I’m thrilled to announce that Lee Fang will be joining The Intercept as Investigative Reporter.
Lee has focused his journalism on the myriad ways powerful industries and individuals in Washington use their money, connections and clout to promote public policies that further entrench their power. His exposés have shown how this feedback loop operates at think tanks and media organizations as well as on K Street and in the halls of Congress. At The Intercept, Lee will continue to cover political corruption in a range of areas, from energy to war to financial regulation, with special attention to the murky world of military and intelligence contracting—what James Risen has called “the Homeland Security Industrial Complex.”
Having edited Lee’s articles at The Nation before joining the Intercept, I couldn’t be more excited to be working with him again. Like all good investigative reporters, Lee always has more great stories up his sleeve than any single person could possibly write. It’s often impossible to choose just one, which is exactly the kind of problem an editor wants to have.
After starting out as a blogger for ThinkProgress, Lee became a fellow with The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund in 2012, and he has contributed to The Nation, Vice, Republic Report, BillMoyers.com and other outlets. He published his first book, The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right, in 2013.
He will be based in First Look Media’s San Francisco office beginning on February 17.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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