NowThis is a digital media outlet that specializes in short-form video content targeting young, left-leaning social media users. Founded in 2012 by former Huffington Post co-founder Kenneth Lerer and former CNN executive Eric Hippeau, NowThis quickly gained traction for its mobile-first format and highly stylized, emotionally driven video news clips. Its hallmark is short, engaging videos meant to go viral on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.
NowThis is owned by Lemonada Media, which absorbed the brand as part of a broader reorganization following the collapse of its previous parent company, Group Nine Media. Before that, NowThis had merged into Vox Media through Group Nine, and operated under the same progressive digital umbrella as The Dodo, Thrillist, and Seeker. These partnerships revealed the brand’s DNA: highly visual, culturally tuned, and explicitly left-of-center.
NowThis has received funding from backers with strong progressive credentials. One of its early investors was Lerer Hippeau Ventures, a firm tied to multiple media startups with liberal leanings. While NowThis doesn’t rely on traditional subscription models or large corporate advertising in the way legacy media does, it makes up for it by producing sponsored content—including political messaging aligned with progressive causes and Democratic Party objectives.
In fact, during the 2020 election cycle, NowThis served as a de facto propaganda arm for the Democratic National Committee, regularly interviewing left-wing candidates and promoting their messages uncritically. They coordinated video events with the Biden campaign, and some of their content was so aligned with campaign messaging that critics questioned whether NowThis should have registered as a political advocacy group rather than a news source.
Editorially, NowThis operates under a worldview that conflates activism with journalism. Its reporting assumes the legitimacy of progressive narratives—from racial equity to LGBTQ+ affirmation to climate alarmism—without ever considering competing perspectives. The outlet frames progressive positions as morally obvious and opposition as dangerous, backward, or bigoted.
This is not traditional news. It is agenda-driven storytelling designed to evoke emotion and move opinion, especially among Gen Z and young Millennials. Its format favors slick visuals and punchy subtitles over depth, making it a vehicle for ideological messaging more than sober information.
NowThis on 20 Ideological Flashpoints
Predictably, NowThis aligns with the left in regards to these issues. These issues define the boundaries between conservative and leftist ideology.
1. Election Integrity and Voter Laws
NowThis consistently portrays Republican-backed election laws as suppressive and racially motivated. Voter ID requirements are framed as disenfranchisement tools, particularly against minorities. They embrace the narrative that election integrity laws are thinly veiled attempts to undermine democracy, while dismissing concerns about fraud as conspiratorial or racist.
2. Abortion and Reproductive Rights
NowThis is militantly pro-abortion. It frames the issue as one of bodily autonomy and gender justice, often glorifying abortion providers and activists. Pro-life laws are characterized as regressive, misogynistic, and religiously oppressive. Crisis pregnancy centers are usually maligned or ignored.
3. Gender Identity and Transgender Policies
The outlet strongly affirms gender ideology. NowThis promotes “gender-affirming care,” celebrates teen transitions, and uses preferred pronouns uncritically. Critics of these positions are branded transphobic, and concerns about child safeguarding are absent or ridiculed. Biological sex is treated as a social construct.
4. Race and Systemic Racism
NowThis frames virtually every major issue through the lens of systemic racism. The outlet uncritically promotes Critical Race Theory, white privilege, and equity policies. Colorblindness is portrayed as naive or harmful, and American history is often summarized as a narrative of white oppression.
5. Climate Change and Energy Policy
NowThis pushes aggressive climate alarmism and backs rapid decarbonization, Green New Deal policies, and anti-fossil fuel legislation. It promotes the view that the planet has only a narrow window for survival and vilifies climate skeptics as corporate shills or science-deniers.
6. Immigration and Border Security
Illegal immigration is never framed as a legal or security issue. NowThis consistently sympathizes with undocumented immigrants, opposes deportation efforts, and supports sanctuary cities. Border walls are portrayed as xenophobic, and ICE is routinely demonized.
7. Israel and the Middle East Conflict
NowThis often sides with pro-Palestinian narratives, amplifying voices that accuse Israel of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. It frequently omits or downplays Hamas terrorism and avoids acknowledging Israel’s right to self-defense. U.S. support for Israel is portrayed as morally suspect.
8. Second Amendment and Gun Control
The outlet is firmly anti-gun. NowThis blames mass shootings on legal gun ownership, calls for bans on assault weapons, and promotes gun control as a moral imperative. It rarely covers stories involving defensive gun use or the constitutional logic of the Second Amendment.
9. LGBTQ+ Rights and Religious Liberty
NowThis is a fierce advocate for LGBTQ+ causes and routinely frames religious liberty as a disguise for bigotry. It promotes drag shows, transgender rights in schools, and same-sex marriage while mocking traditional Christian convictions as outdated or harmful.
10. COVID-19 Policy and Mandates
During the pandemic, NowThis strongly supported lockdowns, masking, vaccine mandates, and censorship of so-called “misinformation.” It dismissed dissenting voices—even respected scientists—and portrayed government overreach as responsible governance. Natural immunity and vaccine risks were largely ignored.
11. Policing and Criminal Justice
NowThis supports the “defund the police” movement and routinely casts law enforcement as systemically racist. Police shootings are framed through a racial justice lens, and the outlet frequently ignores facts that don’t fit activist narratives. It promotes bail reform, decarceration, and soft-on-crime policies.
12. Education and Parental Rights
Teachers are viewed as moral heroes, and parents who object to progressive curricula are framed as extremists. NowThis defends CRT in schools, promotes DEI training, and supports gender identity education in K-12 classrooms. Parental concerns are often dismissed as manufactured moral panic.
13. Censorship and Big Tech
NowThis supports social media censorship when it aligns with progressive causes. It favors moderation of speech labeled as “hate” or “disinformation”—especially on issues like COVID, gender, and elections. It defends government pressure on platforms as necessary for public safety.
14. January 6 and Political Violence
January 6 is routinely referred to as an insurrection and existential threat to democracy. NowThis gives extensive coverage to the event and its aftermath while minimizing or ignoring left-wing violence during the 2020 riots. The term “domestic terrorism” is used selectively.
15. Corporate Wokeness and ESG
NowThis celebrates corporations that embrace DEI, LGBTQ+ pride campaigns, and ESG initiatives. It promotes climate-conscious capitalism and views conservative backlash as regressive. Brands that take progressive stands are praised for “doing the right thing.”
16. Hunter Biden, Biden Family, and Political Corruption
Scandals involving Hunter Biden are minimized, ignored, or reframed as partisan smear campaigns. NowThis never seriously investigates the laptop or business deals, and often pivots to attacks on Trump when the issue arises. Its loyalty to Democratic leadership is unflinching.
17. Trump and the Republican Party
Donald Trump is portrayed as the embodiment of white supremacy, authoritarianism, and moral rot. MAGA voters are labeled extremists. The GOP is described as anti-democratic and dangerous. Even moderate conservatives are treated with suspicion or dismissed as enablers.
18. Affirmative Action and Racial Preferences
NowThis supports racial quotas and affirmative action, viewing them as necessary correctives to systemic racism. It condemns the Supreme Court’s rulings against race-based admissions as attacks on equity. Meritocracy is criticized as a myth.
19. International Institutions and Sovereignty
NowThis promotes global governance through organizations like the UN and WHO. It embraces pandemic treaties, climate accords, and global tax initiatives. National sovereignty is often portrayed as an obstacle to progress and justice.
20. Culture War Issues
NowThis is on the radical front lines of the culture war. It promotes drag queen story hours, gender-neutral language, abortion-as-freedom messaging, and redefinition of hate speech. Traditional values are treated as repressive. Christianity is acknowledged only when aligned with progressive activism.
Final Evaluation and Conclusion
NowThis represents the culmination of progressive media’s drift away from journalism and toward ideological storytelling. Its content is designed not to inform but to persuade—and often, to inflame. Rather than uncovering facts, NowThis cherry-picks narratives that align with its worldview and packages them in slick, high-emotion, short-form videos perfect for viral sharing among politically impressionable users.
The platform cultivates a sense of moral urgency—often portraying America as fundamentally unjust and in desperate need of radical change. Complex issues are reduced to hashtags. Conservative viewpoints are ignored, misrepresented, or outright vilified. The consistent message is that Progressives are on the right side of history and all dissenters are oppressive or ignorant.
The reliance on bite-sized visual content does more than simplify—it manipulates. Video after video pairs sad music and social justice slogans with selective facts and one-sided commentary. This is not journalism; it is emotive activism masquerading as news.
What makes NowThis especially dangerous is its target audience: young, often underinformed consumers who lack a historical or philosophical framework to critically evaluate what they’re seeing. With its smooth production and Gen Z-friendly aesthetic, NowThis delivers highly ideological content under the guise of cultural awareness and “doing the work.”
NowThis belongs in the Hall of Shame not simply because it’s progressive—but because it is entirely hostile to the foundations of informed public discourse. It commits the following transgressions:
- Deceptive Framing: It presents one-sided political messages as objective updates, often omitting vital context and demonizing opposition.
- Activism Masquerading as Journalism: NowThis wears the trappings of a news outlet but acts as a propaganda machine for leftist causes.
- Cultural Indoctrination: Through repetitive, emotionally charged content, it conditions viewers—especially the young—to see the world through an ideologically rigid lens.
- Suppression of Dissent: It never engages conservative ideas in good faith. It doesn’t debate—it dismisses, shames, and cancels.
- Evangelism of Neo-Marxist Categories: Whether it’s race, gender, climate, or capitalism, NowThis consistently promotes a worldview rooted in class struggle, deconstruction of tradition, and redistribution of power.
Ultimately, NowThis represents a media future divorced from objectivity and hostile to Judeo-Christian values, constitutional governance, and civil discourse. It is a media outlet not for truth-seekers, but for ideological loyalists—and it earns its place in the Hall of Shame as one of the most influential propaganda tools shaping the next generation toward radical progressivism.
S.D.G.,
Robert Sparkman
MMXXV
christiannewsjunkie@gmail.com
RELATED CONTENT
Concerning the Related Content section, I encourage everyone to evaluate the content carefully.
If I have listed the content, I think it is worthwhile viewing to educate yourself on the topic, but it may contain coarse language or some opinions I don’t agree with.
Realize that I sometimes use phrases like “trans man”, “trans woman”, “transgender” , “transition” or similar language for ease of communication. Obviously, as a conservative Christian, I don’t believe anyone has ever become the opposite sex. Unfortunately, we are forced to adopt the language of the left to discuss some topics without engaging in lengthy qualifying statements that make conversations awkward.
Feel free to offer your comments below. Respectful comments without expletives and personal attacks will be posted and I will respond to them.
Comments are closed after sixty days due to spamming issues from internet bots. You can always send me an email at christiannewsjunkie@gmail.com if you want to comment on something afterwards, though.
I will continue to add videos and other items to the Related Content section as opportunities present themselves.