October 26, 2006

Michael J. Fox: He’s Our Man

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Much has been said and written about Rush Limbaugh’s extremely off-color comments about Michael J. Fox. But few have mentioned just how much of a chord that Limbaugh may have struck by lashing out against the former teen idol.

For those of us who grew up as children of the 80s, there are certain things that are sacred—relics and remembrances of the past that are cherished and protected like national treasures. These include the Atari video game system, Transformer toys, and Back to the Future and Teen Wolf star, Michael J. Fox.

And in the minds of those 80s kids who grew up watching the hit TV sitcom, Family Ties, Fox is the cute, offbeat, and likeable Alex P. Keaton. Ironically, Keaton was the staunch conservative Republican on the show who paraded around the house in a suit and tie, rebelling against his hippie parents with strange antics. The guy even had a picture of President Ronald Reagan displayed above his bed.

According to Wikipedia, “the character of Alex P. Keaton became a symbol of America’s move towards more conservative political thinking in the 1980s.”

There is no denying that Fox is a truly likeable guy, even AskMen.com says so. Despite being out of the Hollywood spotlight for half a decade now, Fox still has a few fansites. But for a whole generation, he is so much more than that. With his comments, Limbaugh has possibly estranged himself from an entire age bracket of listeners and supporters. Well, at least we can hope.

In the meantime, I suggest buying a Teen Wolf T-shirt on Amazon.com and wearing it prominently in the next few weeks to display your support for Fox and his cause.

— Caroline Dobuzinskis

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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