Slate is an explicitly progressive, online-only news and opinion outlet founded in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley. Originally launched under the ownership of Microsoft, it was later sold to The Washington Post Company, and ultimately to Graham Holdings, which spun off Slate into The Slate Group, a subsidiary focused on digital media ventures. The company maintains close ideological and cultural ties to left-leaning Washington, D.C., journalism circles.
Slate has always catered to the educated, secular, urban progressive elite. Its writers assume a readership that is college-educated, socially liberal, and culturally avant-garde. Revenue is primarily generated through advertising, podcasting, Slate Plus subscriptions, and syndication—but more recently, the outlet has courted support from left-aligned philanthropy and grant-making institutions, especially in areas like climate reporting and DEI education.
Rather than conceal its worldview, Slate openly celebrates its progressivism. It serves as a cultural organ of the secular Left, aligning its editorial tone with the values of critical theory, feminist activism, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and postmodern skepticism toward traditional institutions such as marriage, church, and nation-state sovereignty.
Slate’s writers don’t pretend to neutrality. The site is a project in ideological evangelism, championing the redefinition of morality, language, family, gender, race, and religion according to the ever-evolving standards of elite progressivism.
Typical Claims and Outlook
Slate’s reporting and opinion essays function more as cultural instruction than news dissemination. Its goal is to shape the moral instincts and vocabularies of liberal-leaning readers by using journalism to push the Overton Window leftward. The tone is unapologetically secular, sarcastic, sometimes profane, and regularly contemptuous toward conservatives, Christians, or classical liberalism.
The outlet’s style is characterized by:
- Headlines crafted for click-driven indignation or affirmation, e.g., “The Case for Drag Queen Story Hour,” “Let Them Have Abortions,” or “Why God is Queer.”
- Deconstruction of traditional values: marriage, motherhood, nationhood, and masculinity are treated as relics in need of redefinition or elimination.
- Uncritical celebration of fringe identities and ideologies, including polyamory, BDSM, transgender surgery for minors, eco-radicalism, and racial reparations.
Slate does not posture as objective—its goal is ideological clarity and cultural transformation. And in doing so, it acts as a training ground for progressive worldview formation.
Specific Incidents of Bias
1. Roe v. Wade Overturn Coverage (2022)
After the Dobbs decision reversed Roe v. Wade, Slate went on an editorial offensive. It published over 40 opinion pieces within a month, each more scathing than the last. Christian pro-life advocates were described as “theocratic authoritarians,” and pro-life legislation was framed as tantamount to “state violence against women.” No essays presented a pro-life defense; no pro-life thinkers were interviewed; and fetal rights were treated as absurdities.
2. Transgender Advocacy in Schools
Slate has enthusiastically supported school policies that hide students’ gender transitions from parents, referring to parental resistance as “religious meddling” or “dangerous ignorance.” An August 2023 piece argued that “trans kids are safer when their parents don’t know”—a headline that reveals the publication’s radical stance on parental rights and bodily autonomy. The article failed to engage with the growing wave of detransitioners or studies showing harms of early medical intervention.
3. Gaza War and Israel Criticism
During the 2023 Hamas–Israel conflict, Slate’s coverage veered into predictable left-wing territory. Israel was portrayed as a militarized oppressor state, while Hamas was softened as a reactive product of colonization. Slate writers referred to Israel’s military actions as “ethnic cleansing,” and highlighted Palestinian trauma while giving minimal coverage to Israeli victims, hostages, or the long history of terror attacks.
4. Mockery of Religious Conservatives
Religious Americans, especially evangelicals, are a favorite punching bag for Slate writers. From mocking Christian sexual ethics to describing conservative theology as “hate masquerading as holiness,” Slate rarely features religious voices except as case studies in backwardness or extremism. The outlet has accused Christian parents of raising “future fascists” and churches of breeding “white nationalist theology.”
5. COVID Coverage
Slate’s COVID reporting parroted the most extreme pro-mandate positions. It pushed for masking toddlers, cheered vaccine mandates without religious exemptions, and promoted government censorship of dissent. In retrospect, little apology or reflection has been offered for Slate’s role in demonizing skeptics or amplifying flawed consensus models.
Slate’s Perspective on 20 Defining Issues
The perspective of Slate on these twenty issues places them clearly in the leftist, Progressive camp.
1. Election Integrity and Voter Laws
Slate routinely frames Republican-led voting reforms as “voter suppression” or “Jim Crow 2.0.” It opposes voter ID laws, signature verification, and limitations on mail-in voting, insisting they target minorities and disenfranchise poor and marginalized voters. Articles emphasize systemic racism in voting systems and support federal override of state election laws via legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
2. Abortion and Reproductive Rights
Few outlets are more aggressively pro-abortion than Slate. It treats abortion not just as healthcare, but as a moral good and symbol of female liberation. Pro-life laws are portrayed as patriarchal control tactics, and Christian opposition is often framed as a form of “rape culture.” The humanity of the unborn is ignored or mocked outright.
3. Gender Identity and Transgender Policies
Slate is one of the most strident supporters of gender ideology in digital media. It promotes “gender-affirming care” for minors, opposes parental notification laws, and insists on the validity of self-ID even for children. Biological sex is treated as a social fiction, and articles dismiss scientific objections or concerns over mental health comorbidities. Critics of gender transitions for youth are smeared as bigots or religious extremists.
4. Race and Systemic Racism
The outlet enthusiastically embraces Critical Race Theory and DEI frameworks. Whiteness is consistently problematized; police, legal systems, and education are described as structurally racist; and reparations are treated as a moral necessity. Slate presents racial issues through a lens of perpetual victimhood and historic grievance, rejecting colorblindness and meritocracy as tools of white supremacy.
5. Climate Change and Energy Policy
Slate promotes the most extreme wing of the climate movement, advocating for decarbonization timelines that would devastate economies. It supports bans on fossil fuels, government mandates for electric vehicles, and punitive taxes on traditional energy sources. Opposition is dismissed as denialism, and economic concerns or energy realism are rarely acknowledged.
6. Immigration and Border Security
Slate portrays illegal immigration sympathetically and supports open-border rhetoric. It opposes deportations, detention centers, and border walls. ICE is cast as a violent, racist institution, and sanctuary cities are celebrated as moral refuges. Little distinction is made between legal and illegal immigration, and national sovereignty is considered a xenophobic impulse.
7. Israel and the Middle East Conflict
Slate is deeply critical of Israel and often sympathetic to Palestinian grievances. It accuses Israel of apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing, and gives voice to far-left anti-Zionist academics and activists. Hamas and Islamic jihadist ideologies are rarely explored or criticized in depth.
8. Second Amendment and Gun Control
Gun ownership is treated as a threat, not a right. Slate calls for bans on semi-automatic weapons, supports strict red flag laws, and ridicules the idea of self-defense. It links gun culture to white nationalism and masculinity, and routinely publishes op-eds arguing that the Second Amendment should be repealed or reinterpreted.
9. LGBTQ+ Rights and Religious Liberty
Slate openly favors LGBTQ+ rights over religious liberty. It supports lawsuits against Christian bakers, florists, and adoption agencies, and calls conscience-based objections to same-sex marriage or transgender policies “excuses for bigotry.” The outlet believes churches should lose tax exemption if they “discriminate” against LGBTQ identities.
10. COVID-19 Policy and Mandates
The outlet fully supported lockdowns, vaccine passports, mask mandates, and censorship of dissenting views. It portrayed COVID skeptics as conspiracy theorists, mocked natural immunity arguments, and supported employer firings over non-compliance. Even when evidence shifted, Slate refused to reevaluate its early pandemic extremism.
11. Policing and Criminal Justice
Slate supports defunding police departments, abolishing cash bail, and reducing prison sentences for violent offenders. It frequently argues that policing is inherently racist and that prisons perpetuate slavery. The outlet has championed policies that led to soft-on-crime prosecutors and rising urban violence without acknowledging negative consequences.
12. Education and Parental Rights
Slate is hostile to the idea of parental oversight in public education. It defends the inclusion of gender ideology, critical race theory, and sexual content in K–12 curricula, and portrays concerned parents as pawns of right-wing extremism. Teachers are celebrated as heroic ideologues while parents are vilified as dangerous.
13. Censorship and Big Tech
The outlet favors aggressive content moderation. It defended Twitter and Facebook for deplatforming conservatives, praised government pressure to censor “misinformation,” and calls for more regulation of “hate speech,” which it defines broadly. Slate treats censorship as a public good and dismisses free speech concerns as right-wing paranoia.
14. January 6 and Political Violence
Slate describes January 6 as a domestic terror attack, an attempted coup, and the greatest threat to democracy since the Civil War. It supports prolonged jail sentences for non-violent participants, frames protest as sedition, and likens MAGA support to fascism. In contrast, it minimized the violence and damage caused by BLM and Antifa protests in 2020.
15. Corporate Wokeness and ESG
Slate lauds corporations that embrace DEI, LGBTQ, and ESG principles. It praises virtue-signaling by CEOs, attacks critics of corporate activism, and supports shareholder activism aimed at enforcing progressive values in business. Corporations that resist the trend are treated as morally regressive.
16. Hunter Biden, Biden Family, and Political Corruption
Slate dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation and has avoided serious investigation of Biden family influence peddling. It paints GOP inquiries as partisan witch hunts and provides little scrutiny of the current administration’s ethics.
17. Trump and the Republican Party
Slate portrays Trump as a dictator-in-waiting and the GOP as a white nationalist movement. It offers no goodwill analysis of Republican voters or ideas, frequently labeling conservative lawmakers as fascists, racists, or misogynists. Election-related lawsuits, religious liberty cases, or education reforms are treated as power grabs by Christian nationalists.
18. Affirmative Action and Racial Preferences
Slate supports race-based college admissions, DEI hiring, and corporate racial quotas. It criticized the Supreme Court’s decision ending affirmative action, claiming it reinforced white privilege and eroded progress. Arguments for colorblindness or merit-based systems are treated as coded racism.
19. International Institutions and Sovereignty
The outlet defers to global bodies like the UN, WHO, and WEF, presenting them as necessary forces for justice and progress. It opposes nationalist movements, warns against “right-wing populism,” and portrays national sovereignty as an obstacle to global progress.
20. Culture War Issues
Slate supports drag queen story hours, gender-neutral pronouns, pornography normalization, polyamory, and public funding for LGBTQ+ initiatives. Traditional values are treated with disdain. The outlet’s cultural section openly mocks modesty, chastity, and Christian morality, favoring instead a libertine vision of liberation through identity politics and expressive individualism.
Where Postmodernism Becomes Policy
Slate is not an investigative newsroom nor a balanced cultural digest—it is a megaphone for postmodern progressive ideology, driven more by moral certainty than empirical reporting. The outlet exists not to question power, but to redefine morality through the lens of secular leftism. In doing so, it becomes a textbook example of how media can reshape conscience under the guise of commentary.
Slate does not merely support abortion—it insists on its virtue. It doesn’t just tolerate gender fluidity—it mandates celebration. It refuses to entertain the possibility that opposing views might be rooted in good faith or classical liberal principles. Instead, opposition to Slate’s worldview is portrayed as either dangerous extremism or backward ignorance.
What separates Slate from other progressive outlets is not only its radicalism, but its lack of nuance, balance, or humility. Articles rarely feature contrary perspectives, and many read more like activist newsletters than journalistic work. Slate’s refusal to engage opposing arguments signals not strength of conviction but ideological insulation.
Why Slate Belongs in the Hall of Shame
Slate belongs in the Hall of Shame because it exemplifies the modern media’s role in cultural reengineering. It seeks not just to inform, but to morally reprogram. Its writers, editors, and contributors act less like reporters and more like secular evangelists—eager to catechize the public in the doctrines of identity politics, sexual revolution, and anti-traditionalism.
Here’s why Slate earns its dishonor:
- Unapologetic bias: Slate doesn’t just lean left—it lunges. Its content is a near-total echo chamber of progressive values, with no effort to represent or engage dissenting voices fairly.
- Cultural contempt: It routinely mocks religion, patriotism, heterosexual marriage, and Christian morality, often ridiculing those who hold to orthodox convictions.
- Activist framing: Whether discussing gender transitions, abortion, education, or climate, Slate adopts activist terminology and frames, reinforcing political messaging rather than asking serious questions.
- Damage to discourse: By portraying traditional views as hate and dissent as violence, Slate erodes civil discourse and pushes ideological opponents out of the conversation altogether.
Slate is not a publication for open-minded debate. It is a factory of progressive catechesis, dressed in sarcastic prose and smug intellectualism. Its place in the Hall of Shame is secured by its disdain for truth when it challenges the dogmas of the Left.
S.D.G.,
Robert Sparkman
MMXXV
christiannewsjunkie@gmail.com
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