Talking Points Memo

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Update Template:Use mdy dates Template:Italic title Template:Infobox website Talking Points Memo (TPM) is a liberal political news and commentary website that started as a blog created and run by Josh Marshall. It debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a "talking points memo" that was often discussed during the Clinton-era Monica Lewinsky scandal.<ref name='nyt-blogger-rakes-muck'>Template:Cite news</ref> TPM became one of the first online-only political news websites to launch a membership program in 2012. In 2020, the site had 35,000 members.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Early years

TPM was founded as a political blog in 2000 by Marshall, who until 2004 was the site's sole employee.<ref name="Seward-2008">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2005, he incorporated TPM Media LLC,<ref name="Seward-2008"/> and the company began to grow.<ref name=AJR-2009>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In the mid-2000s, the company launched a series of projects under the TPM umbrella. A spin-off blog, TPMCafe, debuted on May 31, 2005. This site featured a collection of blogs about a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues written by academics, journalists, and former public officials, among others. Guest bloggers included politicians, such as then-senators Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders and John Kerry and at-the-time future senator Elizabeth Warren; journalists, including Ezra Klein, Dahlia Lithwick, Paul Krugman, George Packer, Ed Kilgore, Glenn Greenwald, Jonathan Chait, Peter Beinart, Emily Bazelon, Matthew Yglesias, and Michael Crowley; activist Aaron Swartz; policy experts, including Robert Reich and Dean Baker; and novelists Anne Lamott and Jonathan Franzen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> TPMCafe has been described as a "social gathering place for readers to share news and opinion," and a precursor to social media.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

TPMmuckracker expanded on Marshall’s work, with journalists working for the TPM collective, such as Paul Kiel and Justin Rood, investigating political corruption. TPMDC, founded in January 2007, was staffed by Washington-based journalists and covered politics from the capital. TPM Media also acquired from The American Prospect "The Horse's Mouth," a blog by Greg Sargent about how major news outlets covered Washington politics. Beginning in the summer of 2006, many weekend postings were provided by anonymous blogger DK. On November 11, 2006, DK was revealed to be attorney David Kurtz, who went on to serve as an editor for the site.

By 2007, TPM received an average of 400,000 page views every weekday.<ref name="cjr-josh-marshall-plan">Template:Cite news</ref>

Coverage

During George W. Bush’s presidency, TPM closely covered the administration’s effort to privatize Social Security. The site also distinguished itself in 2006 for breaking a series of stories related to the U.S. Attorneys scandal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2007, TPM won a George Polk Award for legal reporting for its coverage, becoming the first online-only outlet to receive the award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2009, TPM opened a Washington, D.C. office and joined the White House press pool to cover the Obama administration, along with several other progressive news outlets.<ref name="AJR-2009" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2019, TPM was among the first outlets to uncover President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2021, TPM was the first outlet to note that Trump had removed the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, BJay Pak, as part of his effort to substantiate false claims of voter fraud.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2023, TPM was the first outlet to report that Congressman George Santos had made charges on donors' credit cards without their permission.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Santos later plead guilty to charges that he had done so.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

TPM is noted for its coverage of the political fringe, including militias, white nationalists, conspiracy theorists and similar groups, stating that it considers them to be “greater drivers of American politics than mainstream news coverage allows.”<ref name="Perlstein">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="About">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2015, TPM was early to identify Trump as a serious contender in the Republican presidential primary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Business

After relying on advertising for its first decade of existence, TPM introduced a subscription service, TPM Prime, in 2012. Between 2016 and 2017, the site’s membership doubled.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2020, the site had 35,000 members.<ref name=":0" /> By 2025, TPM was almost entirely member-supported, drawing more than 90 percent of its revenue from members.<ref name="About"/> The site offers free memberships for students and those who cannot afford to pay.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

TPM’s staff unionized with Writers Guild of America, East in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2025, TPM had 18 employees, with teams of reporters in New York and D.C. Marshall serves as editor in chief.<ref name="About"/>

Reception

Historian Rick Perlstein in 2024 praised TPM’s coverage of conservative activists, comparing it favorably to that of the New York Times. “If you are interested in how the American right went insane, TalkingPointsMemo.com is your actual publication of record, compiling a bountiful archive of the ways ‘extremism’ and ‘mainstream’ merged in the history of the Republican Party from the dawn of President George W. Bush to the present,” he wrote. “It was born, in 2000, at a time of new vessels and styles of writing about American politics.”<ref name="Perlstein"/>

Editor Ben Smith in 2012 approvingly described Marshall's investment in original reporting during a time when other digital media outlets were leaning heavily on aggregation. “I think that the investment in original reporting is something he chose to do pretty early when a lot of other people were thinking aggregation was the future,” he said.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols describe the site as taking a "more raucous and sensational" tone than traditional news media. This includes coining phrases such as "Bamboozlepalooza" to describe George W. Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security, which the blog opposed;<ref name="PublicAffairs">Template:Cite book</ref> and "bitch-slap politics" to refer to the Swiftboating of 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

McChesney and Nichols compare the site's style to the muckraking of Upton Sinclair. The more social aspects of the site, which invite crowdsourcing, were compared to La Follette's Weekly.<ref name="PublicAffairs" /> Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, in 2009 said "TPM is really an advocacy operation that has moved toward journalism."<ref name="AJR-2009" />