As distrust in the media increased even more in 2023, which shows saved us?

By Adam Weiss
RAV Contributor

It’s hardly breaking news to declare that the mainstream media has long exercised a strong bias against anyone who dares think outside its hyper-partisan Democrat echo chamber.

However, more Americans than ever woke up to this searing reality in 2023, acknowledging that the partisanship against conservatives is at its lowest ever point and recognizing that “the media” is little more than an extension of the Biden White House parroting a press release.

According to the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, 60% of probable voters believe media bias has deteriorated this year, a six-point rise since its last poll in March. The report also noted that ten times as likely voters think partiality has reached much more of a low point than a high one.

And it isn’t just Republicans who have opened their eyes to these facts. While Republicans, 74% to 2%, responded that bias is worsening, Democrats also asserted this 44% to 11%, and independents concurred 63% to 4%.

In addition, a survey by Gallup and the Knight Foundation published this year found that at least half of the country believes national news organizations “intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.” The dismal level of trust is further amplified by the notion that only a mere 23% of respondents believe journalists in these big-corporatized outlets are acting in the public’s best interest.

It used to be that what prominent media outlets and their star reporters put out there mattered – but with certitude rapidly sinking, most of us can now identify their true colors as little more than propagandists trying to steer public policy on behalf of the Democrat establishment. Hit jobs have stopped working due mainly to the tireless advocacy of Donald Trump. We have a real fighter in the former President – someone who shined a courageous and much-needed light on how skewed the general media is on a wide array of important issues.

One only has to look at the recent op-ed published in the New York Times on Christmas Eve, penned by the Hamas Mayor of Gaza City, Yahya R. Sarraj. The self-titled “paper of record” will happily espouse the hate-filled views of a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, but when Republican U.S. Senator Tom Cotton wrote a thought-provoking piece for the same publication in 2020 on the pros of using our military to squash violent riots across the country that saw the decimation of countless lives and livelihoods across the nation, the liberal-dominated NYT staff went into such emotional meltdown mode that the section editor was forced to resign. Times executives hurriedly apologized to readers under the veneer: “We have concluded that the essay fell short of our standards and should not have been published.”

With such blatant hypocrisy on display, it is no wonder that Americans have lost faith. Nonetheless, there is some positive light in all this lunacy. As more folks wake up to the media’s irresponsible liberal twist, alternative media has become more vital than ever. Let’s tip our hat to some of the beacons of luminosity in the grim landscape – those who dare to illuminate a different take on the world around us and don’t operate on the premise of pleasing the Biden machine.

In terms of podcasts, one should tilt the cap first and foremost to Tim Pool. As a former liberal journalist who worked for none other than the wacky Trump-loathing Vice Media, Tim now operates six YouTube channels, including Timcast and Tim Pool, which feature daily outside-the-box political commentary with more than 1.35 million subscribers on the video-sharing platform alone.

Then there is Patrick Bet-David, the Iranian-born insurance salesman turned entrepreneur and founder of Valuetainment, which boasts 5.1 million YouTube subscribers and 4.6 Instagram followers. Although he is more business-focused than political, David gives a voice to more conservative, albeit common-sense points of view – and with a breath of fresh air, continues to move up the Spotify ranks. Further, we’re ever-grateful for the world’s number one, free-minded thinker Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire a muti-media platform, along with “Louder with Crowder” commentator Steven Crowder and the legendary Steve Bannon, who brings us “The War Room on Real America's Voice News.”

And while once upon a time a conservative mind was limited to tuning in to Fox News, alternative media has given rise to an abundance of fresh and far less corporatized programming – with networks One America's News, Newsmax, Glenn Beck's network The Blaze, and Real America's Voice News leading the way. On-line video platform Rumble has made a huge dent in viewership with shows such as The Kimberly Guilfoyle show, Triggered with Donald Trump Jr. and The Russell Brand show each reaching millions on a weekly basis. 

Regarding digital and print outlets, we must show our appreciation to The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, The National Pulse, Breitbart News, Human Events, the Epoch Times, and the New York Post – all outlets that give a home to truths much of the media will not.

Moreover, no 2023 roundup editorial would be complete without acknowledging Elon Musk and his work to free up Twitter from the censored liberal constraints of Big Tech. As a result, essential perspectives from the likes of Tucker Carlson can continue to independently thrive and reach millions with every dispatch – far more than any CNN and MSNBC show combined.

The truth is: people want the truth, and no matter how many “experts” try to tell you that everyone only reads a headline or only has the attention span for a thirty-second TikTok video, we can see for ourselves that people are listening en masse to the Rogan’s and Pool’s of the world – these are podcasts and videos that often surpass three hours per episode. People want the news. But they want depth, and they want unfettered honesty.

As we head into 2024, expect the mainstream institutions only to double down under the increasing White House pressure on an election year to feed us slanted news. But we’re smarter than that. The concept that free press is essential to democracy is as old as democracy itself. In today’s environment, that means turning to and supporting alternative sources – those who give true meaning to the fundamentals of journalism, distinguishing themselves from government entities and restoring trust in an industry that has steadily lied to and misled.

The facade is (finally) broken, and the majority of Americans are no longer blindly following the talking points. 

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Adam Weiss is the CEO of AMW PR, a New York based political strategy and communications firm. His firm has worked with Jim Brown, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Eboni Williams, Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, Andrew Giuliani, Governor Haley Barbour, Steve Hilton. Anthony Scaramucci, and more.