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Everyone is panicking about media consolidation. No need to worry—we have a solution.
If you've spent the last week watching people panic—rightly, wrongly, or just recreationally—about media consolidation, you're not alone. Everyone from President Donald Trump to the janitor at Netflix to the Kalshi guy is waiting with bated breath to find out what is going to happen next in the media industry. Regulators and unions are hovering over the deathbed of legacy media, ready to pick the corpse clean—or go full Mary Shelley on the parts.
Meanwhile, political pressure over media consolidation doesn't just change logos or how many streaming charges show up on your credit card statement. It changes incentives. It squeezes editors, narrows the range of permissible weirdness, and creates homogeneity—often right when audiences most need honest reporting and argument that isn't filtered through a corporate risk committee and the terrifying chill of regulatory oversight.
Today is the last official day of Reason's annual webathon. After this, we promise to stop pestering you. This is the one time of year we ask the people who read us, watch us, listen to us, and yell at us in the comments to fund the work directly.
So please donate!
Reason is truly independent. We have lots of donors who support our work because they believe in the importance of what we do. We don't have one sugar daddy like other publications, we're nobody's corporate tax write-off. And of course, we have never and would never take government money. We cover civil liberties and free speech and criminal justice and economics and innovation (plus fun cultural stuff) and we do it from a place of deeply held principles.
We also wear those principles on our sleeves, so you know what you're getting.
When the rest of the media is getting bigger, more boring, and more vulnerable to government pressure or bottlenecking, it's even more important that at least a few institutions remain independent enough to be honest. If you want a place that can call balls and strikes—on the right, the left, and the nuance crowd—this is how you keep it alive.
If you've been meaning to give, today is the day. The webathon ends, the match won't last forever, and with your help we can keep doing the kind of work that makes powerful people annoyed in an intellectually interesting way.
Because I know you're also here for the perks: Donations come with swag. At the entry level you get a year of Reason Plus (ad-free browsing, early access to the magazine, commenting privileges, live online events, and archive access), and as you go up the ladder you can add a Reason camper mug, a Reason-branded scarf, Jacob Sullum's new book (Beyond Control), Torchbearer status (with Reason Weekend eligibility), a special pin and a shoutout on The Reason Roundtable, and—at the highest tiers—either lunch with a Reason editor in D.C. or New York or a first-timer ticket to Reason Weekend.
If you value genuinely independent journalism in an era of giant mergers, giant regulators, and giant incentives to play it safe: please donate today.
