KQED's Forum Mother Jones Marks 50 Years of Holding the Powerful Accountable
Feb 11, 2026
Adam Hochschild, journalist and co-founder of Mother Jones, and Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief steering investigative storytelling, discuss the magazine's roots and role. They talk about landmark investigations like the Ford Pinto hit, moving from print to digital and podcasts, the nonprofit model that protected independence, and strategies for keeping deep reporting alive in a fast news era.
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Pinto Memo Exposed Corporate Tradeoffs
- Mother Jones' Ford Pinto investigation exposed a company memo showing Ford chose cost over safety.
- The story forced a huge recall and put the magazine on the national map.
Nonprofit Structure Enables Editorial Freedom
- Mother Jones kept editorial independence by becoming a nonprofit to avoid shareholder pressures.
- That structure let them experiment digitally without collapsing when platform ad traffic shifted.
Early Medical Exposés Shaped Coverage
- Early Mother Jones medical investigations, like the Dalkon Shield exposé, impacted public health awareness.
- Those pieces highlighted profit-driven harm in medicine and influenced later reporting priorities.
