Re: We are in serious trouble

Friend, we could have had a safe re-opening in the United States. Instead, we had Fox News. When every public health expert was urging Americans to engage in cooperative social distancing to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, Fox News gave a platform to conserative pundits and Republican leaders who spread misinformation, repeated debunked conspiracy theories or claimed the whole thing was a hoax. Just as the national curve was starting to bend in April, it was Fox News who gave disproportionate attention to the relatively small number of protesters who successfully pressured many states and cities to reopen prematurely. The results of this were predictable. COVID-19 cases are now [rising in over 30 states](, and [at least 12 states]( have taken steps to pause, or reverse, their re-openings. [Research published last week makes it clear where the new surge of cases is happening](: "Both infection rates and mortality can be mapped to places where Sean Hannity is most popular." This is why we need independent media centered on facts. When people receive bad information in dangerous situations, they make bad decisions that have deadly, real-world consequences. Unfortunately, the same pandemic that Fox News is helping to fuel has resulted in unprecedented job losses at many media outlets. Since March, "[roughly 36,000 workers at news companies in the U.S. have been laid off, been furloughed or had their pay reduced](." Additionally, [thousands of freelance journalists have seen their livelihoods vanish overnight](. At precisely the moment when we most need independent news to counteract misinformation and propaganda from Fox News, [a media extinction event is underway](. [At Daily Kos, we provide an activist alternative to the vast pro-Trump, Fox News propaganda machine. We are supported primarily by, and accountable primarily to, our community of grassroots donors. Daily Kos is proud to be a progressive and independent media outlet that gives you a way to do something about the news during these terrible times, but we are not immune to the economic pressures that virtually every other media outlet is facing. Please support our ongoing work by giving a monthly donation of $5.]( [Can't chip in monthly? Click here to give $5 one time.]( Keep fighting, Chris Bowers Executive Campaign Director, Daily Kos P.S. An email I sent you on this topic last week can be seen below --------------------------------------------------------------- Friend, what's a country like where Fox News surges and most other news media shrinks? You are living in it now, and it's experiencing a surge of coronavirus cases. Most news media outlets, especially left-of-center ones, have been having a terrible time in recent months and years. The ever-increasing dominance of Big Tech over the online advertising market caused the loss of [7,800 jobs]( in news media companies in 2019. Even more recently, the economic crisis caused by coronavirus pandemic resulted in the loss of [at least 36,000 jobs]( at news media companies--a figure that does not even include the almost complete loss of income [suffered by tens of thousands of freelance journalists](. Paycuts, furloughs and layoffs have been especially bad at prominent digital news media companies such as [Buzzfeed](, [HuffPost](, [Vice](, and [Vox](. In late 2019, long-time progressive powerhouse Think Progress [closed up shop entirely](. Fox News, meanwhile, had [record ratings in 2019](. It then[beat that record]( in the first quarter of 2020, had its [second-best month ever in April](, and just last week [scored its highest rated Saturday night ever]( with coverage of Trump's rally in Tulsa. While Fox is inevitably also impacted by the downturn in the advertising market caused by the pandemic, half of its revenue doesn't even come from advertising, and instead [comes from affiliate fees]( paid to Fox by cable companies for their large audience. This has left Fox in [a much stronger position]( than basically every other news media outlet in the country: S&P Global, earlier this month, said Fox “may be the best positioned of its pure media peers to weather the pandemic due to its conservative financial policy.” In an upgrade of Fox from “neutral” to “buy” on April 2, Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris called Fox “relatively attractive compared to media peers,” with the company the “best positioned among peers in a weaker, but ultimately stable consumer environment.” This isn't just an abstract numbers game like comparing the number of followers you have on social media--it has dire, real world consequences. Most notably, an immediate effect of Fox News succeeding and other news media outlets failing is the ongoing, rapid spread of COVID-19 throughout most of our country. It was talking heads on Fox New who told their viewers not to take the virus seriously and protect themselves and others from the novel coronavirus. It was journalists on Fox News that gave the most coverage to the relatively small number of protesters in April and May who successfully pressured numerous state and local officials into prematurely re-opening their economies. [Now, as new cases of COVID-19 reach record highs, new research shows what is happening, right now, as a result of Fox News dominance](: "Both infection rates and mortality can be mapped to places where Sean Hannity is most popular." The re-emergent spread of the deadliest pandemic to reach the United States in a century is a grim reminder of why we need news media to spread facts instead of propaganda and conspiracy theories. When faced with a dangerous situation, people need accurate information in order to make good decisions on how to protect themselves and others. However, in a world where Fox News and misinformation-spreading social media are sending tens of thousands of jobs at news media companies into trash compactors, that isn't what we are getting. Instead, we are getting an uncontrolled pandemic rampaging across our country. Fox News isn't going to change--spreading right-wing propaganda is why it was founded in the first place. Instead, what we need to do is break through their propaganda by building up independent media centered on facts. Unfortunately, that is becoming ever more difficult as Big Tech eats up the advertising market that had long supported the entire journalism industry. [What we need is an entirely different model for journalism--one that is funded by it's readers instead of by advertisers, one that is centered on facts instead of on propaganda, and one that gives its audience a way to take action on the news it is reading about instead of just being passive listeners. At Daily Kos we have been doing this for nearly two decades, and we will keep going as long as you support us. Help Daily Kos continue our ongoing work by making a $5 monthly contribution.]( [Can't make a monthly donation right now? Please consider making a one-time donation to help Daily Kos counter Fox News.]( Keep fighting, Chris Bowers Executive Campaign Director, Daily Kos If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible. (Please note that we may be slow to process checks during the coronavirus outbreak.) Sent via [ActionNetwork.org](. 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