If this doesn't scare you, then you are not paying attention

Daily Kos needs your help, Friend. Donations have picked up this month, after a major downturn in March and April. That's good news, but we're still only just barely on track to hit our monthly goal. We depend on donations to make ends meet. Ad revenue is the lifeblood of news media, but Big Tech giants Amazon, Facebook and Google have triopolized online ad revenue, and the problem has only gotten worse since the start of the pandemic. The Wall Street Journal reports that these three mega-corporations may have taken as much as [90 percent of digital ad revenue]( in 2020. The triopolization of ad revenue is gutting news outlets. Major national outlets are [hemorrhaging]( jobs, newspapers have [laid off half their newsroom employees]( since the Great Recession, and local news outlets are [disappearing entirely](. The news media crisis is so severe that the secretary-general of the [United Nations]( has identified it as a threat, as the disappearance of fact-based journalism allows disinformation to spread unchecked and has a corrosive effect on the health and safety of the world. [Daily Kos is the country's largest progressive political news outlet. We're a small, independent outlet—free from corporate sponsorship and the agendas of billionaire backers. The triopolization of digital ad revenue by Big Tech behemoths means we can't support operations with ad revenue. Instead, we rely on readers and activists like you to make ends meet. That's why I'm asking you to start a $5 monthly recurring donation to Daily Kos today.]( [Can't donate monthly? Click here to donate one time.]( In solidarity, Chris Bowers, 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](.