Substack Is The New Home Of The Far Left

In 2017, Substack emerged as an independent media venture where journalists could report honestly and fearlessly without the constraints of corporate media. 

Initially, the top-earning journalists on the platform were former progressives who distanced themselves from the trajectory of the Democratic Party, such as Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and Bari Weiss.

The media landscape has changed quite dramatically since then. Twitter is now called X and is open to diverse points of view. YouTube has toned down censorship efforts, for now. And it's no longer as taboo to criticize the Democrat Party.

As a result, Substack has attracted a new type of content provider over the past year. 

Researcher Kyle Tharp found in his "Chaotic Era" newsletter this week that changes to platforms like X have pushed "liberal thought leaders" to three new services: Bluesky, Threads and Substack.

"Newsletter platform Substack is having a moment, fueled largely by an influx of liberal-leaning political and media figures eager to share their takes," Tharp wrote. 

"Online pundits and anti-Trump resistance leaders like Heather Cox Richardson, Dan Pfeiffer, Simon Rosenberg, Norm Eisen, Steve Schmidt, and Mary Trump have built sizable audiences by weighing in on the news of the day," he added.

"Democratic elected officials—including Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, and Chris Murphy—have launched their own publications on the platform, aiming to grow dedicated followings ahead of potential presidential bids," he continued. 

Tharp reports that 81 of the 100 top-selling titles in the U.S. Politics category on Substack are "left-leaning or progressive." And some of them are best classified as "far-left."

Recent additions to Substack include a batch of liberals who were too radical even for the likes of MSNBC, CNN, and the Washington Post. This group includes Joy Reid, Don Lemon, Jim Acosta, Mehdi Hasan, and Taylor Lorenz.

Somehow, Keith Olbermann hasn't received the memo. He'd fit right in:

Tharp says the recent additions to the platform are "building a new echo chamber of left-leaning or anti-Trump commentary" that does not exist elsewhere.

To be clear, Substack isn't behind the shift. The newsletter service, for the most part, lets the market dictate its top-performing accounts.

While it's disheartening to consider how sound the journalism was on Substack five years ago compared to today, the industry is better off with people like Reid, Lemon, and Acosta stuck behind a paywall. 

They used to reach millions of Americans a day. Now, they reach tens of thousands—at most. Their relegation to Substack is a devastating blow to the far left's propaganda machine.

And that's a win for truth-seeking news consumers.