Why Independent Media Matters Now More Than Ever

We need a media ecosystem as big and audacious and fearsome as what the right has built over decades.

Welcome to Crooked! We’re the independent media company behind Pod Save America, What a Day, and Hunter Biden’s most recent crash out. Our hosts and writers have many opinions (all correct). But we are united behind two simple beliefs: we’re in a do-or-die fight against a rising authoritarian movement bent on unraveling everything we love about America. And Jeffrey Epstein was murdered.

So how do we beat back this threat to our democracy? For just $10 a month, we’ll tell you! That’s a little joke. The truth is, nobody has all the answers, not even your precious Heather Cox Richardson. But this much is clear: We have to build the biggest, most diverse, most relentless democratic movement this country has ever seen. And we need a media ecosystem as big and audacious and fearsome as what the right has built over decades.

To state the obvious, we’ve got a lot of work to do.

• Right-wing media is more radical and far-reaching than ever, preying on the cynicism of disaffected voters, including young people with zero trust in the Democratic Party.

• Social media rewards rage, alienation, and paranoia—when we need people to see hope and power in collective action.

• The business model that supported traditional journalism is highly dead. Room temperature dead.

• And the billionaires and corporations that control much of what’s left of the mainstream media surrendered to government intimidation at the first sign of weather.

It’s wild to consider what’s happened in just the last few months: CBS’s corporate bosses settling Trump’s idiotic lawsuit over a 60 Minutes episode that had nothing to do with him. ABC agreeing to contribute millions to Trump’s presidential library just because George Stephanopoulos said something that was true. Jeff Bezos hollowing out The Washington Post. It’s enraging but also clarifying: the establishment media was never going to save us. We’re going to have to save ourselves.

And that means offering an alternative, alongside so many others who feel the same way. It’s what we’ve been building at Crooked. That started with Pod Save America, which even after eight years remains universally beloved. From there, we’ve built a network of shows and newsletters (available ad-free when you subscribe!) to cover the news, laugh instead of cry/hide, and debate the hard questions, like whether you actually have to read Abundance to have an opinion on it.

In 2018, we started Vote Save America, a one-stop shop for anyone looking to get involved in politics, which has registered almost a million voters, filled nearly 300,000 campaign shifts, and raised more than $64 million for progressive causes and candidates. Above all, we want everyone to understand that we do have agency, especially when we act together, and that the antidote to the anger and anxiety of politics—what keeps us from tuning out and giving up—is each other.

Which brings us to why we’re on Substack: because Dan Pfeiffer wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it. But also because you’re here, along with so many of the smartest writers, data nerds, and political experts around. We’re excited to join the fray. By subscribing to Crooked on Substack, you’ll be supporting our mission, supporting our organizing, and helping us build a progressive media company big enough to blot out the sun compete with the right for attention and impact. In return, we’ll be here slinging takes until the AI server farms steal the last loose electricity and/or Stephen Miller carts us off to Guantanamo.

Yours in freedom and content,

Jon, Jon, and Tommy

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