In 2004, I was living in Kansas and quietly raging in my red district about the Iraq war and the Bush administration. I was frustrated and desperately seeking a place to rant and organize against the Karl Roves of the world. In a pre-Facebook era, I was seeking a place that reflected my progressive values and goals and I found exactly that at Daily Kos.
Daily Kos was where I could find political news and progressive perspectives that were under-covered at traditional news outlets. I was hooked. It took me a while, but I finally joined the conversation, creating an account under the username "Scout Finch" in 2005. Nearly 15 unbelievable years later, I'm still here and that red Kansas district has flipped to blue.
Daily Kos was founded in 2002, before smartphones, social media, and and the ascent of digital media. It was simply a blog. Over the past 17 years, Daily Kos has grown to become a progressive media powerhouse and a driver of grassroots activism. We are currently $107,174 from our April fundraising goal. Can you support our work at Daily Kos by giving $5 today?
In 2007, I joined the Daily Kos team as a contributing editor, now as the Trending News manager. I oversee an amazing team who work day and night to scour the internet for news that is important to the Daily Kos community.
In the early days of Daily Kos, social media sites were nonexistent. Over the years, as social media platforms gained popularity, our department began to build a big presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. We adapted to ever-changing rules and algorithms so that we could grow our progressive community and rally an army of organizers.
We went beyond news, creating informative graphics and video, using all available social media tools to elevate important stories about health care, racial justice, gender equity, LGBTQ rights, gun law reform, veterans affairs, environmental coverage and much, much more. These sites were integral to flipping Congress from red to blue. That’s the good news.
Here is our challenge today—we still have a lot of work to do to oust Trump, and while our community is bigger and stronger than ever before, Facebook has drastically reduced the reach of sites like Daily Kos, while elevating Fox News and conservative outlets.
Daily Kos plays a vital role in the progressive movement. Can you support our continued work by giving $5 today?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so check out this stunning graphic from media monitoring service Crowdtangle. It shows the reach of Fox News on Facebook versus more traditional outlets, beginning in late 2017 and into summer 2018. This is what we are up against.
In the era of Trump and with 2020 on the horizon, your voice and this community matter more than ever. We can't help what Facebook or other social media sites do, but we aren't going down without a fight. Can you chip in $5 today to keep the Daily Kos trending news and progressive perspectives in your newsfeed?