Media Sources

404 Media

404 Media is a journalist-founded digital media company exploring the ways technology is shaping—and is shaped by—our world. It focuses on investigative reports, long-form features, blogs, and scoops about topics including: hacking, cybersecurity, cybercrime, sex, artificial intelligence, consumer rights, surveillance, privacy, and the democratization of the internet.

ACLU

While not often thought of as a news organization, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) provides in-depth coverage of important issues with detailed explanations of lawsuits it has filed. This includes everything from free speech, human rights, and national security to racial justice, disability rights, reproductive freedom, and so much more.

Al Jazeera

Just as major news organizations should always be viewed with suspicion, just because Al Jazeera has progressive takes on certain stories doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be contextualized. Much like our critique of the New York Times, Al Jazeera is important because it has solid financial backing, and therefore, the ability to commit financial resources to reporting and widespread coverage. Oftentimes, we will source information on international stories from Al Jazeera, then try to backstop it with analyses from other progressive sources to ensure they align.

The American Prospect

The American Prospect (TAP) is devoted to promoting informed discussion on public policy from a progressive perspective. In print and online, it brings a narrative, journalistic approach to complex issues, addressing the policy alternatives and the politics necessary to create good legislation. It strives to dispel myths, challenge conventional wisdom, and expand important dialogue concerning some of the most pressing issues of out time.

The Atlantic

When the founders of The Atlantic gathered in Boston in the spring of 1857, they wanted to create a magazine that would be indispensable for the kind of reader who was deeply engaged with the most consequential issues of the day. The men and women who created this magazine had an overarching, prophetic vision—they were fierce opponents of slavery—but they were also moved to overcome what they saw as the limits of partisanship, believing that the free exchange of ideas across ideological lines was crucial to the great American experiment. Their goal, which continues through today, was to publish the most urgent essays, the most vital literature; they wanted to pursue truth and disrupt consensus without regard for party or clique.

The Baffler

The Baffler is America’s leading voice of interesting and unexpected left-wing political criticism, cultural analysis, short stories, poems, and art. It publishes six print issues annually, as well as online content every day of the cursed workweek. Founded in 1988 by Thomas Frank as “the journal that blunts the cutting edge,” the nonprofit magazine is currently edited by Matthew Shen Goodman and headquartered in New York. It features both new and established voices, and regular contributors include Barbara Ehrenreich, Susan Faludi, Evgeny Morozov, Rick Perlstein, and Astra Taylor, among others.

Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Report was founded by Glen Ford—a socialist, military veteran and member of the Black Panther Party—along with Bruce Dixon and Margaret Kimberley. It provides news, commentary, and analysis from the Black left. 

Common Dreams

Common Dreams is a reader-supported independent news outlet created in 1997. Its nonprofit newsroom covers the most important news stories of the moment and keeps millions of readers well informed, inspired, and engaged.

CounterPunch

CounterPunch is a reader-supported, left-wing online magazine that publishes new articles every weekday, a weekend edition including features "The Poet’s Basement" and "Roaming Charges," and the "CounterPunch Radio" podcast.

Current Affairs Magazine

Current Affairs was launched by roommates Oren Nimni and Nathan J. Robinson, which promised “a new print magazine of political analysis, satire, and entertainment” that would “bring wit, color, and verve back to print media!” With $16,607 of their $10,000 goal raised, the magazine Current Affairs was born! Since that successful Kickstarter campaign, Current Affairs has been entirely supported by subscriptions, purchases, and donations from readers. No large corporate donors, no opaque foundations, and no advertisements have contributed to Current Affairs. It has expanded to include a podcast, which is entirely funded by generous Patreon donors, a News Briefing, and videos.

Daily Kos

Founded in 2002, Daily Kos is a digital media platform for news you can do something about. Its staff writers share the latest stories and analysis to inform readers about hard-hitting issues that matter to progressives, and its activism team provides tools including petitions, letter writing campaigns, and information about organized protests to empower readers to take action.

Democracy Now!

Democracy Now! produces a daily, global, independent news hour hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. Its reporting includes breaking daily news headlines and in-depth interviews with people on the front lines of the world’s most pressing issues. It features a diversity of voices, providing a unique and sometimes provocative perspective on global events.

Dissent Magazine

Dissent is a magazine of politics and ideas published in print three times a year. Founded by Irving Howe and Lewis Coser in 1954, it quickly established itself as one of America’s leading intellectual journals and a mainstay of the Democratic left. Dissent has published articles by Hannah Arendt, Richard Wright, Norman Mailer, A. Philip Randolph, Michael Harrington, Dorothy Day, Bayard Rustin, Czesław Miłosz, Barbara Ehrenreich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Chinua Achebe, Ellen Willis, Octavio Paz, Martha Nussbaum, Roxane Gay, and many others.

Foreign Affairs

Founded in 1922, Foreign Affairs is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. While it don’t consider itself a leftist magazine necessarily, it is a respected outlet that provides analyses of foreign policy to help contextualize current events and U.S. government policies.

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world, with a team of roughly 550 people of more than 70 nationalities who are country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others working to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime, to refugees and children in need.

ICT News

Formerly “Indian Country Today,” ICT was founded as the Lakota Times newspaper by Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota, on July 9, 1981. The publication was based in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. It is an independent, nonprofit news enterprise that honors Indigenous ancestors and future generations through stories across its website, social media accounts, and public television.

In These Times

In These Times was modeled on Appeal to Reason, a socialist newspaper from the turn of the century that once reached more than half a million subscribers. In These Times has carved out a unique space on the left, bridging coverage of social movements with progressive electoral politics while publishing groundbreaking investigations that challenge the growing influence of corporations over government and our daily lives.

The Intercept

The Intercept is an award-winning news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism. Its in-depth investigations and unflinching analysis focus on politics, war, surveillance, corruption, the environment, technology, criminal justice, the media, and more. The Intercept gives its journalists the editorial freedom and legal support they need to expose corruption and injustice wherever they find it.

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) retains a network of trusted journalists, which has grown by invitation to more than 290 of the best investigative reporters from 105 countries and territories. It tells stories that punch through the noise, showing how the world really works, triggering positive change. It is driven by the belief that citizens have the right to be better informed, that access to independently-sourced facts is not only essential for democracy, but a fundamental human right.

Jacobin

Jacobin is a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture.

Mother Jones

Mother Jones is a reader-supported investigative news organization dedicated to exposing the truth across a wide range of topics and issues. Its newsroom goes deep on the biggest stories of the moment, from politics and criminal and racial justice to education, climate change, food/agriculture, and many more.

The Nation

The Nation was founded by abolitionists in 1865, and is committed to hard-hitting, progressive journalism. It believes in intellectual freedom, values facts and transparency, and argues that dissent is patriotic. It strives to hold the powerful to account, no matter political persuasion. Above all, it aspires to galvanize a more informed public—one equipped with a more profound understanding of events, ideas, and history.

New York Times

The Times is both an obvious and tricky source when promoting progressive ideas. The most established outlet in all of journalism is decidedly moderate, especially where foreign policy matters are concerned. We largely ignore the opinion pages but find that it is an honest broker of domestic information on issues of climate change, social justice and socioeconomics. The resources of the Times means that it maintains independence to a degree, but it should be viewed as source material to draw upon rather than the “paper of record” it proclaims itself to be. There are good journalists working there apart from the pro-Democratic regime agenda of the op-eds. Handle with care.

News Beat

News Beat is a multi-award-winning social justice podcast elevating journalistic storytelling through interviews with experts, thought leaders, academics and activists, coupled with original verses from musicians and independent hip-hop artists—fostering a deeper connection with listeners while delivering an alternative narrative on some of the most pressing issues, events, and people shaping our world. Guests span a diverse roster of activists, educators, authors, journalists, whistleblowers, and experts—from Dr. Cornel West and Chris Hedges to Rosa Clemente and John Kiriakou, among many others—weighing in on everything from mass incarceration and U.S.-led forever wars to poverty, genocide, attacks on press freedoms, and much  more. It's produced by UNFTR contributors, journalists Rashed Mian and Christopher Twarowski, and our very own Manny Faces.  

The Progressive

Since 1909, The Progressive has aimed to amplify voices of dissent and those under-represented in the mainstream, with a goal of championing grassroots progressive politics. Its bedrock values are nonviolence and freedom of speech.

ProPublica

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. It digs deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust—and sticking with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.

Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) defends the right of every human being to have access to free and reliable information. This right is essential to know, understand, form an opinion, and take action on vital issues in full awareness, both individually and collectively. Its mission is the freedom, pluralism, and independence of journalism, and defense of those who embody these ideals.

Truthout

Truthout is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues. Since its founding in 2001, it has anchored its work in principles of accuracy, transparency, and independence from the influence of corporate and political forces. The outlet works to spark action by revealing systemic social, racial, economic and environmental injustice and providing a platform for progressive and transformative ideas, through in-depth investigative reporting and critical analysis. 

World Socialist Web Site

The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) is the online publication of the world Trotskyist movement, the International Committee of the Fourth International, and its affiliated sections in the Socialist Equality Parties around the world. It launched publication in February 1998, and aims to meet the need, felt widely today, for an intelligent appraisal of the problems of contemporary society. It addresses itself to the masses of people who are dissatisfied with the present state of social life, as well as its cynical and reactionary treatment by the establishment media.

Canadian Media

Canadian Dimension

Canadian Dimension is the longest-standing voice of the left in Canada. For more than half a century, it has provided a forum for lively and radical debate where red meets green, socialists take on social democrats, Indigenous voices are heard, activists report from every corner of the country, and the latest books and films are critically reviewed. Its dedicated and longstanding readership is comprised of activists, organizers, academics, economists, workers, trade unionists, feminists, environmentalists, Indigenous peoples, and members of the LGBTQ2 community.

The Maple

The Maple is an entirely reader funded publication that puts the working class first. It is fiercely critical and dedicated to investigating stories and exploring ideas no one else will. It publishes both news and opinion, and its reporting unpacks the key issues of the day while examining them from original angles that challenge the status quo. Its opinion team presents thoughtfully argued ideas and perspectives that confront mainstream thinking.

The Rabble

The Rabble is an award-winning, independent, community-driven media outlet, among the first digital journalism organizations in Canada, and the first to incorporate as nonprofit. It has been at the forefront of reporting on national politics with a progressive lens that centers issues of social movements, of labor, and of grassroots activism.

Ricochet

Founded in 2014, Ricochet Media is a national, nonprofit media outlet with a mandate to serve the public interest. It publishes rigorous, well-edited investigative journalism and incisive opinion with a focus on climate, Indigenous rights, and corporate and government accountability. All of its content is freely available, without ads, and made possible by small monthly recurring donations from readers, alongside support from charitable foundations and government programs.