This Thing of Ours
Why we’re not beholden.
Hi, it’s Sarah Longwell. I’m the Publisher of The Bulwark.
We started this thing of ours during the first Trump term. Remember those days? You’d wake up every morning to see what insane or racist thing the American president had tweeted while you were sleeping.
Every day it was something. Little rocket man; kids in cages; senior staff getting fired by tweet and left on the tarmac; very fine people on both sides. Exhausting, right?
Except that this run is even worse.
Trump is an angry, aging strongman obsessed with vengeance. For four years, he’s promised retribution against his political enemies—and now he’s delivering. He’s called for investigations into critics, sued pollsters whose results he doesn’t like, and continues to spread election lies while laying the groundwork to discredit future results if Republicans lose.
What’s worse is how many powerful people are surrendering instead of standing up. Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have cozied up to him in pathetic, self-preserving ways. Shari Redstone pushed CBS to settle a bogus Trump lawsuit, clearing the way for a merger. Major law firms have thrown in the towel, committing millions in pro bono work to Trump-aligned causes. Why? Because they’re scared. Scared he’ll hurt their businesses if they speak the truth.
What I want to know is: What’s the point of being a billionaire if all that money doesn’t give you the freedom to simply say the things that are true?
This is where we’ve been a little lucky at The Bulwark. We’re not beholden.
Maybe Bezos has to worry about Trump going after Amazon. Or CNN has to worry about getting access to Trump officials. Well we don’t have a side hustle; we don’t do access journalism; we don’t have mergers to protect.
Our business is truth. It’s why The Bulwark community came together. Not to pre-surrender and not to flatter our tribal sympathies, either. We’re not members of a party, we’re part of Team Democracy.
That’s actually our superpower. We’re politically homeless, which means we’re not beholden to any cliques. We just say what we think is true and if people get mad at us, so be it. And because we’re an independent media company we don’t have corporate owners telling us what we’re allowed to say.
Right now The Bulwark has a website, nine newsletters, 13 podcasts, and loads of daily YouTube content. We’re growing, right now, adding new reporters to cover Trump’s Washington and expert voices to help guide us through it all.
And here’s the kicker: We give almost all of this away totally free.
The Bulwark isn’t a business so much as it’s a mission. We believe that you can’t save democracy from behind a paywall and that you have to reach as many people as possible with the truth.
By signing up, you aren’t just helping make our journalism possible. You’re also joining a community of people who really care about this stuff.
And ours is a community like no other. Bulwark members are kind, smart people who care enough about America’s future to take an active role in shaping it for the better. They aren’t stuck in tribes—they’re anti-tribal. If that sounds like you, we’d love to have you riding with us.
We hope you’ll consider joining us, because we’ve got a country to save.
Sarah Longwell
Publisher, The Bulwark