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Jane Anderson's avatar

Please add Judd Legum of Popular Information (https://popular.info/) to your list! His tiny team has broken multiple important stories completely missed by big media outlets.

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Glenn's avatar

Seconding with great gusto. Judd has done an enormous amount of work to expose the hypocrisy of corporations that promote themselves as progressive while contributing to right wing politicians. His work is often cited by mainstream media.

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Greg Parsons's avatar

Came here to say this.

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Mary Greenwald's avatar

I would take exception to Nicole Wallace, but add Jedd Legum of Popular Information. I also like the perspective of Joyce Vance of Civil Discourse for legal matters before the courts and Robert Reich for Economic/Political news. Print media is biased and in many stories ill-informed. I rely on newsletters to get the news.

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Karen's avatar

Yes, seconding Joyce Vance!

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Richard Braun's avatar

Status Kuo and Jeff Teidrich on Substack are brilliant, though Jeff is certainly the most profane commentator in memory--and the most startling with a vocabulary that knows no bounds.

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Karen's avatar

Thank you for this! The Meidas Touch Network is another good source. They’ve called out a number of Trump stories in real time. They have a YouTube channel and a news website(meidasnews.com) which is led by Ron Filipkowski.

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Mark Jacob's avatar

I like Meidas too.

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Ingrid Walker's avatar

Yes, I'm a huge fan of the Meidas Touch Network! Great and timely reporting.

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Becky Daiss's avatar

I believe we are witnessing a rebirth of the democratic party (and the total destruction of the republican party). Might we also be witnessing a rebirth of real journalism? Its probably asking too much but one can always hope. If it does happen on a large scale, it will be thanks to alternative outlets like yours and the ones you listed (and of course Judd Legum who was one of the first and is one of the best). Whatever happens with the MSM, independent journalists who do real in depth reporting are making their mark. I don't think its a stretch to say that, if it survives, they will have played a significant role in saving our democracy.

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Andrew Ross's avatar

I would certainly include journalism professor Jay Rosen among the important voices attempting to hold the news media accountable.

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Mark Jacob's avatar

If my list was longer, it would've included Jay Rosen, Dan Froomkin and Steven Beschloss.

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Sanford Sklansky's avatar

He is mainly on twitter. But he is pretty good. In my long list I would add Rick Perlstein. He is on facebook. And has been writing a weekly essay for American Prospect

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Sandy Gottstein's avatar

I donate monthly to ProPublica and have for a couple of years or so.

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LP's avatar

Missouri Independent (https://missouriindependent.com/) is doing a great job of covering Missouri politics and government; it is part of States Newsroom (https://statesnewsroom.com/), which I’m glad to see is now in all 50 states.

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Dr. Karen Stafford's avatar

Yes!

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Susan Linehan's avatar

"As if denying climate change will keep the polar ice caps from melting." Wasn't that trump's reaction to Covid: if we don't test we won't have as many cases.

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Mark Mansour's avatar

A great and very useful post, recognizing some terrific journalism.

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EcstaticRationalist's avatar

Dan Rather writes a substack that is on-point and acute. https://steady.substack.com/

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TJ Washington's avatar

Thanks for the helpful list! Heidi Sigmond Cuda is an Emmy award-winning independent investigative journalist. Her American monster series is fantastic! She can be found here on substack at: BetteDangerous.substack.com and also writes for Byline Times. She is also co-host of the podcast: Radicalized: Truth Survives on YouTube.

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jay hays's avatar

https://anewscafe.com/ From Shasta county in California, has won numerous awards and is a fighter for freedom of the press.

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Homi Hormasji's avatar

A wonderful summary, Mark. Thank you.

There is a good reason, of course, for ProPublica's honest and incisive investigative reporting: namely, that it is has been set up as a nonprofit organization that is not dependent on the whims of owners and advertisers.

Similarly, The Guardian is wholly owned by The Scott Trust that was founded in 1936 and exists "to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity."

However, the major news outlets here (NYT, WP, et al) are set up to serve as money-making organizations that are beholden to their owners and shareholders. That fact alone is inevitably going to change how they report the news. It also changes what they choose to cover, and what they choose to ignore.

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Theresa Mynatt's avatar

This is excellent. Thank you for writing it.

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bluesyfish's avatar

What an extremely useful essay today, will share broadly!

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