It's hard not to be outraged in 2016

The 2016 election is an inflection point in U.S. history. As the first Black president’s second (successful) term winds down, a highly accomplished woman stands to break another historic barrier. Opposing her is an intemperate bully who has openly embraced white nationalism. Stunningly, that unqualified bully has received far more favorable media coverage than she has.

That is incontrovertible. A series of studies and articles have bolstered the case we’ve made for months, that the corporate media are actively tipping the scales for Donald Trump.

Between the relentless double standard Hillary Clinton faces and the endless series of offensive statements from Trump, we view it as a badge of honor to channel the righteous outrage felt across the country.

In his latest column, Charles Blow perfectly encapsulates the reason for this outpouring of passion and profound sense of urgency:

This election isn’t just about you or me, or Clinton or Trump. This election is quite literally about the future, all of our and our children’s and their children’s futures.

The New York Times’ article about Shareblue describes our relationship with grassroots activists:

Just before 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 13, the first Twitter post appeared, directing users to an obscure article about a remark Donald J. Trump had made last year that 50 percent of the country did not want to work.

Over the next 48 hours, 1,819 people, seemingly furious that the news media had paid more attention to Hillary Clinton’s assertion that half of Trump supporters fit into a “basket of deplorables,” lashed out at reporters and news outlets.

“Dear Media: If you don’t cover this, you’re covering for him, #Trump50percent,” wrote one Twitter user.

“@CNN @CNNPolitics have been in bed with #Trump for a year! They refuse to report #TrumpScandals #Trump50percent” wrote another.

By the end of the week, the hashtag #Trump50percent had appeared in Twitter timelines more than 30,000 times.

Other liberal Twitter users, some of them with more than a million followers, linked to the article and spread the same complaint the Clinton campaign had made: that a shameful false equivalence was causing the media to soft-pedal Mr. Trump’s many transgressions and overplay the few it could find on Mrs. Clinton.

At first glance, the Clintonian grass roots seemed to have organically sprouted in anger. But closer inspection yielded traces of Miracle-Gro that led to the sixth floor of a building in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan.

There, surrounded by start-up tech companies, “Star Wars” posters and flat-screen televisions fixed on cable news, Peter Daou sat with his team at a long wooden table last week, pushing the buttons that activate Mrs. Clinton’s outrage machine. Mr. Daou’s operation, called Shareblue, had published the article on Mr. Trump’s comment on its website and created the accompanying hashtag.

“They will put that pressure right on the media outlets in a very intense way,” Mr. Daou, the chief executive of Shareblue, said of the Twitter army he had galvanized. “By the thousands.”

Those “thousands” of people are you, our readers. Without your activism, none of our work would be possible.

Through this election and beyond, we will continue to work tirelessly to amplify your voices and to honor the values and principles that undergird the Blue worldview.

Thank you for everything you do.