Journalism non-profit receives $60,000 in donations after shout-out from Meryl Streep
A journalism non-profit received a surge in donations following a mention from Meryl Streep during Sunday's broadcast of the 74th annual Golden Globes.
While accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Streep blasted President-elect Donald Trump for his contentious relationship with the media and urged viewers to support a free press as journalists face dangerous assignments abroad. Streep did not mention Trump by name during her acceptance speech.
By mid-afternoon Monday, the Comittee to Protect Journalists had received about 1,000 online donations totaling $60,000, according to a Monday afternoon tweet from Poynter.
Streep specifically called out Trump for a 2015 incident in which he apparently mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who is disabled.
"It kind of broke my heart when I saw it and I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life," Streep said.
"This instinct to humiliate when it's modeled by someone in the public platform by someone powerful it filters down into everybody's life. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence."
Streep also took on Trump's hard-line immigration policies by highlighting several foreign-born celebrities in attendance.
"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners." She said.
"If you kick them all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not art."
Streep's appeal to the program's 20 million viewers was apparently a welcome surprise for the CPJ.
"I don't think any of us were expecting such a ringing endorsement for our work and the right of journalists to report the news, which is our mission," said Courtney Radsch, advocacy director at CPJ told Poynter in an interview.