UPDATE: This is a short email about the future of Daily Kos. Please read. It's important.

Friend, I have a short but important update to Michael's email: Fox News is posting some of its worst ratings numbers ever, stuck in third place against rivals CNN and MSNBC. Now, the right-wing network is said to be in [meltdown](. This is an important moment for the news media and for the country. Fox News has set the terms of the national debate for 20 years. Its success in denying basic facts, like climate change, and pushing right-wing lies into the mainstream created the political environment that allowed a figure like Donald Trump to succeed on the national stage. Now, that era may be coming to an end. But what will fill the vacuum if Fox News continues to fall? Traditional news outlets have shed [tens of thousands of jobs]( in recent years while new, even more radical right-wing outlets, like Newsmax and OANN, have begun to grow their own audiences. Progressive media outlets remain far smaller than those the right has created. President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress need progressive media outlets to help promote fact-based progressive policies. While Daily Kos is the country's largest progressive news and activism operation, we need to be much, much larger to succeed against right-wing outlets backed up by billions of dollars in sponsorships. [Daily Kos is a progressive, independent news and activism hub. Our biggest source of income comes from readers and activists like you, each chipping in a few dollars at a time. That's why I'm asking you to start a $5 monthly recurring contribution to Daily Kos right now. It is the single most powerful thing you can do to support our work.]( [Can't contribute monthly? Click here to chip in $5 one time.]( Thank you, Chris Bowers, Daily Kos --------------------------------------------------------------- Friend, Fox News viewership has dropped more than [20 percent]( since Election Day. Fake news stories dropped by [70 percent]( since Donald Trump was deplatformed from social media. Extremist organizing app Parler has been effectively [shut down]( by service providers. Fake news and dangerous conspiracy theories dominated the Trump era because they were pushed constantly by right-wing media. And despite the progress that's been made to rein in these dangerous lies in the past few weeks, the simple fact remains that conservative media still dwarfs progressive media. The left simply doesn't have anything that compares to the reach of Fox News, even given its recent ratings decline. Daily Kos is the biggest progressive news outlet in the country and we simply need to be much, much bigger if we're going to provide President Biden and Democrats in Congress with the cover they need in the months ahead to enact an agenda that will undo the damage Trump has inflicted on the country. [Daily Kos doesn't have billionaire backers or big corporate sponsors. Small contributions from readers and activists like you are our biggest source of income. That's why I'm asking you to start a $5 monthly recurring contribution to Daily Kos right now. It is the single most powerful thing you can do to support our work.]( [Can't contribute monthly? Click here to chip in $5 one time.]( Thank you, Michael Langenmayr, 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](. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Daily Kos, please [click here](.