Article courtesy of Mediaite, written by John Ziegler
I have written many times on this outlet about the dangers of Donald Trump’s candidacy. Last year, I predicted how the conservative media was going to allow him to at least negatively alter the process, if not win the GOP nomination. Now that he has effectively clinched that nomination (or at least created a situation where it would require an unprecedented act to stop him), someone needs to explain, from a media perspective, how and why this happened. Since no other conservative has both the guts and the knowledge to do so, I guess that person will be me.
To fully understand how and why the “conservative” (I use that term loosely) media willingly enabled this hostile takeover of the Republican Party, you primarily need to comprehend what a fraud the entire industry is. In short, the vast majority of “conservative” media is simply just a business cynically disguised as a cause.
The reason this is the case is actually quite simple. Because the vast majority of “newsish” media outlets are overtly liberal, the business model and employment opportunities (or lack thereof) on the right are vastly different from the rest of the media.
Liberals have an abundance of chances to opine on network television, major newspapers and books from mainstream publishers, usually without any serious worries about having to sell products or get ratings. Meanwhile, radio talk show hosts and Fox News anchors are forced to fight for every possible ratings point (usually against people allegedly on the same “team”) and often sell their souls to maintain their ability to sell soap. Conservative websites, with the exception of the Drudge Report, are in a constant battle to stay afloat, often with badly broken business models.
This dynamic set up a perfect storm of circumstances for “Trumpsanity” to overtake the process and ultimately produce a result about as unjust and destructive as the OJ Simpson verdict. There is even evidence that Trump understood this reality and designed his campaign’s launch during the slowest news period to take advantage of it.
The next thing you need to appreciate is how the “conservative” media operates. While the dynamic has shifted somewhat recently, Matt Drudge is effectively the “assignment editor” for much of talk radio, most right-leaning websites, and a significant portion of Fox News Channel. If a story is linked on the Drudge Report, it may not get reported everywhere in the “conservative” media, but it will at least get strongly considered. If Drudge wants a certain narrative to gain traction in conservative circles, he has more power to make that happen than anyone else.