Should a magazine

that accepts their money

be asking for your money?

Mother Jones - Magazine, Charity, & Venue for Big Tobacco

Since 1976, The Foundation for National Progress, which publishes Mother Jones, has asked its readers not only to fund its magazine as a subscriber but as a contributor as well.

Recently, Mother Jones began taking money from another source: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, makers of Camel, Kool, Winston, Salem, and other cigarette brands including American Spirits, one of its advertisers.

Steve Katz, Mother Jones’ Vice President for Strategy and Development, explains that “the board and staff here have discussed advertising policy in depth” and “the decision to take advertising money from a cigarette company was not taken lightly.” Yet the soul-searching ultimately resulted in a policy “against banning specific advertisements and advertisers, even if they are controversial or if they represent views and values contrary to those of Mother Jones’ editors.”

In other words, in future issues, we can presumably look forward to ads for handguns and Hummers. Mother Jones is hardly unique in their policy. It’s just that magazines like Soldier of Fortune and The National Review don’t bill themselves as charities, asking readers to remember them in their estates.

Mother Jones seeks to have it both ways: to be subsidized by the public and big tobacco, as well as any other industry that will write them a check.

Hiding Behind a First Amendment Smokescreen

In seeking to justify its advertising policy, Mother Jones wraps itself around the constitution, framing their ad policy around “freedom of speech.” In fact, there are plenty of advertising venues available to big tobacco. The idea that any publication which establishes reasonable guidelines for advertising is somehow in violation of free speech is a distortion of the First Amendment.

According to Katz, “We appreciate comments and criticism” which “challenge our assumptions and point of view.” Perhaps it’s time for Mother Jones’ non-corporate constituents to provide it.

If you’re a reader of Mother Jones Magazine and a supporter of the values it has championed throughout its history, please consider sharing your thoughts about the changes in its advertising policy and its funding from big tobacco and other corporate interests.

Please contact Steve Katz, Vice President, Strategy and Development, Mother Jones, at skatz@motherjones.com. To learn more about this issue, e-mail Andy Levinsky at andylevinsky@hotmail.com.