$3 Million in the Hole: Steyer and Soros-backed ThinkProgress Shutting Down and Selling

July 2nd, 2019 3:30 PM

It appears that liberal billionaire largess just isn’t going to be enough to prop up The Center for American Progress’s propaganda arm, ThinkProgress.

The Daily Beast broke the news story, reporting “Staff were informed on Monday afternoon that the site would be sold off and a CAP official told The Daily Beast that the organization would begin looking for prospective buyers for the website, which has come under severe financial strains during the Trump era.”

This new development is not surprising.

The Daily Beast reported earlier in June that ThinkProgress 2019 financial projections were already catastrophic, with advertising revenue expected to fall $350,000 short of last year’s budget and online contributions expected to fall $180,000.

The Beast continued, “ThinkProgress has never been profitable. In the past, it has made up its shortfalls with contributions from CAP and CAP donors.” Big contributors to CAP and ThinkProgress coffers included big liberal mega-donor names such as TomKat Charitable Trust (owned by liberal billionaire Tom Steyer), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Silicon Valley Community Foundation and The Sandler Foundation, who are all listed in the “$1,000,000 or More” section of CAP’s donor list. Open Society Foundations (owned by George Soros) is also listed as a major donor in the “$100,000 to $499,000” section.

CNN quoted CAP executive director Navin Nayak on the bankruptcy, “While ThinkProgress’ financial challenges are unsustainable for an organization like CAP Action, we are hopeful that there are publishers who would be better able to support ThinkProgress' mission as a progressive news site.”

In total, CNN reported that ThinkProgress’s total shortfall for 2019 was projected to amount to $3 million.

This is the same ThinkProgress that just recently spent a good amount of its coverage defending Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, (D-NY) by accusing Republicans of creating a conspiracy theory that alleged the GND would “ban hamburgers and airplanes.” They flatly ignored AOC’s own awkward office FAQ release that said the goal was for ‘net-zero’ emissions “because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast [within 10 years].”

ThinkProgress has also been hammered for its malicious accusation of “anti-gay discrimination” that motivated a NY airport to ban the fast-food mega-chain Chik-fil-A from setting up shop in its food court solely on the basis of the chain’s support for Christian non-profits that support traditional marriage values.

NewsBusters also critiqued ThinkProgress in the past for its support of the slaughter of newborn babies as a women’s right through its own ignorant article: “Senators to cast show votes on anti-abortion bill after manufactured ‘infanticide’ controversy,” which foamed-at-the-mouth over the GOP’s “Born Alive” congressional bill designed to protect newborns.