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ThinkProgress was an American progressive news website that was active from 2005 to 2019. It was a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP Action), a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. Founded by Judd Legum in 2005, the site's reports were regularly discussed by mainstream news outlets and peer-reviewed academic journals. ThinkProgress also hosted a climate section called Climate Progress, which was founded by Joe Romm.

In 2019, after financial losses, CAP Action unsuccessfully sought a new publisher for the site.[1] No new content has been added since September 2019, rendering ThinkProgress effectively defunct.

History

[edit]

ThinkProgress was founded in 2005 by Judd Legum, a lawyer, who ran the site until he left in 2007.[2] Faiz Shakir edited the site from 2007 until 2012,[3] when Legum returned as editor-in-chief.[2] Legum left the site again in 2018.[4] ThinkProgress described itself as "editorially independent" of the Center for American Progress (CAP) and CAP Action.[2][5] In its early years, ThinkProgress included a daily newsletter that contained a recap and analysis of major political news and the blog Wonk Room, which was published until 2011. In that year, the site was redesigned to offer sections organized by subject matter,[6] and other CAP Action blogs were consolidated into the site. The site was then divided into sections covering climate, economy, health, justice, LGBT, world, culture, sports, politics and features.[7] In 2017, the site's organization returned to a less segmented presentation.[8]

ThinkProgress had a staff of five in 2006[9] and 42 in 2017.[8] In 2015, the staff of ThinkProgress unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.[10] Previous staffers who went on to write for other media outlets include Alyssa Rosenberg and Andrea Peterson, who joined The Washington Post; Matthew Yglesias, who moved to Slate and Vox; Zaid Jilani, who writes for The Intercept;[11] and Nico Pitney and Amanda Terkel, who joined The Huffington Post.[2] Shakir, who led the 2020 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, later headed (together with Pitney) More Perfect Union, a labor-focused news outlet that he described as "ThinkProgress for a digital age."[12][13]

ThinkProgress's climate section, Climate Progress, was founded by climate scientist Joseph J. Romm.[14] The section discussed climate and energy, political news related to climate change, and responses to climate change by the media.[15] In November 2016 ThinkProgress launched a "Trump Investigation Fund" crowdfunding effort.[16][17] In 2017, Michael Goldfarb, founder of the conservative newspaper The Washington Free Beacon and its parent company, the Center for American Freedom, said he modeled them on ThinkProgress and CAP.[18]

Closure

[edit]

In mid-2019, after the site had experienced declining revenue, traffic and donations, CAP put ThinkProgress up for sale.[1] No buyer was found. A plan to make ThinkProgress the institutional blog of the Center for American Progress was abandoned, and publication on the site ended on September 5, 2019.[19][20]

Reporting

[edit]

Impact on mainstream press

[edit]

ThinkProgress reports drew comment from news outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine and CNN.[a] For example, Times reporter Ian Urbina, in his coverage of hostility in the health care reform debate, cited a 2009 ThinkProgress report by Lee Fang on a Tea Party Patriots strategy memo advocating disrupting town hall meetings of Democratic members of Congress.[21]

After the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in 2010, ThinkProgress reported on the safety record of mine owner Massey Energy, finding over $2.2 million in fines levied by the Mine Safety and Health Administration against Massey for more than 3,000 safety violations; Times reporter Tom Zeller Jr. cited the figures in the Times's coverage of Massey's safety record.[22] In 2013, ThinkProgress posted a video of Pam Simon, a staffer for Representative Gabby Giffords, who was shot alongside Giffords in 2011, confronting Senator Kelly Ayotte regarding Ayotte's opposition to closing the gun show loophole; the Times cited the video in a report on gun control activism among gun violence victims.[23] In a 2015 op-ed in the Times, Charles M. Blow excerpted ThinkProgress research on gender in chief executive officer hiring.[24] The same year, Blow excerpted ThinkProgress research on the effectiveness of drug screening of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients in an analysis of the political rhetoric of poverty.[25]

In 2006, The Guardian highlighted a series of reports in ThinkProgress that exposed inaccuracies in the ABC television mini-series The Path to 9/11. The network re-edited several disputed scenes.[9] In 2011 a report in The Guardian by Ewen MacAskill, Julian Borger, Jon Boone and Nicholas Watt on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan excerpted a ThinkProgress interview with Senator Barney Frank.[26] In 2016 a Guardian investigation by Jonathan Freedland of the basis of Donald Trump's claims of voter fraud in the Iowa Caucuses excerpted a ThinkProgress report that a two-year investigation by the Iowa Secretary of State found no voter impersonation.[27]

Similarly, a 2012 Washington Post article cited ThinkProgress research showing that Crossroads GPS failed to register as a nonprofit organization in Virginia.[28] ThinkProgress reported an average of one school shooting every other day in the first days of 2014; Post columnist Dana Milbank cited the research in a 2014 column on the lack of progress on gun control.[29] In 2017 Fareed Zakaria, in a Post opinion piece, cited a ThinkProgress compilation of policies that candidate Trump pledged to implement on his first day as President.[30] In 2017 Wall Street Journal columnist William Galston cited a ThinkProgress report of 52% unemployment among 16- to 64-year-olds in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, twice the unemployment rate of the city as a whole.[31] In 2014, Time magazine, CNN and NPR picked up ThinkProgress reports on Chipotle Mexican Grill's including in their annual report a warning to investors regarding the risk of climate change on operations.[2][32]

Research and academia

[edit]

In 2017 ThinkProgress published the disciplinary records of the New York City police officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal choke hold.[33] ThinkProgress also tracked anti-Muslim and antisemitic incidents.[34][35]

Climate Progress

[edit]

After his 2011 Climate Progress report identifying food insecurity as "the biggest impact that climate change is likely to have on most people for most of this century", the journal Nature invited Romm to write a commentary on desertification.[36][37] In a 2016 article in The New York Times, Andrew Revkin recommended Romm's assessment in Climate Progress of the prospects for the climate and the environment under newly elected President Trump.[38] Andrew Leonard in Salon, John Rennie of the Public Library of Science and Jim Naureckas of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting cited a 2010 Climate Progress report in their critiques of an online poll regarding attitudes toward climate change conducted by Scientific American magazine.[39]

Reception

[edit]

ThinkProgress had about 100,000 visitors per day in 2006,[9] 6 million unique visitors and 14 million page views in March 2014,[2] and 8 to 10 million unique page views per month in 2017.[16] In 2017, Lifewire ranked ThinkProgress among the ten most popular news blogs on the Internet.[40] According to CAP, the site received "more than 12 million pageviews and 7.5 million unique visitors in June 2019".[1]

In 2008, Time magazine named Climate Progress one of the "Top 15 Green Websites," saying that Climate Progress "counters bad science and inane rhetoric with original analysis."[15] In 2009, Thomas Friedman, in his column in The New York Times, called Climate Progress "indispensable."[41][42] In 2010 Time included Climate Progress in a list of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010", saying Climate Progress was one of "the blogs we can't live without."[43] In 2010, UK's The Guardian included Climate Progress on its list of "Top 50 Twitter climate accounts to follow", saying Climate Progress was one of "the key people and organisations you should be following on Twitter if you're interested in climate change."[44] In 2015 Tim Ward wrote in HuffPost that Climate Progress "has been the best available source of climate-change news for several years."[14]

Criticism

[edit]

In 2010, Lee Fang wrote in ThinkProgress that the United States Chamber of Commerce funded political advertising campaigns from its general fund, which solicits funds from foreign sources.[45] FactCheck.org said that the claim that "foreign corporations are 'stealing our democracy' with secret, illegal contributions funneled through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce" had "little basis in fact. ... At least 84 foreign companies pay at least $885,000 in dues to the [Chamber of Commerce], according to ThinkProgress. Still lacking, though, is any proof that the money is being used in the chamber’s ad campaign."[46] Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times said that the article "provided no evidence that the money generated overseas had been used in United States campaigns."[47]

In 2015, Glenn Greenwald wrote in The Intercept that CAP officials pressured ThinkProgress staff into placating the Israeli government and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in their Middle East reporting, while noting that CAP had cited strategic interests for its stance: "The clear and overwhelming record of the literally hundreds of articles and policy papers from the Center for American Progress and ThinkProgress demonstrates our longstanding support both for Israel and the two-state solution to the Middle East peace process as being in the moral and national security interests of the United States."[48]

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

ThinkProgress

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
ThinkProgress was an American left-leaning online news and opinion website established in 2005 by the , a Democratic-aligned in , under founding editor . The publication focused on progressive policy advocacy, political reporting, and rapid-response commentary aimed at countering conservative narratives and promoting left-of-center viewpoints, often favoring moderate Democratic positions over more radical progressive ones. During its operation, ThinkProgress built a reputation as a key player in digital progressive media, producing content that influenced policy debates and Democratic messaging, particularly under editors like from 2007 to 2012. However, it drew criticism for , including denigration of right-wing perspectives, allegations of content suppression at the behest of the Obama administration, and instances of anti-Semitism or favoritism toward narratives critical of . Facing financial pressures common to the digital news sector, CAP ceased independent operations of ThinkProgress in 2019, laying off a staff members after unsuccessful attempts to sell the site, with remaining content absorbed into CAP's primary platform. This closure highlighted broader challenges for ideologically driven outlets reliant on foundation funding and ad revenue amid shifting media .

Origins and Establishment

Launch by Center for American Progress (2005)

ThinkProgress was established in 2005 as a project of the Action Fund, the 501(c)(4) advocacy arm of the (), a progressive policy organization founded in 2003 to develop Democratic-aligned strategies following electoral setbacks. The site originated from a newsletter produced by , then a research director at , who pitched and launched it as an online to enable swift progressive commentary and critiques. The initiative aimed to counter conservative dominance in media and policy discourse, particularly after the 2004 presidential election, by providing rapid-response content such as instant rebuttals to opposition arguments through a blog-style format unburdened by traditional journalistic constraints. Legum served as founding until 2007, emphasizing its role in advancing explicit goals rather than neutral reporting, aligned with CAP Action Fund's mission to influence and support Democratic priorities. Initial funding derived from CAP's donor base, which included major contributions from philanthropist , who pledged up to $3 million to CAP at its inception, positioning ThinkProgress as a partisan tool for progressive rapid response rather than an independent journalistic venture. This structure reflected CAP's broader objective of building infrastructure to challenge right-wing narratives through advocacy-oriented media.

Development and Operations

Expansion and Key Initiatives (2006-2012)

Following its 2005 launch, ThinkProgress expanded operations amid the administration's final years and the transition to Barack Obama's presidency, increasing content production to provide rapid-response analysis aimed at bolstering progressive arguments against Republican policies. Starting with a small team of five in 2006, the site grew its reporting capacity as part of for American Progress's overall expansion to 180 employees by November 2008, enabling more frequent posts on policy critiques and Democratic strategy. Under founding editor , initiatives focused on educating allied audiences and media outlets about conservative tactics, producing daily updates to shape messaging during contentious debates. The period saw introduction of specialized reporting beats, including —covered by reporters such as Eli Clifton by late 2011—and economic issues, aligning content with progressive priorities like critiquing deregulation and fiscal policies. Key coverage included persistent challenges to escalation and conduct starting in 2006, detailed examinations of the attributing it to lax oversight under Bush-era rules, and supportive analysis of Obama's 2008 campaign, such as real-time during presidential debates on September 27, 2008. These efforts emphasized narrative-driven pieces over standalone investigations, incorporating elements like video embeds to amplify reach and influence Democratic talking points. By 2010, ThinkProgress had achieved substantial visibility, drawing millions of monthly unique visitors—exceeding 4 million by October 2009—and contributing to over 115,000 total articles by 2015 through accelerated output. This growth entrenched an activist model, with strategic emphasis on viral, policy-oriented content to counter conservative media dominance and elevate progressive frames in public discourse during the recovery and early Obama years.

Climate Progress Subsite

Climate Progress served as the climate-focused subsite of ThinkProgress, established in 2006 by Joseph Romm, a and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Romm, who held a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and prior roles in the U.S. Department of Energy's energy efficiency office, positioned the platform as a venue for analyzing climate science, critiquing energy policies, and challenging views skeptical of IPCC projections on anthropogenic warming. The subsite produced blog posts, reports, and commentaries emphasizing the urgency of rapid decarbonization, often drawing on IPCC assessments to argue for transformative shifts away from fossil fuels toward renewables and efficiency measures. Content from Climate Progress frequently aligned with Obama administration initiatives, portraying regulations such as the 2015 —which aimed to cut power sector carbon emissions 32% below 2005 levels by 2030—as critical interventions to avert severe climate impacts. Romm's posts amplified narratives of impending catastrophe, such as framing insufficient policy ambition as enabling "climate disasters," while advocating for policies like carbon pricing and subsidized clean energy deployment. This approach contributed to progressive discourse on environmental imperatives, though its reliance on high-end IPCC scenarios over real-time observational data or cost-benefit analyses drew scrutiny for prioritizing alarm to drive advocacy. The subsite's methodologies emphasized rhetorical confrontation, with Romm routinely applying the label "climate denier" to skeptics and even moderate proponents of alternatives like nuclear power, a framing critics contended blurred empirical disagreement with outright rejection of established physics and conflated it with historical moral failings. Such tactics, including detailed deconstructions of opponents' arguments laced with accusations of bad faith, were critiqued by fellow environmental thinkers for substituting ad hominem attacks for substantive engagement with counter-evidence, such as historical underperformance of renewable scaling or adaptation efficacy. Despite these empirical and stylistic critiques, the platform garnered acclaim within advocacy circles; in 2009, Time magazine designated Romm a "Hero of the Environment" for his role in mainstreaming climate urgency among progressives.

Editorial Practices

Advocacy-Oriented Reporting

ThinkProgress positioned itself as delivering "rigorous reporting and from a progressive perspective," thereby diverging from the neutrality standards of traditional , which prioritize verifiable facts and balanced presentation without an avowed ideological framework. As a project of for Action Fund—a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to —its content integrated dissemination with efforts to promote policy agendas aligned with Democratic priorities, such as framing economic and social issues to underscore the need for progressive reforms. This model treated reporting as a tool for influence, where editorial choices reflected the parent think tank's strategic objectives rather than detached empirical assessment. In practice, this advocacy orientation manifested through techniques that emphasized selective data interpretation to bolster preferred narratives, often sidelining contradictory evidence that might dilute the intended message. For example, articles routinely critiqued conservative positions by highlighting isolated or interpretations favorable to left-leaning solutions, diverging from norms of comprehensive sourcing and fact verification that demand proportionality in evidence presentation. Reliance on anonymous sources in such pieces further compounded this, as it allowed to enter the record without accountability, contrasting with rigorous journalistic protocols requiring on-the-record attribution wherever feasible to enable reader . Unlike established wire services such as the , which maintain formal ethics guidelines mandating independence from advocacy groups and a commitment to "essential global news network" , ThinkProgress lacked equivalent institutional safeguards, operating instead under the CAP Action Fund's influence-oriented mandate. This absence facilitated "hit pieces" on opponents—targeted exposés designed to undermine conservative figures or ideas through aggregated criticisms rather than balanced —prioritizing persuasive impact over objective dissection of causal mechanisms underlying debates. The result was a departure from first-principles , where truth emerges from unfiltered , toward a causal framing that presupposed progressive interventions as the optimal resolution to identified problems.

Focus Areas and Methodologies

ThinkProgress concentrated its reporting on core progressive concerns, including , civil rights advancements, and critiques of U.S. . Economic coverage frequently spotlighted disparities, such as analyses claiming U.S. inequality rivaled ancient Rome's or had reverted to levels, utilizing data from aligned economic studies to underscore growing gaps between the top 1% and the broader population. Civil rights reporting addressed racial dynamics in domestic politics, including attributions of fiscal shutdowns to underlying , alongside dedicated examinations of LGBTQ+ issues through specialized editorial roles. Foreign policy pieces targeted perceived failures in military engagements, exemplified by portrayals of the as a protracted "nightmare" mismanaged by the Bush administration, often amplifying dissenting military and expert voices. As an extension of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, ThinkProgress's methodologies leaned heavily on CAP-generated and policy briefs for sourcing, integrating these into articles with limited independent verification, which reinforced alignment with institutional priors over detached empirical scrutiny. Reporting employed data visualizations—such as charts depicting income or wealth gaps—and curated quotations from progressive economists or activists to buttress narratives of systemic inequity, yet these presentations routinely foregrounded relative disparities while downplaying absolute economic expansions or reductions in rates during the same periods. Over its evolution, methodologies extended to and beats, prioritizing interpretive frameworks that advanced equity goals but sidelining causal evidence of policy-induced inefficiencies, such as in affirmative interventions. This approach, while claiming rigor from a progressive vantage, structurally favored confirmatory data selection, subordinating broader causal realism to ideological coherence.

Influence and Reach

Shaping Progressive Narratives

ThinkProgress established itself as a key platform for rapid, viral rebuttals to conservative policy claims, particularly on fiscal matters like the Bush-era tax cuts, which it portrayed as exacerbating deficits without proportional economic benefits. Articles highlighted how these cuts primarily aided high-income households, countering assertions of broad trickle-down effects and amassing shares within progressive networks. This approach helped entrench talking points—such as the inefficacy of supply-side incentives—that were later incorporated into Democratic messaging, including President Obama's arguments against their extension as fiscally irresponsible. High engagement metrics underscored its success in intra-progressive discourse, with the site drawing 6 million unique visitors and 14 million page views in March 2014, fueled by concise, shareable formats that dissected issues like post-crisis accountability. Such content influenced left-leaning debates by advocating for deeper structural reforms, amplifying calls among activists and policymakers for measures exceeding the Dodd-Frank framework to curb financial excesses. Yet this focus often reinforced selective narratives over evolving evidence, contributing to compartmentalized discourse rather than cross-ideological synthesis. On policy, ThinkProgress emphasized studies negating job loss risks, such as post-Card-Krueger analyses, to bolster progressive . However, data from Seattle's phased increase to $15 per hour, implemented starting in , indicated disemployment effects including a 3.5 million quarterly drop in low-wage hours and $125 average monthly earnings reduction for affected workers. Affiliated critiques dismissed these as methodologically flawed, sustaining belief in benign outcomes among core audiences despite contradictory findings and limiting adaptation to broader empirical realities.

Interactions with Mainstream Media and Policy

ThinkProgress content was frequently referenced by major news outlets, contributing to the dissemination of progressive viewpoints on policy and political events, though the extent of causal influence on broader narratives remains debated due to the outlets' independent editorial processes. For instance, in coverage of the 2012 presidential debates, CNN opinion pieces cited ThinkProgress analyses of Mitt Romney's statements as containing "27 half-truths and straight up lies," framing Republican arguments as misleading. Similarly, MSNBC referenced ThinkProgress reporting on Donald Trump's equivocal comments on climate change in 2016, highlighting his description of it as "a hoax" while noting uncertainties. The New York Times also drew on ThinkProgress data in 2018 discussions of gun control, noting that only 3.6 percent of background checks were not completed within three days under existing laws. In policy spheres, ThinkProgress's affiliation with the Center for American Progress () facilitated indirect channels for shaping Democratic strategies, particularly in defending the (ACA). , which housed ThinkProgress, played a key role in crafting and promoting ACA provisions, with ThinkProgress amplifying defenses against repeal efforts; for example, it highlighted projections of up to 36,000 annual deaths from partial repeals based on studies. MSNBC later cited ThinkProgress documentation of over 114 Republican votes to repeal the ACA post-passage, underscoring perceived inconsistencies in GOP positions during subsequent debates. These references suggest ThinkProgress helped sustain progressive policy talking points, though direct advisory roles in Democratic campaigns were routed through 's broader functions rather than the site itself. Critiques of ThinkProgress-sourced claims occasionally prompted mainstream reevaluations, illustrating risks of amplification without full verification. While specific retractions tied to ThinkProgress coverage were limited, its reports on administration talking points aligned with initial media narratives that faced later scrutiny, such as CBS's retraction of a "" segment on the attacks after source discrepancies emerged. Such instances highlight how rapid-response pieces from advocacy-oriented outlets like ThinkProgress could seed unverified elements into legacy coverage, prompting calls for greater source vetting amid partisan echo effects.

Controversies and Criticisms

Partisan Bias and Advocacy Over Objectivity

ThinkProgress faced criticism for systemic left-wing partisan bias, as evidenced by bias assessments that consistently rated it as favoring progressive viewpoints while denigrating conservative ones. classified the outlet as "Left" biased, reflecting a pattern of story selection that amplified narratives aligned with Democratic priorities and minimized scrutiny of left-leaning policies. similarly rated it as left-biased, noting that it "always favors the left and denigrates the right," with coverage often prioritizing ideological framing over balanced source diversity. These evaluations highlight a lack of empirical balance, such as infrequent inclusion of Republican perspectives or data challenging progressive assumptions, contrasting with claims of objective . Framing patterns in ThinkProgress reporting further underscored advocacy over disinterested analysis, particularly in coverage of Republican figures like Governor Scott Walker during his 2015 presidential bid. Articles routinely portrayed his policy initiatives—such as wage law adjustments or ultrasound requirements—as covert ideological maneuvers, employing loaded terms like "weasels away" or "backdoor" to imply deceit without equivalent rigor applied to Democratic counterparts. This approach prioritized narrative construction for political impact, with minimal self-critique of progressive policies, as bias trackers observed a near-total absence of positive or neutral Republican coverage. Unlike right-leaning outlets such as , which maintained clearer journalistic separation despite conservative advocacy, ThinkProgress's integration as a project of the Center for American Progress blurred distinctions between and efforts. This structural tie facilitated coordinated messaging that advanced think-tank agendas under the guise of reporting, undermining claims of neutrality and fostering perceptions of subordinated to partisan strategy. Empirical reviews of its output revealed low source diversity, with framing often reliant on progressive experts or selective data, debunking assertions of balanced, fact-driven presentation in favor of ideological reinforcement.

Specific Reporting Errors and Retractions

In March 2008, ThinkProgress published an "exclusive" report accusing Republican presidential candidate of plagiarizing a line from a 1996 speech by , claiming McCain had lifted the phrase "I don't oppose all taxes. But I oppose targeting one group of Americans to pay for the special-interest generosity of others" without attribution. The story was retracted the following day after McCain's campaign provided evidence that the senator had used similar phrasing in earlier contexts and that the accusation lacked substantiation, highlighting a failure in verifying historical speech records before publication. In 2010, ThinkProgress alleged that the was channeling foreign corporate funds into American political campaigns, citing the organization's overseas memberships as evidence of illicit influence. investigated and found the reporting unsubstantiated, noting that while the Chamber did accept international dues, ThinkProgress provided no direct proof linking those funds to U.S. spending, undermining the claim of deliberate foreign meddling. This incident exemplified a pattern where ThinkProgress advanced advocacy-driven narratives without sufficient causal linkage between membership structures and prohibited activities, leading to external debunking rather than internal correction. Other scrutinized reports included coverage of Catholic hospitals' service limitations, where ThinkProgress portrayed religious directives as blanket denials of essential care, prompting critiques from outlets like for overlooking ethical distinctions between elective procedures and life-threatening emergencies, such as ectopic pregnancies. Similarly, in 2018, a ThinkProgress assertion about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's statements on was flagged as inaccurate by fact-checkers at , resulting in platform demotion on and ThinkProgress decrying it as , though the correction stemmed from mismatched sourcing. These cases reveal a tendency for errors to surface primarily through right-leaning or independent scrutiny, with ThinkProgress issuing few proactive retractions relative to the volume of high-stakes "exclusives." Such lapses, often tied to rushed aggregation of partisan angles over rigorous verification, contributed to broader skepticism toward progressive outlets' empirical reliability, particularly as post-2016 divergences in amplified perceptions of selective .

Ties to Center for American Progress Funding and Influence

ThinkProgress functioned as a media project of the Action Fund (CAPAF), CAP's advocacy arm, with its operations primarily funded through CAPAF's budget rather than independent revenue streams. This structure obscured direct donor transparency, as CAPAF does not itemize allocations to specific initiatives like ThinkProgress in public filings, allowing potential influence from CAP's broader donor pool—including major individual contributors such as —to flow indirectly into its reporting. CAP's acceptance of foreign funding, notably up to $20 million from the between 2008 and 2018, further compounded transparency concerns, given ThinkProgress's role in amplifying CAP's policy narratives on issues like affairs without disclosing such ties. In January 2019, CAP pledged to end UAE funding amid leaks exposing staff concerns over foreign influence peddling, including unregistered efforts tied to Emirati interests. Significant personnel overlap between ThinkProgress/CAP and Democratic administrations underscores influence dynamics, with former staff leveraging the outlet's platform to advance partisan goals before assuming government roles. By March 2021, the Biden had hired at least 66 alumni, including contributors from ThinkProgress's editorial team in policy and communications capacities, such as former Jodi Enda influencing early administration messaging. president , who oversaw ThinkProgress during its peak, served as Biden's Advisor before her 2021 Cabinet nomination, exemplifying how such ties enable the seeding of administration-aligned narratives through ostensibly journalistic channels. WikiLeaks' October 2016 release of John Podesta's emails exposed /ThinkProgress coordination with the campaign to undermine ' Democratic , including president Tanden's offers of strategic advice and targeting Sanders' positions on issues like guns and . Tanden directly emailed aides with talking points to counter Sanders' criticisms, such as framing his stances as inconsistent, while CAP-affiliated outlets like ThinkProgress published contemporaneous pieces echoing these attacks. These revelations highlighted ThinkProgress's role in intra-party favoritism, prioritizing 's candidacy over Sanders' and blurring lines between and .

Decline and Closure

Financial Challenges and Shutdown (2019)

In September 2019, the () announced the shutdown of ThinkProgress after months of unsuccessful efforts to sell the site, resulting in the layoffs of its remaining 12 staff members. described the decision as driven by a challenging media environment, with the outlet facing a projected $3 million deficit that year, primarily from shortfalls in and donations. Earlier in 2019, ThinkProgress had already experienced a 12 percent drop in from its peak staffing levels, alongside stalled salary growth amid falling revenue streams. The site's financial woes stemmed from broader declines in traffic, engagement, and monetization following the end of the Obama administration in , when peak interest in progressive narratives waned without a Democratic to counter. Ad revenue, which had once supported a staff of around 40, proved insufficient to sustain operations independently, as CAP subsidies could no longer bridge the gap in a market shifting toward diversified digital platforms. Efforts to find a buyer involved discussions with at least 20 potential publishers, but none materialized, underscoring the perceived lack of viable paths to profitability for a niche -focused outlet. This closure exemplified the vulnerabilities of subsidized media models, which relied on think-tank rather than scalable audience-driven revenue, failing to adapt to post-2016 audience preferences for less institutionalized, more direct progressive voices amid rising from independent creators and aggregators. CAP's reallocation of resources away from ThinkProgress toward core policy work highlighted strategic prioritization, as the site's operational costs—estimated in the millions annually—diverted from the organization's primary mission without commensurate impact. The episode reflected systemic pressures on partisan , where initial surges in traffic during politically charged periods gave way to unsustainable dependencies on external support.

Aftermath and Archival Status

Following its closure on September 6, 2019, ThinkProgress's content was preserved through a dedicated archive site at archive.thinkprogress.org, which hosts historical articles and maintains accessibility for researchers and readers. Portions of the material were also integrated into the Center for American Progress's main website, allowing select contributors to publish sporadically under the broader CAP umbrella, though independent operations ceased. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine captured numerous snapshots of the original domain, ensuring comprehensive digital preservation despite the site's inactivity. As of 2025, no efforts to revive ThinkProgress as an independent entity have materialized, reflecting the absence of viable buyers or renewed funding interest after CAP's unsuccessful sale attempts in mid-2019. The dozen remaining staff members were laid off upon shutdown, with many former ThinkProgress journalists transitioning to roles at other progressive-leaning outlets, groups, or political positions. For instance, alumni including former editor advanced to leadership in organizations like the ACLU, perpetuating -focused in new venues. This dispersal sustained elements of ThinkProgress's editorial approach—emphasizing rapid-response partisan analysis—without evident institutional reckoning over prior criticisms of blending reporting with , as coverage in successor media rarely interrogated the model's empirical shortcomings like over-reliance on traffic-driven . In the years following closure, ThinkProgress's legacy underscores the vulnerabilities of niche, ideologically aligned amid evolving consumption patterns. Declining and donations preceded the shutdown, signaling reduced resonance even during politically polarized periods under the Trump (2017–2021) and Biden (2021–2025) administrations, where broader progressive ecosystems fragmented further due to audience fatigue with echo-chamber dynamics. Its demise highlighted causal factors in failures, such as competition from diversified platforms and donor preferences shifting toward over , with no quantifiable indicating sustained citation or influence metrics post-2019. This outcome positions it as an empirical case of how unmitigated partisan framing can erode long-term viability in a media environment increasingly skeptical of subsidized .

References

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  31. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/iraq-nightmare-with-no-end-in-sight/
  32. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-bush-tax-cuts-are-the-disaster-that-keeps-on-giving/
  33. https://archive.thinkprogress.org/niall-ferguson-debates-himself-11def721b443/
  34. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obama-reminds-conservativ_b_163981
  35. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2014/how-thinkprogress-became-real-competition/
  36. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/how-wall-street-killed-financial-reform-190802/
  37. https://archive.thinkprogress.org/cynical-thoughts-on-the-minimum-wage-170de04b0a61/
  38. https://archive.thinkprogress.org/the-troubling-fine-print-in-the-claim-that-raising-the-minimum-wage-will-cost-jobs-6e764d6eb82d/
  39. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w23532/w23532.pdf
  40. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/26/new-study-casts-doubt-on-whether-a-15-minimum-wage-really-helps-workers/
  41. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/five-flaws-new-analysis-seattles-minimum-wage/
  42. https://www.epi.org/publication/the-high-road-seattle-labor-market-and-the-effects-of-the-minimum-wage-increase-data-limitations-and-methodological-problems-bias-new-analysis-of-seattles-minimum-wage-incr/
  43. https://www.cnn.com/2012/10/17/opinion/opinion-second-debate-roundup
  44. https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/how-trump-and-company-warmed-climate-change-msna793721
  45. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/opinion/trump-gun-control-nra.html
  46. https://ballotpedia.org/Fact_check/Could_36%2C000_people_die_if_the_ACA_is_partially_repealed
  47. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/biden-s-covid-stimulus-bill-brings-out-gop-hypocrisy-once-n1261288
  48. https://www.npr.org/2013/11/08/243992036/in-reversal-cbs-retracts-account-from-60-minutes-benghazi-source
  49. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/11/cbs-news-60-minutes-benghazi-investigation
  50. https://www.allsides.com/news-source/thinkprogress-media-bias
  51. https://archive.thinkprogress.org/the-right-wing-dog-whistle-buried-in-scott-walkers-announcement-speech-b05457034bac/
  52. https://prospect.org/2015/07/16/scott-walker-weasels-away-campaign-coordination-investigation/
  53. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/scott-walker-tries-to-use-a-back-door-to-get-rid-of-wisconsins-living-wage-law/
  54. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/12/17848026/facebook-thinkprogress-weekly-standard
  55. https://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0308/Think_Progress_retracts_McCain_plagiarism_charge.html
  56. https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/08/catholic-hospitals-reproductive-health-conscience-rights-mercy-hospital-redding-california/
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  59. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-middle-east-bought-our-think-thanks-long-ago/
  60. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/25/united-arab-emirates-funding-center-for-american-progress
  61. https://inthesetimes.com/article/center-for-american-progress-uae-lobbying-fara-disclosures-influence
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  67. https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/19607
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  73. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/liberal-think-tank-shutters-its-unionized-news-site-thinkprogress/
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  77. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/thinkprogress-shuts-down_n_5d729e1ee4b06451356d9160
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