Truthout Annual Report 2022-23

Dear Readers,

This year was marked by a number of organizational changes, as Maya Schenwar stepped down as editor-in-chief in order to turn her attention to launching the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism, utilizing her 15 years of experience at Truthout to support social justice-driven media during a time when independent media outlets are shuttering rapidly. Replacing her as editor-in-chief is veteran Truthout editor Britney Schultz. We also welcomed news writer Zane McNeill, who brought much-needed capacity to Truthout’s in-house trending news team, which provides timely coverage of urgent daily political developments, including progressive breaking news updates.

Meanwhile, we mourned the unexpected loss of longtime lead columnist William Rivers Pitt, whose writing was a fundamental part of the organization for over 20 years. To honor his legacy, Truthout established the William Rivers Pitt Fellowship For Emerging Writers, and 2023 saw the hiring of the program’s first two fellows.

But the news cycle never stops, and we brought our readers original reporting, in-depth analyses and powerful op-eds every single day of the year:

We stood witness to an ongoing, multifaceted war on democracy — from voter suppression in the 2022 midterms, to battles at the local level over crucial ballot initiatives — and highlighted stories of organized resistance to these attacks. Truthout recognizes that a war is being waged on U.S. soil against the rising tide of fascism, and our coverage reflects a far right threat that extends far beyond the voting booth.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, we ramped up our coverage of abortion access and dove into imagining what real reproductive justice looks like in practice, uplifting grassroots efforts across the country to achieve this goal. Truthout also documented the right’s increasingly widespread anti-LGBTQ agenda, which has infiltrated classrooms, courtrooms and the Capitol.

We continued to report on struggles for racial justice, from resisting curricula censorship and book bans to movements for Indigenous sovereignty. Truthout also tracked immigration policy at the state and federal levels, from conditions inside migrant jails to the continued construction of the racist southern border wall.

We continued to challenge the idea that there are no alternatives to policing and mass incarceration, partnering with Zealous and Teen Vogue to publish a series of short videos that expose common myths about crime and punishment and offer solutions that center the safety of all to address harm. We were also very proud to launch our new collaborative series with Inquest, “Abolition in Action,” which details the ways in which communities are already practicing abolition every day.

During the “summer of strikes,” we amplified our coverage of a resurgent labor movement, closely monitoring organizing efforts across many sectors. These months also proved to be the hottest on record, and Truthout maintained our commitment to chronicling the growing movement for climate action.

And though we faced a challenging political and environmental climate, we stayed true to our mission of providing the justice-driven, independent news stories rarely found in the mainstream media.

As we approach 2024 and what promises to be a significant election year, we remain committed to honest and brave journalism, supported by you — not by corporate sponsors or billionaire owners. We remain committed to the fight for a better world, and we hope this report will show you just how hard we are working toward it.

In solidarity and with thanks,

Britney Schultz, Editor-in-Chief & Ziggy West Jeffery, Executive Director

William Rivers Pitt was Truthout’s lead columnist and senior editor. He died on September 26, 2022, at the age of 50.

In his two decades at Truthout, Will chronicled and analyzed the political issues of the day, from George W. Bush’s administration and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the rise and fall of Donald Trump, to the dangers of the ongoing pandemic.

Will saw the act of writing as an act of care. In his columns, even as he condemned Trump and excoriated complicit Democrats, even as he spoke out against imperial war, corporate greed, racism and the destruction of the environment, he made his audience understand that they deserved the warmth of the sun and the nourishment of the rain, just by virtue of being human.

Even as he raged against evil, Will loved humanity, and the Earth itself, with an even greater fervor.

Will wanted his words to spur deeds. He urged readers to go beyond simply reading, no matter how small their actions, and he recognized that even seemingly small actions can save lives. “There is much to be done just within reach of your arm,” he was fond of saying, when speaking of the climate crisis. “Do that, and you’ll have one hell of a story, along with, perhaps, people left to hear the telling.”

Will reminded us that when things are hardest, when fascism is ascendant, when war is imminent — that is when we must “dig in,” must “embrace the winter,” must dissent, dissent, dissent.

Will dissented against injustice through his writing, but he also dissented against our culture of individualism and competition through his striking generosity of spirit, which blossomed over time, particularly after he became a father. Anyone who knows Will knows his wholehearted, whole-minded dedication to his daughter. His stubborn hope for our shared future was tied to his determination to help build a world in which his daughter would “get the chance to know what it is to reach, to fly, to rise, to become.”

Through his work, Will reminded us that the fate of the world is not decided. We have a choice: Will we speak out even when we’re not sure our words will make a difference? Will we gather the courage to act in the face of injustice? Will we admit when we’ve screwed up, and transform the circumstances to create more beauty and love in the wake of mistakes? Will we commit acts of radical kindness even when no one is looking? Will we put our faith in humanity, even when the odds look grim? For Will, the answers were yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.

Series & Podcasts

Movement Memos is an ongoing call to action for movement work and mutual aid efforts around the country. Kelly Hayes connects with activists, journalists and others on the front lines to break down what’s happening in various struggles and what listeners can do to help.

Don't miss: Bizarre and Dangerous Utopian Ideology Has Quietly Taken Hold of Tech World

Abolition in Action, a collaboration between Truthout and Inquest, focuses on individual instances of abolition in action, providing examples of how people can — without waiting for state-level change — make abolition a reality in their lives. Because to make revolutionary change, we must start somewhere.

Don't miss: Here’s How Organizing to Abolish the Prison Industrial Complex Works in Practice

Challenging the Corporate University asks: What are the challenges, realities, symptoms and failures of corporatized colleges and universities? Who is impacted and how? And how can we move forward toward a more equitable and liberatory era in higher education?

Don't miss: As Universities Submit to Neoliberalism and Fascism, Workers Must Fight Back

Russia's War on Ukraine in an Age of Escalating Imperial Tensions offers in-depth analysis of the context and effects of Russia’s war, examining how global geopolitics are currently shifting, the dynamics surrounding the resettlement of Ukraine’s refugees, rising nuclear threats, and more.

Don't miss: Options for Diplomacy Decline as Russia’s War on Ukraine Escalates

The Struggle for Caregiving Equity sheds new light on systemic injustices related to childcare, caregiving and parenting in our society. This series makes space for reporting and analysis around these often-overlooked issues and lifts up bold ideas for a world in which caregiving is honored, valued and prioritized.

Don’t miss: End of Pandemic-Era Child Care Aid Spells Crisis for Millions

The Road to Abolition gathers together some of our most important work on the abolition of policing and prisons, pieces that can help us to envision abolition — both the imagination and the practice of it — and move together toward a more liberated future.

Don't miss: Working in Prison Fields Didn’t “Correct” Me, It Revealed the System’s Brutality

Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation covers the struggle for Palestinian liberation in all its forms, from protests within Palestine to international solida_{rity eff}orts and intersections with other movements. This original series also delves into the context and history of Israel’s settler-colonial violence, and possibilities for a liberated future built on foundations of equity and justice.

Don't miss: Our Vision of Liberation This Passover Must Include Palestinians

Voting Wrongs exposes the injustices that deny the vote to millions — and covers the bold efforts that seek to transform the way the United States does “democracy.”

Don't miss: Dark Money School Groups Are Trying to Buy the Midterm Elections for the GOP

Education & Youth

Truthout has been covering what Henry Giroux calls the "fascist plague that is now shaping public and higher education" — the bans against books and critical race theory, as well as other forms of censorship and erasure — since it began. Alyssa Bowen shone a light on the dark money funding the "concerned moms" groups attacking anti-racism in schools; Barbara Ransby called out Ron DeSantis's attack on Black studies (effectively a war on the Black freedom movement) as textbook proto-fascism; Henry Giroux connected the state-based attacks on Black people in the U.S. and the war being waged against public and higher education; and Emily Drabinski detailed how librarians, library boards, students and parents are fighting back. on public education.
The war on education showed no sign of slowing this year, and Truthout was there every step of the way: Clinton Williamson and Elias Rodriques called for national support to resist attacks from the right wing, writing "As we warned in Truthout almost two years ago, the Republican assault on so-called critical race theory was a means of inducing a moral panic, mobilizing an electoral base and gaining control over one of the last publicly funded institutions: schools. … Since then, much of what we feared has come to pass." Eleanor Bader covered right-wing attempts to remove accreditation of public universities which, if successful, could result in everything from students losing access to federal financial aid to degrees earned from those schools being essentially worthless. Given the potential damage, Alexios Rosario-Moore posed the question: “Is the right interested in harming people of color, feminists, progressives and the LGBTQIA+ community, or are they simply trying to control the educational agenda through demagoguery?”
Truthout shed light on the family policing ("child welfare") system, including Elena Gormley's piece covering how the federally funded Title IV-E program uses social work students’ economic precarity to nudge them into the family policing workforce; George Yancy's damning interview with scholar Dorothy Roberts on medical racism and “child welfare," the effects of anti-Black mythmaking and the need to abolish the family policing system; and an interview between Maya Schenwar and community organizer zara raven, who shares a vision of parenting and caregiving that challenges hierarchies of all kinds, and prioritizes listening to youth themselves.
Staff writer Sharon Zhang kept readers updated about the proposal to cancel student debt, which was a major boon for Democrats and President Joe Biden after he announced his plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt for borrowers across the country in August of 2022. This was a considerably smaller plan than progressive lawmakers and activists had called for, as Zhang covered, but was still met with fierce opposition from the right.

LGBTQ Rights

2022 set the stage for a massive rollback of LGBTQ rights, and Truthout authors called for solidarity and action while also uplifting moments of joy, healing, victory and hope. Toshio Meronek and Eric A. Stanley documented the ways that LGBTQ people coped and fought back throughout 2022; Chase Strangio covered the Trans Prom, a creative action held outside the US Capitol; and Toshio Meronek interviewed revolutionary trans activist Miss Major, who has nurtured generations of queer and trans youth.
Truthout documented the anti-trans movement as it gained momentum and became unapologetically focused on exterminating trans people. In interviews with Chase Strangio and Shane Burley, podcaster Kelly Hayes broke down how attacks on trans people are part of a larger fascistic agenda; Florence Ashley & Blu Buchanan explained how the anti-trans panic is rooted in white supremacist ideology; staff writer Chris Walker reported on the 530 anti-LGBTQ bills that were proposed in 2023; Gabriel Arkles covered everything from right-wing attacks on trans health care to the bigoted attacks on LGBTQ+ people and the role of white Christian supremacy in perpetuating and fueling this violence, while Zane McNeill wrote a powerful piece about the right’s lies about an “epidemic” of trans shooters and their push to “eradicate” trans people. McNeill also covered the anti-transgender legislation that swept the country, from restrictions on trans adult health care in Florida to the ban on gender-affirming care in Missouri and Kentucky; the Florida bill that would allow courts to remove trans children from gender-affirming parents to Wisconsin's block on a school district's gender-affirming pronoun policy; and the Republicans' first national bill targeting transgender youth. And, he covered the states that made moves to protect trans residents, including Washington's shield law and New Jersey's efforts to make the state a safe haven for trans kids seeking health care.
We also kept up tireless coverage of the moves being made in Texas and Florida to deny the rights (and very existence) of LGBTQ people, from the proposed expansion of the "Don't Say Gay" policies, to the "Protections of Medical Conscience” bill" (coined the "Let Them Die Act" by opponents) that allows medical providers to discriminate against LGBTQ people, to the purging of LGBTQ books from school districts, to legislative and fascist attacks on drag performances, to on-the-ground reporting from the Capitol on the anti-trans bills coming out of Texas.

Immigration

Adrianna Torres-García and Jasmine Rivera shared a major victory for abolitionists: After nearly a decade of exposing the patterns of abuse and neglect at an ICE-run facility in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the Shut Down Berks Coalition succeeded in getting the immigration prison closed in January 2023.
Truthout kept a close eye on state and national immigration policy: Isa Noyola reignited the call for wholesale immigration reform, writing that President Biden’s "illegal, inhumane immigration policies put him squarely in violation of U.S. and international law." We published many pieces on the Biden administration's asylum policy that was widely condemned by human rights advocates and ultimately blocked by a federal judge, with Camilo Pérez-Bustillo writing, "The Biden administration’s decision to utilize and repackage rather than reject Trump’s amped-up deportation apparatus has come as no surprise." And Zane McNeill covered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's sweeping anti-immigration bill and the resulting protests.
Victoria Law shared the emotional stories of formerly incarcerated people (including trafficking and abuse survivor Marisela Andrade) who were paroled or granted clemency, but now face deportation — to countries where their lives will be in danger, where they don't speak the language, or have never even been to — if they don't receive pardons. coming out of Texas.
Breaking news writing fellow Zane McNeill detailed the chilling inspection reports that found "barbaric" and "negligent" conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. The 1,600 pages of records, which took two years of litigation between NPR and the federal government before being released, are particularly alarming as the number of migrant detentions have reached their highest level since 2020.

Racial Justice

When the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race could not be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies, Truthout responded. Kwolanne Felix wrote about seeing the importance of affirmative action at her Ivy League university firsthand, and called for substantive systemic change, asking, "Why must I be exceptional to have a fair shot at life?" Advocates for racial equity on campus weren't giving up the fight however, with civil rights leaders saying "a 'colorblind' society is a conservative fantasy and schools must lift up students of color." And in response to the ruling, multiple Black and Latinx community groups filed a lawsuit alleging that legacy admissions at Harvard University violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Medical racism and health care access for BIPOC communities continued to be important topics this year, with Jen Deerinwater reporting on the obstacles faced by Native people trying to access reproductive care and Kwolanne Felix writing about how the Henrietta Lacks settlement was a step forward in the long battle against medical racism, given that the medial industry has a long history of using Black bodies for research without consent or compensation.
Truthout fellow Kwolanne Felix brought readers a much-needed update on the local, state and national movements demanding reparations for African Americans. As Felix writes, "Reparations are not a form of punishment for perpetrators but are instead paths to justice, reconciliation and acknowledgment for victims." — to countries where their lives will be in danger, where they don't speak the language, or have never even been to — if they don't receive pardons. coming out of Texas.
Truthout published a number of pieces on "Indian boarding schools," including Maile Arvin's piece about confronting the legacy of colonial boarding schools in Hawaii and Frances Madeson's interview with survivor Linda Raye Cobe, who discusses the growing movement of survivors seeking to heal from the “Indian boarding school” system.and the federal government before being released, are particularly alarming as the number of migrant detentions have reached their highest level since 2020.

War & Peace

As Israel's colonization, occupation, apartheid and genocidal campaign against Palestinians took over the headlines in October 2023, Truthout published critical voices and perspectives that were a direct challenge to the corporate media's narrative — and people listened. As Sarah Lazare and Maya Schenwar wrote, "There is no safety for anyone in a society based on ethnonationalist militarism. ... We have to confront the brutal history of Zionism and unequivocally reject the unspeakable violence against Palestinian people carried out in our name." Kelly Hayes interviewed Palestinian activist Majed Abusalama, who called for strikes and mass action across the globe to stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinians; Palestinian journalist and peace activist Ahmed Abu Artema wrote about facing Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, writing, "By getting to the root, we get closer to finding real justice." And Gazan American physician Dana Elborno wrote a heartbreaking piece in response to the deaths of more than 1,000 Gazan children, asking the impossible question, "How can we even begin to mourn?"
In the months following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Truthout followed the deadly conflict and humanitarian crisis closely. Mike Ludwig reported that even before the invasion, Putin planned to cut off Ukraine's electricity during the winter; Danaka Katovich warned of the suffering that will persist past the war's end due to the depleted uranium being sent to Ukraine by the U.S.; and in exclusive interviews, Noam Chomsky cautioned that by sending advanced weaponry, the United States was only sustaining the battlefield stalemate in a country already facing a major crisis and, after a year at war, it was obvious that this had turned into a U.S./NATO-Russia war via Ukraine.
Ashley Smith conducted many powerful interviews that offered Truthout readers a fresh perspective on the war in Ukraine. He spoke with Russian socialist Ilya Budraitskis about Prigozhin, his coup attempt and the fate of Putin’s regime and its imperialist war on Ukraine; with Ukrainian socialist Alona Liasheva about the nature of the war, the conditions faced by her country’s working-class majority, the popular and military resistance and the Ukrainian left’s strategy in wartime and for reconstruction; and with Lolja Nordic from the Russian activist organization Feminist Antiwar Resistance about the movement against Putin’s regime and its imperialist invasion of Ukraine.

Culture & Media

In her column "Human Rights and Global Wrongs," Marjorie Cohn kept up her tireless coverage of the prosecution of whistleblower Julian Assange. She warned that the extradition, trial and conviction of Assange would have frightening ramifications for investigative journalism and would lead to the end of the First Amendment; wrote about the powerful advocates around the globe who support the WikiLeaks publisher; and kept readers abreast of updates on his case.
Truthout published at length about the distortion and misinformation perpetuated in mainstream media. William Rivers Pitt wrote about the mainstream media's lazy distortion of the climate bill; Steve Macek and Andy Lee Roth asked whether we can trust corporate media outlets to report on the laws set to govern them, particularly as establishment outlets have irresponsibly buried stories on media policy to which they have an awkward relation; and John Collins reported on the corporate media outlets that obscured settler colonialism in their Gaza coverage, making it impossible for readers to accurately grasp the situation.
The topic of a free press remained an important issue this year, with Mark Taylor-Canfield documenting the U.S.’s steady fall in its World Press Freedom Index ranking, from 17th in 2002 to 45th in 2023; Eleanor Goldfield following the arrest of two reporters in North Carolina, warned that if the police can decide who qualifies as a journalist, there is no free press.
We also looked at the silencing of journalists by their own employers. Zane McNeill reported on the six BBC reporters who were taken off air for liking and posting pro-Palestine tweets; and Shealeigh Voitl and Andy Lee Roth covered the criticism faced by The New York Times for its anti-trans bias, which the publication responded to by prohibiting its writers — who helped pen an open letter to the Times in the first place — from participating in any criticism of the newspaper, calling their behavior a "protest" and an "attack."

Human Rights

George Yancy conducted several interviews with disability activists, talking in great depth and nuance about intersections of ableism, racism, sexism, and more. He spoke with Idil Abdillahi in hopes of understanding how sanism and anti-Black racism intersect in horrifying acts of violence such as the murder of Jordan Neely; with Subini Annamma about confronting ideas of "normality" which are rooted in racism and ableism; and with Christine Wieseler, who provides a primer for understanding disability studies and the deep implications for disability justice.
When new documents linked the CIA to medical torture of Indigenous children and Black prisoners, Orisanmi Burton called for us to illuminate the stories of those who were harmed and killed, and linked the violence against Indigenous people, Black people, poor people, disabled people, children, prisoners, women and girls to the violence that continues to find expression in the ongoing "war on terror."
Fascism has found its way into nearly every facet of American life, and Candice Bernd highlighted the struggle against it, from her in-depth coverage of fascist movements targeting drag shows in Texas; to on-the-ground reporting from the Capitol on the anti-trans bills coming out of Texas; to a look at the fascists trying to co-opt mutual aid organizing in East Palestine, Ohio.
As the genocide in Gaza continued unabated, Truthout offered timely, truthful coverage of the crisis that went against the mainstream narrative. Sharon Zhang reported that over 30,000 babies and 52,000 pregnant people were drinking contaminated water; Mike Ludwig reported on the 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners being held by Israel and warned of Donald Trump using the Gaza crisis to push a Muslim travel ban, increasing the risk of white nationalist violence; Kelly Hayes interviewed Palestinian activist Majed Abusalama who called for mass action across the globe to stop the genocide; Palestinian-American writer Sa’ed Atshan wrote about the heartbreak of seeing U.S.-backed war crimes unfold in Gaza; and Rabbi Brant Rosen called for the Jewish community to oppose genocide, writing, "Even as we mourn our dead in Israel, we must acknowledge and protest the genocide Israel is currently perpetrating in their memory in no uncertain terms."

Economy & Labor

Union organizing surged in 2022, laying the groundwork for a radical labor movement in 2023 — even as the Supreme Court got set to eviscerate the right to strike. We followed industries who made history with massive strikes, from nurses in Kansas and Texas to the unionized academic workers at Rutgers University to autoworkers striking and taking on the power of the billionaire class.
Truthout staff reporter Sharon Zhang stayed on the labor beat, covering labor issues as the Starbucks workers’ movement flourished and the company faced multiple complaints of illegal union busting by the National Labor Relations Board. As the movement grew, so did workers’ actions against the union-busting company, as the union organized multiple strikes encompassing dozens of stores. By April 2023 — less than 18 months after their first win — Starbucks workers had unionized its 300th store.
As COVID-era funding and aid came to an end, Susan Kang wrote about the activists fighting austerity in city budget battles in cities like New York and Philadelphia; Eleanor J. Bader wrote about the universal school meal programs being cut despite 1 in 8 kids going hungry; and Sasha Abramsky made the case for COVID relief packages to be permanent, warning that poverty could all too easily boomerang back up to pre-pandemic levels without this support.

Reproductive Rights

In June 2022 the Supreme Court handed down its much-anticipated ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, yanking abortion rights from millions of people across the country. News writer Sharon Zhang leapt into action, covering the ruling as it happened, some of the protest actions in the immediate aftermath, and keeping abreast of the vast chilling effects that the ruling has had on reproductive health. At the same time, Zhang also reported on actions that abortion advocates were taking in response to the extremely unpopular ruling, like Michigan lawmakers repealing their abortion ban and House lawmakers passing a bill banning states from passing contraception restrictions.
In the months post-Roe, Garnet Henderson reported on the climate of misinformation and fear that led people to feel their contraceptive choices were being made under duress; questioned why the FDA was keeping unnecessary barriers in place concerning medication abortion; called necessary attention to the fact that medication abortion is not enough to solve the abortion access crisis; and, at the end of a year of worst-case abortion access scenarios, she wrote about the reproductive justice activists who showed us all what solidarity looks like, and what it means to fight.
Julie Bowen, Lizzie Chadbourne, Emily Janakiram and Alyssa Curcio called for action, making the case for a mass grassroots action to defeat anti-abortion extremists; outlining the importance of a movement to oppose the right wing and defend abortion both on the streets and at the ballot box; and encouraging us all to pursue creative and urgent ways to support people seeking abortions.
Looking toward the future, Lauren Rankin wrote at length about reproductive rights legislation, from warning about the extreme anti-abortion policies of 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, to emphasizing the importance of fighting for procedural abortion access. She even offered a glimmer of hope by reporting that voters had defended reproductive rights in red, blue and swing states, rejecting every attempt to restrict abortion rights in the 2022 midterms.

Politics & Elections

Truthout examined how far right politics around the world relate to the rise of the far right in the U.S., and what those dynamics from afar can teach us about what might happen — or is happening — here. Azeezah Kanji wrote about how international greenwashing is fêting and abetting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ecofascism; Zane McNeill examined how anti-LGBTQ attacks in Hungary are offering bigoted inspiration to the far right in the U.S.; C.J. Polychroniou and Noam Chomsky discussed how right-wing insurrection in Brazil echoed the January 6 insurrection in the U.S.; and Tyler Walicek wrote about the last decade of escalating homophobia in Uganda and elsewhere in Africa, which has been directly instigated and inflamed by our homegrown, all-too-familiar evangelical Christian right.
Henry Giroux wrote a powerful piece about the danger of Trump and his backers as they spread lies, violence and fascism, and make once-marginal forms of violence mainstream. Spencer Sunshine also sounded the alarm about fascism and the far right, from the new wave of neo-Nazism to the movement being built by Trump's far right acolytes, and the growth of the Proud Boys.
Sasha Abramsky and Sam Rosenthal offered thoughtful analysis of U.S. electoral politics, including coverage of the first GOP debate (and the candidates vying for second place); the scramble for control of the GOP in the lead up to the primaries; the progressive victories that may come via ballot measure; and the progressives who won legislation in states and municipalities.
Scrutiny on Supreme Court justices intensified, as lawmakers called for far right justices like Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett to be impeached for their vast overreach and judicial activism. Sharon Zhang covered as lawmakers continued a steady drumbeat of calling for corruption of the Supreme Court to be reined in — especially as, in April of 2023, a bombshell report on Thomas revealed his deep ties to conservative billionaire Harlan Crow. Corruption in Congress also captured attention in 2022, with progressive lawmakers considering, but ultimately demurring on, a stock trading ban.
Truthout covered attempts to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot, with Marjorie Cohn explaining how the Supreme Court has an "originalist" roadmap to disqualify him from the presidency; and both Cohn and Chris Walker followed attempts to keep Trump off the ballot by citing the 14th Amendment, which says former officials who engage in insurrection may not serve as president.
News writer Chris Walker continued his tireless coverage of the federal trial against Donald Trump regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, from the latest Trump obstinance to his nonstop efforts to delay the trial, to his loyalists' attempts to grant Trump immunity from prosecution for his crimes, his lawyer's missteps, and more. in the midterms, as the election showed the popularity of left-leaning platforms and ideas.
Underlying the abortion rights fight in 2022 was the consequential midterm elections, which, as Sharon Zhang covered, saw an explosion of dark money — and a growing number of extremist right wingers ran for office. Zhang highlighted progressives’ victories and conservatives’ mistakes in the midterms, as the election showed the popularity of left-leaning platforms and ideas.

Prisons & Policing

Truthout published unparalleled coverage of "Cop City," an 85-acre, $90 million police militarization and training complex spearheaded by the Atlanta Police Foundation that, if built, would be one of the largest police training facilities in the country. Senior editor and staff reporter Candice Bernd offered readers deep, on-the-ground reporting, traveling to Atlanta after police shot and killed Forest Defender Tortuguita (Manuel Esteban Paez Terán) during a violent raid of a protest encampment; witnessing firsthand how police deliberately targeted First Amendment-protected activity by activists, legal observers and journalists — including Bernd herself; and covering the movement's national expansion to target Cop City’s funders and contractors. Angela Davis and Barbara Ransby called the Cop City resistance one of the greatest struggles of our time, and warned that the continued attacks and repression against environmental and abolition activists — including attempts to paint the movement as a criminal "conspiracy" and the trumped-up “domestic terrorism” charges against 42 Stop Cop City protesters — should concern us all. As one Atlanta organizer put it, "This is a global struggle against fascism, it’s a global struggle against the militarization of the police and state violence against folks whose dissent is being oppressed.”
Victoria Law continued to highlight the cruelty faced by incarcerated people. She wrote about a proposed bill to improve pregnancy care in federal prisons and the reproductive rights advocates in Tennessee who won a concession to end shackled births; reported on the hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people whose lives were in danger due to scorching heat during a historically hot summer; and, together with James Kilgore, covered the incarcerated organizers who are still in fight mode against lethal prison COVID policies.
Amid this galvanizing moment of uprisings and calls to defund the police, Truthout published a number of powerful pieces, from Cherise Morris looking to Indigenous pasts in order to envision a future without police and without prisons to Maya Schenwar inspiring readers to write letters to change the world, and Kwaneta Harris calling for us to abolish systems that criminalize and punish survivors of abuse. And as the new year dawned, Maya Schenwar shared what keeps organizers working to dismantle incarceration moving forward even as millions remain behind bars, writing, "Let’s enter the new year with stubborn hope. With a fiery love that is bigger than cages. And with the knowledge that 2023 is only the beginning.

Environment & Health

Staff reporter Mike Ludwig kept Truthout readers up to date with critical news and information about urgent environmental threats to the public, including cancer-causing benzene being leaked into residential neighborhoods by oil refineries; toxic algae blooms which threaten wildlife, vital economic resources and public health; and toxic PFAS in our drinking water. He also reported on health coverage and the grim reality faced by millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans: He covered GOP efforts to end pandemic emergency orders early, creating wide-ranging chaos across the health care system and leaving 6.7 million children without health coverage; and he reported on the historic "unwinding" of Medicaid, which will cause between 8 million and 24 million adults and children to lose their health coverage by 2024. All this while health insurance giants reported billions in profit — much of which comes from denying medical claims, critics say. Ludwig also continued Truthout's longtime coverage of the fight for Medicare for All, reporting that universal health care could have prevented 338,000 COVID deaths and saved $458 billion in medical costs during 2020 alone. And, as overdose deaths reached new peaks in 2022, Mike Ludwig reported on the Republicans who seized the opportunity to "attack Democrats, immigrants, progressive reformers, and lifesaving harm reduction services in an effort to fill the media with tough-on-crime rhetoric," including scapegoating migrants as a source of drugs at the border. But it wasn't all bad news: Ludwig covered the fight to expand access to lifesaving buprenorphine, a gold standard medication for treating opioid addiction and preventing overdose, which resulted in a major victory for public health and the harm reduction movement in 2023.
Truthout reported on the growing issue of forced hospitalization which, as Leah Harris, Liat Ben-Moshe and Vesper Moore write, is not treatment — it's violence — and makes it easier for cops and medical authorities to "disappear mad, disabled, and unhoused people from the streets." Sara Davidow also challenged involuntary outpatient commitment, which "strips people of power and control in their own lives for reasons rooted largely in bias against individuals with psychiatric histories." And, in an exclusive interview, abolitionist and disability/mad studies scholar-activist Liat Ben-Moshe discusses how carcerality, disability and abolition intersect and how questioning our own knowledge can help advance our goal of abolition.
We continued highlighting the longstanding fight for water, covering everything from the Indigenous tribes still fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatens their primary water source; to the protesters who faced police torture to fight the Line 3 pipeline and became targets in a corporate crackdown on environmentalists; to the vulnerable communities that are at risk of reduced water supply under a new Colorado River agreement; and the activists who are decrying Tesla's plan to build a huge factory in a Mexican city struggling with water scarcity as a prime example of “colonial extractivism.”
Acknowledging the role that colonialism plays in the climate crisis is critical: C.J. Polychroniou's interview with Tess Woolfenden called for taking on neocolonial debt in order to break our global dependence on fossil fuels; and Truthout Fellow Kwolanne Felix highlighted the need for centering decolonization in our climate action, writing that to effectively address the climate crisis, we need a system that champions both people and the planet.

Looking Forward

This year will undoubtedly prove to be a year full of challenging news – and inspiring movement-building. We will be ramping up our election coverage long before Election Day 2024, debunking disinformation, shining a light on dark money players seeking to subvert democracy, and continuing to report on voter suppression – and the grassroots movement resisting disenfranchisement.

Truthout won’t allow other important stories to fall by the wayside, though: We are doubling down on our coverage of the struggles for both reproductive rights and trans rights as the basic right to bodily autonomy is fought in courtrooms and clinics. Truthout will keep uplifting the voices of those fighting for racial justice, from the front lines of would-be “sacrifice zones,” to the movement for reparations, to the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty. For more than two decades, we’ve never shied away from confronting the prison-industrial complex, and 2024 will be no different. Meanwhile, we will also continue to document the growing push for unionization across many sectors in the U.S.; the battle over what students learn, from pre-K to higher education; and the far right threat that undermines human rights and civil rights.

No matter who “wins” or who loses at the polls in 2024, the far right threat isn’t going away any time soon — and neither is our crucial journalism. We remain committed to publishing essential stories that are routinely underreported, even if they fall out of popularity in the mainstream media news cycle during election season.

Despite the challenges ahead, Truthout will pursue the transformative visions necessary to realize a more just world — but your support will be critical.

A tax-deductible monthly or one-time donation is one of the most meaningful ways to invest in Truthout’s work. Whether you can give $10 a month or $50,000 a year, your gift provides the kind of sustainable funding that publications like ours need to survive, and ensures we can continue amplifying the voices of activists, scientists, scholars and truth-tellers from across the nation.

Visit truthout.org/donate to explore the many ways you can contribute. Thank you!

Supporting Our Work

A monthly or one-time donation is one of the most meaningful ways to support Truthout’s work.

Whether you can give $10 a month or $50,000 a year, your gift provides the kind of sustainable funding publications like ours need to survive, and ensures we can continue amplifying the voices of activists, scientists, scholars and truth-tellers from across the nation.

Visit truthout.org/donate to explore the many ways you can contribute. Thank you!

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Year in Review

Top Five Stories of 2022-2023

1. New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners

2. Atlanta Was a Constitution-Free Zone During “Stop Cop City” Week of Action

3. Ron DeSantis’s Attack on Black Studies Is Textbook Proto-Fascism

4. Tax Docs Link Right-Wing “Parents Group” to Leonard Leo’s Dark Money Network

5. Dorothy Roberts Lays Out a Damning Exposé of Medical Racism and “Child Welfare”

In Memoriam:
William Rivers Pitt
(1971-2022)

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Editorial Highlights

Education & Youth

LGBTQ Rights

Immigration

Racial Justice

War & Peace

Culture & Media

Human Rights

Economy & Labor

Reproductive Rights

Politics & Elections

Prisons & Policing

Environment & Health

2018-2023

Year In Review

Community

Donors

Looking Forward

Top Five Stories of 2022-2023

1. New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners

2. Atlanta Was a Constitution-Free Zone During “Stop Cop City” Week of Action

3. Ron DeSantis’s Attack on Black Studies Is Textbook Proto-Fascism

4. Tax Docs Link Right-Wing “Parents Group” to Leonard Leo’s Dark Money Network

5. Dorothy Roberts Lays Out a Damning Exposé of Medical Racism and “Child Welfare”

In Memoriam:William Rivers Pitt(1971-2022)

Editorial Highlights

Looking Forward

In Memoriam:
William Rivers Pitt
(1971-2022)