces media publications such as Mother Jones. She was previously co-editor of Mother Jones with Monika Bauerlein before she was appointed CEO. Prior to this, she was the president of the American Society of Magazine Editors. ^{23 24}

Robert J. Rosenthal is the CEO emirates of CIR as of the merger with Mother Jones in February 2024. Prior to this he was the executive director of Reveal from 2008 through 2017. Prior to this he served in several positions with the Philadelphia Inquirer such as a reporter and later the executive editor, managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and was a reporter for both the Boston Globe and the New York Times. ^{23 24}