Jack, another progressive giant has shut down. CREDO Action, which for over a decade was one of the largest and fiercest organizations in the digital grassroots world, ceased operations earlier this month. Several employees were laid off.

Only four months earlier, ThinkProgress, long seen as one of the largest progressive news sites on the internet, also shut down.

It isn’t just overtly progressive activist organizations and media outlets that are struggling. Many large, “mainstream,” but still clearly left-of-center, digital operations went through layoffs in 2019, including Vox, Vice, Huffington Post, and Buzzfeed. Smaller progressive digital operations were forced to reduce staff, too, including Rewire, First Look, Pride, and Out. (source for all these layoffs)

You know who isn’t laying people off? Fox News. Last year, they had their highest ratings, ever. They are booming while progressives shrink.

This is serious trouble. Trump’s impeachment trial is underway, it’s an election year, a new war is possible in the Middle East, and it’s all happening while Fox News is booming and dozens of progressvie activists and journalists are losing their jobs. If politicians only have to answer to the likes of Fox News instead of the progressive grassroots, then we are going to lose every single fight this year and for many years to come.

Daily Kos is able to avoid layoffs because, unlike other media outlets, over one-third of our revenue comes not from advertising but from community donations. Please keep independent, progressive media going in 2020 by making a recurring $3 donation to Daily Kos today.

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Keep fighting,
Chris Bowers
Executive Campaign Director, Daily Kos

Below, you can see an email that my colleague Amanda McKay sent you earlier this week.

Jack, Fox News finished 2019 with its highest ratings in its 23-year history. Meanwhile, Business Insider is reporting that 7,800 jobs were lost in the media industry in 2019. This includes almost every corner of the media industry, from small town newspapers to bigger online publications like Buzzfeed and Huffpost.

Fox News is booming, while other media is shrivelling up. This is hugely important as the impeachment trial in the Senate is set to start next week. It means there are less and less journalists reporting the facts of the case and that more and more people are getting their understanding of Trump's impeachment trial directly from his right-wing propaganda machine: Fox News.

If Fox News is the primary media source that politicians have to answer to, then we are in serious trouble, not only during the impeachment trial but in all legislative and electoral fights.

Daily Kos is able to avoid layoffs because, unlike other media outlets, over one-third of our revenue comes not from advertising but from community donations. Please keep independent, progressive media going during the impeachment trial by giving $5 to Daily Kos today.

No one expects Fox News' reporting to change when it comes to the trial to convict and remove Trump from office. During the impeachment hearings in the House, other media channels gave their viewers facts about the witnesses while Fox News echoed many Trump's tweets bashing the witnesses as "never Trumpers". Fox News is a direct pipeline of Trump's misleading disinformation.

Even as new evidence emerged from Lev Parnas connecting Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, directly to bribery with Ukraine, Fox News' Laura Ingraham dismissed the evidence as "ridiculous. This has nothing."

Senators like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz have been paraded out on Fox News hundreds of times. Often giving credence to the latest conspiracy theory that Sean Hannity is peddling or ignoring the facts behind whatever lies Tucker Carlson is pushing that day. These are the same Senators that in a matter of hours, will be sworn in as impartial jurors in the case to hold Trump accountable for his corruption.

We cannot rely on Fox News for fair and factual-based reporting during Trump's impeachment trial. We need to breakthrough the propaganda. Unfortunately, that’s becoming harder as Fox News booms and other media outlets suffer thousands of layoffs.

Daily Kos is able to keep going because, unlike other media outlets, we are supported by thousands of grassroots donors. We are just $25,307 from hitting our January goal, help us reach it by giving $5 today.

Keep fighting,
Amanda McKay, Daily Kos

If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible.