Which news source do you favor? Do you get most of your news here, at Daily Kos? If not, what about cable news? Do you pay an online newspaper, like The New York Times or The Washington Post? A local paper?
Each time you use a news source you implicitly give them power, which significantly influences the government. Federal, state, and local governments respond to the perceived whims of the public in large part depending on the news coverage they get.
So, it is important to use your eyeballs wisely to view the media that will get you the best results. Fortunately, we now have progressive media that gives us an alternative to corporate media, which has dominated coverage since newspapers first appeared.
This year, I’ve expanded my progressive media buy. Every time we purchase more progressive media, we put our foot on a very big lever of power. Here are some of the sources I turn to. I get some free; others I provide financial support. Kindly consider lending your support to these and other progressive media outlets.
The Young Turks
https://tyt.com
“TYT is America's largest online progressive news show.” It has a reliably progressive POV without the distinct corporate bias of networks like MSNBC. Since it is member-supported, it doesn’t have to cater to the opinions of advertisers. Since it generally eschews access to the rich and powerful, it is free to have its own opinion. It’s not captive to a political party, so it is free to criticize the Democratic Party, which is absolutely necessary to the good of the party—and the good of the country. Not that they spare the Republican Party or its numerous swamp creatures.
I don’t have time very often to sit down and watch shows, and almost never in real time. I found that downloading programs before trying to watch them works best for me. Usually, I do this by clicking the down pointer on the little menu under the right-bottom corner of the video player and then right-clicking (or command-clicking) on the “Download HD” option, then saving to disk. I can then watch the downloaded video on my computer using QuickTime or Windows Media Player. This eliminates any annoying breaks in playback caused by slow Internet or whatever. It also makes it easy to pause the video to take care of the numerous interruptions that make up my day.
But more often I don’t even watch shows. I have The Damage Report on revolving downloads to my iPod, so that I can listen while I’m walking the dog. I have the playback cranked up to 1.5x, which is still comfortable for listening, but saves a lot of time.
The Damage Report gives you information about things that never appear in corporate media, such as the changes to copyright law slipped into the recent COVID relief legislation that criminalize what may be common activities, such as re-uploading images.
I also automatically download The Conversation, which regularly features interviews with experts on important topics. For example, a recent segment featured Cenk Uygur interviewing Rev. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis about how to push President-Elect Biden in the right direction to help the poor. This included a discussion of the fourteen policy priorities of the Poor People’s Campaign. Prior segments included interviews with David Sirota about whether to force progressive priorities, like Medicare for All, to a floor vote in the House, as well as an interview (with Patrice Amandla Sulton speaking with Adrienne Lawrence) about how to make our criminal justice system less brutal.
TYT has its own perspective, which you may not like, but they are a powerful and growing force pushing our government toward more respect for individuals and calling out the real damage caused by people with too much power and too little accountability.
The Ring of Fire
https://trofire.com/
Created in 2004 by Mike Papantonio to expose financial wrongdoing and environmental criminality, The Ring of Fire provides news, commentary, and analysis with a progressive viewpoint, by well-known celebrities such as Farron Cousins, Bobby Kennedy, Thom Hartmann, Laura Flanders, and Sam Seder. Most episodes now feature Sam Seder and include a discussion with Heather (Digby) Parton, creator of Hullaballoo.
The show typically interviews authors and activists about topics infrequently covered in the mainstream, but interesting and important to the public. A recent episode featured Matthew Clair of Stanford University about the history of the public defender and its role in the justice system. Another featured David Dayen of The American Project on executive actions Joe Biden could take that could profoundly change society, such as ordering forgiveness of student loan debt.
I paid for a subscription to Ring of Fire because I get knowledgeable stories that help me understand our society and the possibilities for progress. It has consistently high-quality content. It is particularly good for its insight into our legal community and important lawsuits.
The Majority Report
https://majorityreportradio.com/ (AKA majority.fm)
Related to Ring of Fire, as Sam Seder appears on both, I also get The Majority Report. Since I pay for Ring of Fire, I get the free Majority Report podcast. Which has commercials.
I’m fine listening to the commercials, overall, because (1) Sam has to live, and (2) he has interesting products.
Recently, Emma Vigeland moved from The Young Turks to The Majority Report. In truth, I picked up The Majority Report because I was familiar with Emma from TYT, and I wanted to see how she did in the new venue. Since then, I have been impressed with her interviews both on The Majority Report and on Ring of Fire.
Part of The Majority Report reminds me of a lively AM radio station, with banter and upbeat commentary. But it also has impressive interviews with informed sources about important topics. A recent episode featured Dr. Paul Farmer, who discussed his book, Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History. The book covers how colonialism’s legacy damages our ability to fight infectious disease. Dr. Farmer talked about his experiences as an epidemiologist in West Africa, where he conducted in-depth interviews with people who contracted Ebola. He discussed the legacy of colonialism, which exploited these areas for diamonds and latex, but left them without any medical schools or other means to address viral diseases that ravage the people who live there.
The production quality of The Majority Report is outstanding, and I recommend giving it a try. And paying.
Kagro in the Morning
https://www.dailykos.com/blogs/dailykosradio
https://www.patreon.com/kagrox
This is a regular weekday live broadcast, 9:00 AM Eastern Time, by David Waldman, usually with a roundup of the news by Greg Dworkin. I’m now getting the podcast. This is a very topical broadcast, with David sometimes going into depth about governmental procedures, which provides context on how news stories regarding legislation develop. David worked on Capitol Hill for a couple years, and he has a deep interest in how Congress works.
Some Daily Kos regulars, such as Armando, occasionally appear on the show. And, Joan McCarter usually appears on Tuesdays, typically for the last segment at 10:30 AM.
The Thom Hartmann Show
https://www.thomhartmann.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Hartmann
The Hartmann Show at Patreon
For some years I’ve been a fan of Thom Hartmann, who reliably represents a coherent and cogent progressive view across many media. I believe it is possible that Sen. Bernie Sanders would never have been the national hit he was in 2016 and 2020 without his extensive prior appearances on Hartmann’s show, which made him familiar and credible with the national progressive audience.
The show is broadcast on commercial and non-profit radio stations, as well as Channel 127 on Sirius/XM. Thom has authored numerous books with that notorious liberal slant that is so hard to find.
If you just want to move left from corporate media and begin to detoxify, a regular habit of listening to or watching Thom Hartmann will afford you a much different, and better, perspective. You can rely on a calm and erudite experience.
Best of the Left
https://www.bestoftheleft.com/listen
Perhaps one of the best podcasts is Best of the Left, created by “Jay!” Tomlinson. The exclamation point is intentional, but I’m going to just call him Jay, here, for my own convenience.
I sponsor this show through Patreon. I did that because Jay signed up with them, and I want platforms like Patreon to succeed. We need a way to fund the creative sphere. (This is much the same reason I use ActBlue to fund progressive candidates. It helps build the infrastructure we need to make it all work.)
What I find particularly compelling about Best of the Left is that it collects and rebroadcasts segments from a wide variety of progressive shows that address a particular theme. For example, a recent show examined hyper-partisanship and why it is baked into the system. Segments from The Ezra Klein Show, (see on YouTube) with political scientist Frances Lee, addressed how our system encourages confrontation and why bipartisanship is irrational. Segments from the FrameLab podcast, with Dr. George Lakoff and Gil Duran, discussed framing and biconceptualism.
Another recent episode examined the Confederacy and “the lost cause”, tracing its roots back to Scottish history. It explained how The United Daughters of the Confederacy re-wrote the war to encourage its interpretation as a states-rights struggle, rather than a war over slavery, as well as their role in populating the country with statues of fallen confederates.
Each topic on Best of the Left is researched by sifting through dozens of hours of source material before being ultimately curated by a human (not an algorithm!) with 15+ years of experience and awards for production value. The show is designed to be as accessible as possible, with full transcripts for episodes and a membership program that features hardship memberships. A lack of money is not a barrier to getting the full content of the show. The staff at Best of the Left works very hard to make it fun, but with remarkable depth of content.
You can send commentary to Jay for the show in a number of ways, including “voiced mails”. To have your commentary played on the show, you send the text in an e-mail message and Jay uses text-to-speech to turn it into an audio clip for the show.
I highly recommend a subscription to Best of the Left. Shows like this will only survive if we support them through member contributions.
Your Contribution Needed
Progressive media is now a powerful force for the kinds of change we need in this country. If you are not tuned in, you are missing out.
For those in the know, however, here’s where you get to make your own contribution to this article. Please add your comments with recommendations for progressive sources you think others should try.
And let’s make 2021 The Year of Progressive Media.
Right-wing media talked up Donald Trump. Maybe we can talk up a President. Whisper a dream.