Friends:
In the Spring of 2020, I was demoralized, depressed and ready to quit journalism and politics for good. The angst of a long presidential campaign and the hatred aimed at me every day for decades had crushed my soul. I felt rejected by the world. I was a shell of a person.
My family and friends intervened. They picked me up and dusted me off. One friend sent me the Teddy Roosevelt speech. Another buddy sent me the scene from Jerry Maguire. My mom gave me the Jimmy Dugan riff from A League Of Their Own.
Slowly but surely, this pile of cliches worked. I started writing. I launched a news outlet and started reporting important stories that made a big impact. I started feeling alive again. And together with an amazing team of reporters and subscribers, we have built The Daily Poster into a real force, as evidenced by this past year that never could have happened without your support.
As one of the few reader-supported news outlets covering politics and government, we hold ourselves accountable only to you, our subscribers. And so as our team rests and charges up for the next year over this holiday break, we will be sending you a few of our best stories of the year, so that you can see how we use the resources you provide to hold politicians and corporations accountable.
You’ll see that in this past year alone, we exposed the powerful forces that blocked the $15 minimum wage, killed the eviction moratorium, and hijacked the government’s response to the pandemic. We uncovered health care scams, debt predators, and union busters. While corporate media focused all too often on frivolous gossip, we did the hard work of following the money to show which industries were buying specific politicians to halt promised legislation. And as others touted happy press releases and parrotted the party line, we dug deep to aggressively cover how the Biden administration betrayed its health care and climate promises.
For this work, we’ve been recognized as a change agent making a big impact and working to transform the media.
The Washington Post’s top political reporter called The Daily Poster “a must read” and noted that “the question they ask every day is ‘who’s paying for these guys to do this?’ which is kind of the only question that matters.”
The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer has pointed to our reporting as a model for following the money.
New York legislators credited our reporting for exposing the nursing home scandal that helped take down disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
And one top lawmaker on Capitol Hill lauded our reporters for “having a real impact” and “helping progressives understand what's really at stake in this fight” over the Build Back Better legislation.
It’s no overstatement to say that none of this would be possible without the support of our subscribers. Every time you subscribe, pitch into the tip jar, or give a gift subscription, it helps us do the work that corporate media refuses to do.
So as 2021 comes to a close, I want to say thank you for believing in us and being the most important part of The Daily Poster. When I think back to those dark days of early 2020, I am amazed at what we’ve been able to build together — and it gives me confidence that we can do even more together in the coming years.
But in truth, the word “can” is a bit of a misnomer. This work must continue. There are too many crises bearing down on our country and our planet for us to give up. Simply put, surrender cannot be an option.
That’s why our commitment to you in the new year is the same as it has always been: We will hold politicians accountable, follow the money, challenge power, and expose inconvenient truths — no matter who that angers. That is the ethos of accountability journalism, and the path to a better world.
Onward.
Rock the boat,
Sirota
P.S. If you have a moment, we would love your feedback about The Daily Poster. Just respond to this email with any feedback you have for us — it can be about the past year, about what you hope for in 2022, or anything else.
