MDA– I don’t get it. They just continue to play word games. It’s all semantics. On their website tote board this morning they’re touting over $54 million raised. You mean last night? From the telethon? No. No No. It’s right there, hiding in plain sight under the numbers: “MDA families thank the generous American public, and the collective contributions of our partners recognized on the telethon, for raising funds to continue the progress in the fight against muscle disease.”
Got that? I bolded the important wording. “The collective contributions of our partners recognized on the telethon.” That’s all the money they’ve collected all year– I suppose it’s since January 1st, 2013. The money collected from big corporations like JiffyLube who became defacto advertisers on the two hour ABC special non-telethon.
In fact, the digital tote board on the website showed just $13 million raised after two hours, and $17 million at 11:23pm. And even that fell under the “collective contributions” rubric.
How much money was raised during that actual broadcast? I think ABC has a mandate to break that down as they allowed this fundraiser on a regular network. If MDA announces $54 million raised on the telethon, ABC is going to have a lot of explaining to do.
Meantime, questions persist about that MGive Foundation, which collected the text message donations. Read my story from last night.
