Daily Kos (Opinion)
U.S. left / progressive
Background
Daily Kos was founded in May 2002 by Markos Moulitsas, a Greek-Salvadoran Army veteran who shifted from center-right politics to progressive activism after his military service. Starting as a personal political blog, it grew into one of the largest left-leaning political websites in the United States, combining staff-written news and opinion with a large community of contributor bloggers. The site became a significant force in Democratic Party politics, endorsing hundreds of Democratic candidates and raising millions of dollars for their campaigns through its fundraising infrastructure. Moulitsas also co-founded SB Nation (later part of Vox Media) and the polling firm Civiqs, but Daily Kos remained his flagship project. As digital advertising revenue declined across the industry, the outlet pivoted increasingly toward reader subscriptions and donations to sustain operations, relaunching a formal subscription program in 2024. In May 2025, the outlet was targeted by the Trump Justice Department, which obtained an FBI order requiring Daily Kos to preserve records related to a user account; the site could not report on this until June 2026 after a gag order was lifted. Media analysts consistently rate Daily Kos as strongly left-biased, with story selection and framing that almost exclusively favors progressive and Democratic perspectives.
Sources
- Daily Kos – Wikipedia
- Markos Moulitsas – Wikipedia
- Daily Kos – InfluenceWatch
- Daily Kos – Media Bias/Fact Check
- Daily Kos: About Us
- The DOJ came after Daily Kos. Here's the full story. – Daily Kos
- Daily Kos subscriptions are back! – Daily Kos
- Markos Moulitsas – EBSCO Research Starters
Profile compiled 2026-08-06; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.