Daily Kos is not a traditional news outlet in any meaningful sense—it is an activist-driven blog and opinion platform designed to advance progressive Democratic causes. Founded in 2002 by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, a self-described former libertarian turned “proud progressive,” Daily Kos was born in the early days of the blogosphere as a digital megaphone for left-wing frustration with George W. Bush and the post-9/11 Republican Party.
The site is owned and operated by Kos Media, LLC, and its funding model is heavily reliant on small-dollar donors, progressive PACs, and partnerships with Democratic campaign infrastructure. While this may sound grassroots, the practical result is a closed feedback loop of ideological confirmation: readers fund writers who say what readers want to hear, and campaigns pay for favorable treatment from both.
This outlet functions as a hybrid of political warfare, echo chamber, and digital grassroots organizing platform. It is less interested in investigating facts than in energizing its base, demonizing opponents, and advancing the ever-expanding liturgies of progressive morality.
Daily Kos has also partnered with or been promoted by organizations like MoveOn.org, ActBlue, and other major players on the American Left. Its staff frequently overlaps with the Democratic activist class, and its founder Markos has flirted with political candidacy himself.
In short, Daily Kos is a movement site, not a journalistic institution. It is not trying to inform so much as convert, mobilize, and weaponize.
Typical Claims and Outlook
On nearly every issue of cultural or political significance, Daily Kos adopts the most extreme, maximalist version of the progressive position. Its tone is strident, urgent, and frequently contemptuous of dissent. Where legacy outlets like The New York Times or NPR use the rhetoric of neutrality to disguise their biases, Daily Kos wears its ideological stripes with pride. It doesn’t merely report—it rallies, agitates, and moralizes.
Daily Kos is obsessed with race, gender, identity, and “equity.” Its writers consistently employ ideological buzzwords such as:
- “Systemic white supremacy”
- “Cis-heteropatriarchy”
- “Reproductive justice”
- “Anti-trans hate”
- “Democracy under siege”
- “Fascism rising”
It regularly compares mainstream conservative policies to Nazism or slavery and casts opposition to progressivism as inherently evil. This kind of rhetorical absolutism is not simply overheated—it’s strategic. It seeks to make dialogue impossible and political coexistence unthinkable.
As such, Daily Kos serves not just as a forum for progressives—it is a re-education center, teaching its readers not how to think but what to feel and whom to hate.
Specific Incidents of Bias
1. Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation (2018)
During the heated Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, Daily Kos published multiple articles asserting—without credible evidence—that Kavanaugh was a serial sexual predator, a gang rapist, and a threat to democracy. It uncritically amplified the most outrageous allegations, including those later recanted or dismissed for lack of evidence. The goal was not to inform but to destroy a man based on ideological hatred.
2. Election 2020 and Voter Integrity
After the 2020 presidential election, Daily Kos repeatedly insisted that Republican claims of voter fraud were racist conspiracies. But it went further—declaring voter ID laws, signature verification, and even ballot security measures as “modern Jim Crow.” In its view, the mere desire for secure elections is proof of white nationalism.
3. COVID-19 Coverage and Anti-Religious Bias
Daily Kos pushed hard for vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and masking—while mocking churches, clergy, and religious exemptions. It published headlines such as, “The Bible Belt is Killing Itself,” blaming Christian faith for COVID spikes in the South. This reveals a deep hostility to Christian expression, especially when it conflicts with secular progressive morality.
4. War in Gaza (2021 & 2023)
During the Israel-Gaza conflicts, Daily Kos framed Israel as a genocidal, apartheid regime while portraying Hamas as resistance fighters. It minimized or justified terrorist rocket attacks and offered barely a word of sympathy for murdered Israeli civilians. As usual, the ideological lens replaced facts and flattened moral distinctions.
Most Ideologically Reflective Figures
Markos Moulitsas, the founder and namesake of Daily Kos, is a former libertarian turned zealous progressive activist. He has openly declared that his goal is not objectivity or balance, but to build and maintain a Democratic Party loyalist machine. His vision for the platform is not to report the news—it’s to elect progressives and destroy what he sees as the “American Taliban,” a label he applies to religious conservatives and the Republican Party.
Kerry Eleveld, a senior columnist, exemplifies Daily Kos’s blend of advocacy and animosity. Her coverage of gender ideology, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ+ issues routinely conflates opposition with bigotry and hate. Eleveld’s writing often exhibits unreflective scorn toward conservatives, casting them as threats to civil society.
Walter Einenkel, another regular contributor, provides content that reads more like activist screeds than editorial commentary. He frequently levels accusations of racism, transphobia, or fascism against political figures or policies without substantial evidence—relying instead on emotional outrage, identity politics, and progressive orthodoxy.
These contributors reflect the site’s overall culture: hyper-partisan, activist-driven, and ideologically inflexible. The writers are not engaging opponents—they’re writing sermons to the converted.
Scandals and Controversies
1. Encouragement of Harassment and Targeting
Daily Kos has been accused of enabling doxxing and online harassment of conservative figures by publishing inflammatory stories that include names, cities, and other identifying details. Though it may not directly instruct harassment, the tone and content of many pieces encourage a mob response.
2. Retraction Evasion
In contrast to even left-leaning outlets that occasionally issue retractions or corrections, Daily Kos often doubles down on false stories, especially when they target Republicans. Allegations of misconduct—later proven false—are rarely walked back with any prominence.
3. Libelous Content and the Giffords Shooting
After the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Daily Kos writer “blue jersey” published a piece implying that Sarah Palin’s political map was responsible. Though the shooter was later revealed to have no coherent political views and suffered from severe mental illness, the site refused to meaningfully acknowledge its role in spreading politically motivated misinformation during a national tragedy.
4. Anti-Christian and Anti-Israel Rhetoric
Multiple columns over the years have painted evangelical Christians as “domestic terrorists,” equated Catholic teaching with abuse, and described Israel as a “colonialist apartheid regime.” The tone is not one of critique—it is accusation, condemnation, and demonization, consistent with the site’s radical ideological bent.
Daily Kos Across 20 Defining Issues
1. Election Integrity and Voter Laws
Daily Kos strongly opposes voter ID laws, signature verification, and any legislation that tightens ballot access controls. It routinely labels such efforts as racist, invoking Jim Crow comparisons, and accuses conservatives of trying to “steal elections” through law rather than fraud.
2. Abortion and Reproductive Rights
It considers abortion a sacred right and refers to pro-life laws as “forced birth mandates.” The outlet supports taxpayer funding of abortion, the removal of all gestational limits, and actively vilifies pro-life advocates as religious extremists.
3. Gender Identity and Transgender Policies
The site embraces gender ideology to its fullest extent, including the belief that children should have access to puberty blockers and surgeries. Parental objections are dismissed as abuse, and misgendering is equated with violence.
4. Race and Systemic Racism
Daily Kos is immersed in critical race theory and intersectionality. It sees American history as a continuous story of racial oppression and supports reparations, DEI mandates, and affirmative action in every sphere of life.
5. Climate Change and Energy Policy
The platform calls for the immediate end of fossil fuels, full implementation of Green New Deal policies, and has even promoted eco-socialist ideas. It frames climate skepticism as equivalent to flat-eartherism or moral depravity.
6. Immigration and Border Security
Daily Kos opposes almost every form of immigration enforcement. It supports open borders, sanctuary cities, DACA expansion, and amnesty, while smearing concerns about illegal immigration as racist fearmongering.
7. Israel and the Middle East Conflict
It regularly promotes anti-Israel narratives, sympathizes with Hamas-aligned rhetoric, and refers to Israel as a settler-colonial state. U.S. support for Israel is portrayed as evidence of neocolonialism and Zionist lobbying.
8. Second Amendment and Gun Control
Daily Kos favors total disarmament of civilians. It routinely mocks gun ownership as paranoid and dangerous and supports federal gun registries, “assault weapons” bans, and even repealing the Second Amendment.
9. LGBTQ+ Rights and Religious Liberty
Religious objections to LGBTQ+ ideology are treated as bigotry. Daily Kos supports forcing religious institutions, businesses, and schools to comply with progressive interpretations of sexual and gender identity under threat of legal penalty.
10. COVID-19 Policy and Mandates
It was a fierce advocate for lockdowns, mandates, and vaccine passports, often mocking dissenters and suggesting that those skeptical of public health narratives were ignorant, dangerous, or deserving of exclusion from society.
11. Policing and Criminal Justice
The outlet promoted “defund the police” with enthusiasm, calling law enforcement inherently racist and corrupt. It supported the election of progressive district attorneys who refused to prosecute theft, assault, and drug offenses in major cities.
12. Education and Parental Rights
It supports school-based instruction in gender theory, anti-racism, and “queer-inclusive” curricula, while criticizing parents who seek greater oversight or challenge school board policies. School choice is labeled as “white flight.”
13. Censorship and Big Tech
Daily Kos believes that “content moderation” is necessary to prevent hate and disinformation. It opposes free speech platforms, criticizes Elon Musk for restoring banned accounts, and encourages the deplatforming of conservative media.
14. January 6 and Political Violence
It treats January 6 as a full-blown insurrection and existential threat to democracy. It often equates Trump supporters with white supremacists and militia members while ignoring or minimizing BLM and Antifa violence.
15. Corporate Wokeness and ESG
Daily Kos applauds woke corporate initiatives and ESG compliance, viewing them as signs of moral progress. It denounces anti-ESG campaigns as fascist and anti-diversity.
16. Hunter Biden, Biden Family, and Political Corruption
It dismisses allegations against Hunter Biden as conspiracy theories, discredits the laptop story, and frames scrutiny of the Biden family as Russian disinformation or “MAGA propaganda.”
17. Trump and the Republican Party
The outlet casts Trump as a fascist threat and routinely refers to the GOP as the party of white nationalism, Christian theocracy, and minority voter suppression. It favors aggressive legal and financial attacks on conservative figures.
18. Affirmative Action and Racial Preferences
It supports affirmative action in every sector and attacks colorblind merit-based systems as inherently racist. It argues that racial disparities require unequal treatment to correct historical injustice.
19. International Institutions and Sovereignty
The platform supports expanded authority for international organizations such as the UN, WHO, and WEF, often proposing global governance solutions for health, climate, and digital policy.
20. Culture War Issues
Daily Kos promotes drag queen story hours, defends explicit sexual content in school libraries, and endorses criminal penalties for “hate speech” that challenges progressive orthodoxy. It frames traditional Christian morality as oppressive and outdated.
Conclusion
Daily Kos does not pretend to be a neutral observer or even a traditional journalistic outlet. It proudly exists to advance the progressive cause, promote Democratic Party dominance, and dehumanize all political opposition. That honesty, however, is not a virtue—it’s an admission that what Daily Kos offers is not information but ideological warfare.
Its writers do not engage with opponents in good faith. Conservatives, Christians, constitutionalists, and classical liberals are not people with arguments—they are enemies to be defeated, mocked, and silenced. The result is a publication that cultivates contempt rather than thought, fear rather than discernment, and rage rather than resolution.
The site’s frequent use of dehumanizing labels—fascist, Nazi, domestic terrorist—functions as a rhetorical club meant to shut down conversation. Its habit of moral absolutism makes compromise impossible. And its celebration of censorship, soft totalitarianism, and state-enforced ideology reveals a movement that no longer values the First Amendment, let alone the marketplace of ideas.
Although not a household name like The New York Times, Daily Kos wields influence by shaping the minds and marching orders of the activist class. It serves as a strategic hub for:
- Progressive campaign talking points
- Movement-wide fundraising
- Voter mobilization in swing states
- Narrative alignment with PACs and dark money groups
- Aggressive social media amplification
It also trains a generation of young progressives—often college students and post-grads—to view dissent as danger, and disagreement as evil. In doing so, it hardens ideological lines and deepens national division.
Unlike outlets that at least attempt to hide their biases, Daily Kos demands you pick a side. And if you choose to uphold the Constitution, defend the unborn, or protect the biological definition of male and female—you are the enemy in their eyes.
Daily Kos is not simply left-leaning. It is militantly ideological, deeply dishonest in its framing, and recklessly divisive in its tone. It incites, exaggerates, and distorts—using selective outrage and manufactured victimhood to radicalize its readers. Its coverage is filtered through a Neo-Marxist lens in which power, privilege, race, and sexual identity are the only currencies that matter.
For these reasons, Daily Kos belongs firmly in the Hall of Shame—a repository for activist platforms masquerading as journalism, whose effect on civic life is not enlightenment but agitation, not unity but permanent revolution.
It has abandoned the press’s nobler mission—to inform with truth—and chosen instead to become the propaganda wing of an ideology committed to upending family, faith, and freedom.
S.D.G.,
Robert Sparkman
MMXXV
christiannewsjunkie@gmail.com
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