Mother's Call

A shout from the left

Firebrand journalism has cooled noticeably since the searing '60s. New Times has folded, Rolling Stone has retreated into rock-'n'-roll coverage, and "alternative" weeklies have found that stereo-equipment supplements are more lucrative than political manifestoes. But at least one rallying cry can still be heard above the mellowspeak. It comes from the San Francisco-based monthly Mother Jones (circ. 222,000), which calls itself "a magazine for the rest of us."

Named for Mary Harris Jones, a turn-of-the-century labor organizer, Mother Jones pursues corporate miscreants with a vigor that would have made her proud. It has linked Bechtel Corp. with the CIA (a charge denied by the company), exposed the dangers of the Dalkon Shield intrauterine contraceptive device, and in 1977 was the first publication to allege that Ford chose not to redesign a faulty fuel system in its 1971-76 Pintos. Just four years old, Mother Jones won its third National Magazine Award in April for a story about how products banned in the U.S. as unsafe are being sold in underdeveloped countries.

Housed in a warehouse formerly occupied by Rolling Stone, the magazine is run by an editorial board of five, who take turns as managing editor. Though they get only modest pay (about $16,000 a year), the editors claim contentment. Says Deirdre English, 32: "Editorial decisions tend to come out of what excites us." What excites them in the August issue includes a racketeering labor union, worker deaths in a steel plant near Baltimore and excerpts from Studs Terkel's upcoming book American Dreams: Lost and Found.

Many of the magazine's most touted coups, such as the Pinto and dangerous-exports stories, were written by Publisher Mark Dowie, 41, who will depart next month to take a trip around the world. His replacement is Jacques Marchand, 42, publisher of Marxist Perspectives (circ. 6,000), a scholarly quarterly based in New York City. Marchand, who will be paid $37,500 a year, aims to boost advertising but admits, "Nobody is ever going to get rich from this magazine."

Mother Jones has told readers how to organize boycotts (once listing all the trade names of antiunion J.P. Stevens products) and how to spur recalls of cars. Explains Dowie: "We want to get readers angry and make them do something. We're pamphleteers." Staff members talk easily of "fascist oligarchies" and "revolutionary weapons," but their bark is more ideological than their bite. "I don't want to live in a society without good restaurants or a choice of health care," says Dowie.

Mother Jones' covers can be blatantly sensational (the 1977 anti-Pinto effort featured a woman trapped in a burning car), and some critics complain that the magazine gives more flak than fact. Contributors, paid $700 to $1,000 for feature-length articles, are known for their ponderous prose. Explains Dowie: "When they should have been in class learning to write like William Buckley and George Will, they were on the front lines."

Launched with $450,000 raised from wealthy liberals, the magazine is owned by a nonprofit foundation, so it does not pay taxes on any profits. Profits? Mother Jones has lost $457,000 during the past three years. But Mother's children claim a beyond-the-bottom-line purpose. Says Dowie: "We're creating a blurred vision of a better world."

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