Indiana does not have a healthy media ecosystem — we have a right-wing disinformation bubble.
Across Indiana, hometown newspapers were gutted by consolidation, hedge-fund ownership, and private-equity strip-mining. Craigslist killed the classified section, where many papers made their money. Starved of resources, newsrooms were slashed. Beats disappeared. Investigative reporting became a luxury item. Papers that once showed up on porches every morning now show up a few times a week, if at all — filled with wire copy, press releases, and recycled content that rarely challenges anyone in power.
Print was far from the only front in this war.
In town after town, “local” radio stations still give you the weather and high school sports. But for hours every day, the rest of the programming is nationally syndicated right-wing outrage, grievance politics, and culture-war sludge that has nothing to do with Hoosiers’ lives and everything to do with keeping people angry, afraid, and misinformed.
Local television followed the same path, increasingly controlled by a small number of conservative-leaning conglomerates that centralize decision-making, hollow out newsrooms, and quietly shape coverage to amplify their retrograde worldview. The 11 o’clock news overemphasizes urban street crime, ignoring the far greater crimes committed in boardrooms, churches, and the Statehouse.
At the national level, corporate news has proven how fragile it is. Faced with political pressure, too many outlets have chosen access over truth and timidity over accountability. The best-case scenarios have seen journalists pulling punches, the worst seeing hostile takeovers of entire networks, once proud brands reduced to a form of state media. Lies are laundered as “both sides,” authoritarian behavior normalized, the knee fully bent.
Meanwhile, public media is being deliberately starved. Funding cuts to PBS and NPR are not unfortunate casualties — they are targeted attacks on reliable, unbiased news.
Then comes the flood.
Right-wing donors, dark-money foundations, and hostile foreign actors are pouring resources into podcasts, YouTube channels, and so-called independent media. The goal isn’t persuasion — it’s confusion. Overwhelm people with half-truths, conspiracies, and noise until trust itself collapses.
This wasn’t the “invisible hand” of market forces, though that played a role.
No, this bubble was intentionally created and inflated.
And the Progressive Indiana Network exists to stick a PIN in it.
PIN is a hub — a signal boost for the progressive Hoosier writers, researchers, activists, and content creators already doing the work, often without the audience they deserve. Not national talking points parachuted into the state. Not consultant-approved mush. We point to and amplify the real local voices grounded in Indiana communities, covering the decisions, policies, and power structures that actually shape our lives.
PIN is THE home of HoosLeft and Hold ‘em Accountable, and the distributor of the Concerned Clergy podcast. But we also amplify and curate content from other progressive Hoosiers — because the fight for Indiana’s political future is bigger than any one show, or any one network.
We are doing this because local news should be more than propaganda smuggled under a letterman’s jacket. Because democracy cannot survive without shared facts. Because working people deserve coverage that treats them as citizens instead of non-playable characters.
We do not serve power.
We do not serve a party.
We serve the people of Indiana.
“Stick a PIN in it” is not a slogan. It is a statement of intent.
Sorry, not sorry, to burst their bubble.
And so we begin....
Fuck Yeah! That’s how we do it! 👏😎💙