Outlet profile

Mother Jones

U.S. left

Owned byNonprofit; published by the Foundation for National Progress, which merged in 2024 with the Center for Investigative Reporting (parent now operates as CIR, with Mother Jones, Reveal, and CIR Studios under it)

FundingReader donations and memberships, subscriptions, and some advertising, plus foundation grants (e.g., MacArthur Foundation) and, historically, major gifts from liberal donors such as George Soros' Open Society Foundations

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Mother Jones was founded in 1976 in San Francisco by Adam Hochschild, Paul Jacobs, and Richard Parker as a nonprofit alternative to corporate-owned media, named after labor organizer Mary Harris "Mother" Jones. It built its reputation on investigative and muckraking journalism, including exposés like the 1977 Pinto fuel-tank investigation and reporting that contributed to Ford Pinto litigation. It gained wide national attention in 2012 when it published the secretly recorded video of Mitt Romney's "47 percent" remarks, widely seen as damaging to his presidential campaign. Long-time editors Clara Jeffery and Monika Bauerlein have steered the outlet's growth into digital media and podcasts, including the "Bite" and reporting tied to Washington bureau chief David Corn's work on Russia-Trump ties and his book "Trump Nation" and "Dark Money" reporting on political financing. In 2024 the Foundation for National Progress merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting (publisher of Reveal), consolidating investigative newsroom resources under one nonprofit umbrella. Mother Jones has faced criticism, mainly from conservative commentators, for its openly progressive editorial stance, though it maintains a fact-checking and corrections process typical of established newsrooms. It remains one of the most prominent nonprofit, reader-supported investigative publications in the U.S. and is broadly classified as left-leaning by media bias monitors.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-09-29; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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