The year in Popular Information
Pulling back the curtain on the ideological agenda of a media giant. Popular Information revealed that the lead anchor of Sinclair's national evening news broadcast, Eugene Ramirez, resigned over concerns about the accuracy and right-wing bias of the content he was required to present on air. The broadcast, known as The National Desk, appears on at least 70 local television affiliates owned by Sinclair. The report detailed how a small group of operatives embedded in Sinclair's headquarters pushes right-wing propaganda dressed up as news to local outlets, where it is given the imprimatur of mainstream media brands, including NBC, ABC, and CBS. The story was covered in The Daily Beast, the Columbia Journalism Review, and NPR.
Exposing the consequences of Trump's pardons. Jaime Davidson, a drug kingpin convicted in the murder of a federal law enforcement officer, had his life sentence commuted by Trump. Popular Information uncovered that Davidson, after being set free by Trump, was accused by authorities of strangling his wife during a 2023 dispute. Davidson was subsequently convicted by a jury of domestic violence, and, in July 2024, sentenced to three months in jail. Our reporting was picked up by the New York Times, Newsweek, the New York Daily News, the Orlando Sentinel, the Syracuse Post-Standard, and other outlets.
Florida school district removes dictionaries from school libraries. Popular Information broke the news that the Escambia County School District removed The American Heritage Children's Dictionary, Webster's Dictionary for Students, and Merriam-Webster's Elementary Dictionary and other reference materials from its school libraries over concerns that texts may violate a new law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. The law required the removal of any library book that "depicts or describes sexual conduct," whether or not the book is pornographic. The dictionaries were among 2800 books taken from the shelves as part of an "emergency review." The report was subsequently picked up by The Washington Post, CBS News, Inside Edition, The Guardian, Axios, USA Today, and other outlets.
An $18 million cash payment to the president-elect. Popular Information detailed how Justin Sun, a Chinese national currently being prosecuted for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, effectively sent President-elect Donald Trump $18 million in cash. Sun did so by purchasing $30 million in tokens from World Liberty Financial, a crypto company backed by Trump. In a follow-up report, Popular Information showed how the same media outlets that had written hundreds of stories about how foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation created conflicts of interest for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton were largely ignoring Sun's payment to Trump. Following Popular Information's reporting, the story was picked up by The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
Accountability for the politicization of public libraries in Texas. Popular Information reported that Montgomery County, Texas had mandated public libraries move a well-regarded children's book documenting the mistreatment of Native Americans in New England — Colonization and the Wampanoag Story — from the "non-fiction" section to "fiction." The move to reclassify the book as fiction came after a controversial decision to remove librarians from the decision-making process when a children's book is challenged. Shortly after Popular Information's report, the recategorization was reversed, the committee responsible for the decision was suspended, and the county's library policy was placed under review.
How algorithms jack up prices for apartments and hotel rooms. Popular Information laid bare how a potential criminal conspiracy among corporate landlords contributed to a 30% increase in average rents nationwide over the last four years. These landlords are not meeting in a smoke-filled room but are all using a software program, RealPage, which allegedly facilitates and encourages landlords to work cooperatively to increase rents. In a follow-up report, based on court filings across the country, Popular Information detailed how hotels use a similar software to inflate prices for hotel rooms. In collaboration with More Perfect Union, we produced a video about the manipulation of hotel prices that was viewed over half a million times on YouTube and other social media platforms.
Definitively establishing the link between Trump and Project 2025. On the campaign trail, Trump attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he had "no idea who is behind it" and had "nothing to do with them." A July 8 report in Popular Information established that 31 of the 38 authors and editors of Project 2025 were appointed or nominated to positions in the first Trump administration and transition. This key fact was later picked up widely in the media, including articles in USA Today, Business Insider, The Guardian, and the Austin American-Statesman.
More of Popular Information’s reporting from 2024:
POPULAR INFORMATION continues to perform brilliantly. Judd & crew deserve our gratitude and support for the essential work they do. I'm old and poor but together we can chip in to keep this effort going. I can't think of anything more important!
Judd, I can’t even begin to express my gratitude for your courageous independent reporting. As William McCann states above, you are one of the top reasons to support Substack authors.