Hi, Reader,
One of the most consequential elections of our lifetime is happening one week from today. Who owns and ultimately controls newsrooms has become a lightning-rod issue, as The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times declined to endorse a candidate, a first in years for those organizations. Both outfits have billionaire owners who conduct business with the federal government. ProPublica, as a nonprofit newsroom, does not have to worry about owners who want to renew government contracts, and we don’t endorse candidates, ever.
It’s no secret that journalism has been in upheaval in recent decades, with thousands of newsrooms shuttering, a few bought by the ultrawealthy and others gobbled up and hollowed out by private equity. Nonprofit newsrooms have popped up to help patch these gaping holes in coverage. But as we all grapple with this changing news landscape, one thing is very clear: A healthy democracy can only exist with a strong, independent press that provides critical and frequent checks and balances on our elected leaders.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom. We don’t have any owners, let alone billionaire ones. We get our funding from our readers, and we’re not afraid to publish anything. We’ve covered billionaires a lot — including in our long-running series revealing how many of them avoid paying income taxes (don’t miss the part about Jeff Bezos receiving $4,000 from the federal government as a tax credit for his children). We’ve also covered the most powerful court in our country, such as in this story on Supreme Court justices’ beneficial relationships with billionaire donors.
Just yesterday, we revealed a series of previously unreported speeches in which a key ally to former President Donald Trump detailed plans to deploy the military in response to domestic unrest, defund the Environmental Protection Agency and put career civil servants “in trauma.” “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” said Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget and who is widely expected to take a high-level government role if Trump wins a second term. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.”
Billionaires are extremely powerful individuals. But the rest of us are powerful too, when we come together. Right now, over 55,000 people have donated to ProPublica in the last 12 months. Together, they are powering one of the largest investigative newsrooms in the country. Our reporters are fearless and, thanks to folks like you, funded. They’re right now digging into the darkest corners of power and pulling out facts to share with you. And they won’t stop. Not after next Tuesday, and, with your help, not ever.
The power of many can and does effect change. We’ve proven that time and again with our own reporting. Donate today, any amount, and participate in our country’s most powerful tool for a strong democracy: Independent journalism that shines a light on the facts, no matter who would rather they stay hidden.
Thanks,
Robin Sparkman
President, ProPublica
