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lowkell

(671 posts)
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 01:48 PM Sep 2019

Leading Progressive News Site ThinkProgress Is Dead. Why Progressives Should Care.

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Yonnie3 (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Blue Virginia

So now, it appears that ThinkProgress’ 14-year run has come to an end, and it kind of feels like the T.S. Eliot line, “not with a bang but a whimper.” I mean, since the Daily Beast article, it’s difficult to find much of anything else written about ThinkProgress’ imminent demise. Perhaps, at this point, people are just overwhelmed with so much crazy stuff going on, but it seems to me that the demise of such a high-quality source of news and analysis, from a progressive perspective, should not be brushed off as just another media outlet going under – whatever. To the contrary, I’d argue that this is a significant loss for progressives, both nationally and here in Virginia, and that progressives definitely should care. Why?

For starters, ThinkProgress got a lot of traffic (at least in its heyday; apparently, it’s declined in recent years, in part due to changes in Facebook’s “algorithm”). According to its Wikipedia entry, ThinkProgress was averaging “8 to 10 million unique page views per month” as recently as 2017, and was ranked “among the ten most popular news blogs on the Internet.” That included coverage of topics ranging from the climate crisis to healthcare to immigration to LGBTQ issues to…you name it, pretty much.

Also among the many topics ThinkProgress covered was…yep, Virginia politics. See below for a screen-shot sampling of the breadth of ThinkProgress’ Virginia coverage, starting more than a decade ago. Back when, Matthew Yglesias (now with Vox, which he co-founded in 2014), was busy writing about Ken Cuccinelli, “Bob McDonnell’s Thesis,” how “Northern Virginia Doesn’t Need New Highways,” etc. In recent years, Josh Israel took on a lot of the Virginia politics beat – and did an excellent job at it! Unfortunately, that’s not going to be the case anymore, at least not at ThinkProgress (note: Josh Israel announced the other day that he’ll be joining liberal news site Shareblue Media). I’d argue that losing ThinkProgress’ coverage of Virginia politics is very bad news, particularly when one considers the decline in coverage of Virginia politics at the Virginian-Pilot, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Washington Post, etc. – let alone the relentless (and mindless and cowardly…) “both sides” false equivalency in the corporate media. At this point, facing dire threats to our democracy, our climate, our rights, etc., it seems to me that one of the last things we need is to lose a leading progressive news site.

Which, of course, raises the question – as a very smart, national progressive friend of mine asked me (rhetorically) the other day: “What is wrong with our donors?? They saw we had one policy shop 1/10 of the size of Heritage and that was too much??” Yet, even as the right continues to invest in “conservative” (or whatever it is these days) media, while dominating talk radio (and arguably, cable “news”), the Democratic Party and wealthy progressive donors don’t seem to have any interest in building progressive communications infrastructure. The result: in most states, if you want to read or hear about politics, you’re a lot more likely to get a right-wing view than a progressive one. Here in Virginia, for instance, there are multiple conservative blogs, as well as a right-wing/Trumpster radio network, far outnumbering the progressive side of things (e.g., there’s no progressive Virginia politics radio to speak of). And it’s even worse in many other battleground states. The question, as usual, is WHY? And more to the point, what if anything are Democrats and wealthy progressives going to do about it?

Read more: https://bluevirginia.us/2019/09/leading-progressive-news-site-thinkprogress-is-dead-why-national-and-virginia-progressives-should-care

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Leading Progressive News Site ThinkProgress Is Dead. Why Progressives Should Care. (Original Post) lowkell Sep 2019 OP
What am I missing? RAB910 Sep 2019 #1
That there are no posts dated more recently than Sept 4 ? nt eppur_se_muova Sep 2019 #4
Thank you RAB910 Sep 2019 #6
It's only the 6th today and cannabis_flower Sep 2019 #7
K&R for visibility. nt tblue37 Sep 2019 #2
nice editorial/analysis/opinion piece nt msongs Sep 2019 #3
I see Joe Romm is still on the masthead. Maggiemayhem Sep 2019 #5
Corporations don't have rainy day funds, the end? Brainfodder Sep 2019 #8
In battleground States, all they hear are RW talking points LiberalLovinLug Sep 2019 #9
'That if the Democrats are right, you'd think they'd hear about it,' appalachiablue Sep 2019 #10
Locking after a review by Forum Hosts Yonnie3 Sep 2019 #11

RAB910

(3,445 posts)
1. What am I missing?
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 02:24 PM
Sep 2019

eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
4. That there are no posts dated more recently than Sept 4 ? nt
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 02:50 PM
Sep 2019

RAB910

(3,445 posts)
6. Thank you
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 03:03 PM
Sep 2019

cannabis_flower

(3,764 posts)
7. It's only the 6th today and
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 03:05 PM
Sep 2019

I clicked on the first three links and they were dated the 5th.

tblue37

(64,980 posts)
2. K&R for visibility. nt
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 02:39 PM
Sep 2019

msongs

(67,194 posts)
3. nice editorial/analysis/opinion piece nt
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 02:40 PM
Sep 2019

Maggiemayhem

(804 posts)
5. I see Joe Romm is still on the masthead.
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 02:55 PM
Sep 2019

Brainfodder

(6,423 posts)
8. Corporations don't have rainy day funds, the end?
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 03:10 PM
Sep 2019

When backers stop backing....

LiberalLovinLug

(14,154 posts)
9. In battleground States, all they hear are RW talking points
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 04:35 PM
Sep 2019

Not only do they never get a true picture, but there's a tendency in human nature to ASSUME that the weakest voice obviously has the weakest position. That if the Democrats are right, you'd think they'd hear about it.

appalachiablue

(41,053 posts)
10. 'That if the Democrats are right, you'd think they'd hear about it,'
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 04:57 PM
Sep 2019

I never thought of it that way, interesting. The media disparity should have been addressed years ago, or never begun. Look at what 25+ years of consolidation has done to the US mainstream media. Somebody should have picked up TP, I saw the notice several months ago.

Yonnie3

(17,376 posts)
11. Locking after a review by Forum Hosts
Fri Sep 6, 2019, 04:57 PM
Sep 2019

This discussion thread violates the Statement of Purpose for the Latest Breaking News forum.

Statement of purpose:

Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion t
hread.

This article is analysis

Blue Virginia is not considered a reputable source for Latest breaking News.

The non-analysis part of the article is a duplicate of https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142364281
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