This is Ben Muessig, editor-in-chief at The Intercept. It’s been a devastating 10 months for press freedom — the worst in modern U.S. history. I’m writing you today because The Intercept is about to make a critical decision for 2026, and I want to explain and ask you to be a part of it.

The blows have come in such rapid fire that it’s been difficult to take stock of the new reality we’re living and reporting in.

A major international report now classifies press freedom in the United States as “problematic.” We have a president with utter contempt for truth and the free press — on full display when he brushed off questions about journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination and dismemberment by saying “things happen.” He’s aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle press freedom.

But it’s not just Donald Trump. Corporate media and much of civil society have cowered and bent the knee at every turn, becoming accessories in his project to create a post-truth America. Meanwhile, right-wing billionaires led by Elon Musk and the Ellisons have pounced, buying up and consolidating our media landscape, rapidly reshaping our entire information environment.

In this most perilous moment for press freedom and democracy, The Intercept is leaning in.

Our small but mighty newsroom of just over a dozen reporters and editors is doing what we’ve always done: holding power accountable without fear or favor. That means investigating Trump’s corruption and corporate abuses. But it also means documenting how decades of letting the wealthy play by their own rules led to our current crisis — and why unrigging the system is the only way out.

But here’s the reality: We can’t do it standing still. To meet this moment, The Intercept needs to grow.

We need to hire more journalists to cover the stories that others won’t. We need to expand our investigative capacity. We need to be ready for whatever Trump and his allies throw at us next — and you know they will.

I’m being blunt: If we can’t grow our team by early 2026, we’ll be covering the most consequential year in modern American politics without the firepower the moment requires. That’s not acceptable.

That’s why I need to ask you for your help. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity by donating $5 now to The Intercept’s Giving Tuesday drive?

Whatever you can give matters. We’re reader-funded, which means we answer only to you. No billionaire owners. No website advertisers pulling strings. When thousands of our readers come together during our fundraising drives, it adds up: Our readers donate 60 percent of our entire budget. That independence is precisely what allows us to do the journalism that’s needed right now — journalism that speaks truth to power, no matter what.

These are dangerous times for press freedom and democracy. But we will not be intimidated, and we will not back down. Far from it.

We will keep doing the hard work. But we can do it only with your help. With your support, we won’t just survive; while others retreat, we’ll advance. That’s the only response this moment deserves.

Please, help us hire more reporters in time to hit the ground running in 2026. Donate $5 now to our Giving Tuesday drive.

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Thank you,