I met a 40-something-year-old man at the coffee shop the other day who said he just moved to San Pedro. And after much conversation, I told him I’ve lost a number of friends in the past few years mostly because of their wild belief in one part of the MAGA narrative, or their devotion to the Orange Felon himself. He laughed and told me how his once moderate liberal father had become an intolerant Trumper and his once liberal mother had become a born-again Christian.
I asked him if his dad watched Fox News. “Twenty-four seven,” he said. “He never turns it off.”
This is a story I’ve heard over and over again as right-wing cable news and other far right media have emerged to take over and control the public narrative. In some parts of middle America, cable news is all you get. The only cure for some of these older folks is to cancel their cable subscription — put them on a radical news diet. Listening to all of that hate has got to be bad for their health. I’m sure you have someone in your life who has gone off the edge with the far-right news or whose marriage fell apart because of it. And it’s growing.
Since the 1980s, under the Ronald Reagan years, the Federal Communication Commission loosened the rules on media ownership. It opened up the flood gates to mergers, acquisitions and the creation of media monopolies, and not just TV but radio, newspapers and everything else, but public radio and public TV.
On the national level, CBS has been sold to Skydance Media, LLC, a little known American film production and finance company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by David Ellison in 2006, the company specialized in films, animation, television, video games and sports. Ellison is the guy behind Oracle Corporation. There’s nothing in Ellison’s background to indicate he knows anything about journalism.
Similarly, KTLA was bought out by Nexstar Media Group, the largest local television broadcasting and digital media company in the U.S., owning over 200 network-affiliated stations in 116 markets and a 75% stake in The CW network, delivering local news and content across TV and digital platforms, while also involved in other areas like dance competitions and lighting services.
This media empire is owned by Perry Sook, someone you’ve never heard of but who is a major contributor to Trump Pac and is the CEO that pulled Jimmy Kimmel live when the dust up happened over the killing of far right activist Charlie Kirk.
Then of course you have the infamous Fox News Channel (FNC), an American basic cable and satellite news television channel founded by media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 1996. It competes as one of the top-three cable news networks in the United States, often leading its rivals MSNBC and CNN. And it is the carrier of some of the most outlandish far -right commentators, I don’t have to mention their names.
These are the top three far-right media that in some way report “the news,” which has continued to be called the “liberal press” or the “radical left” by the Orange Felon. The point is that most American media is owned by conservative-leaning corporations that rarely take a stand; even ABC (owned by Disney) only backed the Kimmel show after receiving major pushback from Hollywood and viewers. There’s a reason why more and more people are turning to alternative news sources and not trusting the corporate news — they’ve been bought out and sold their souls. What we have now on broadcast TV are not journalists reporting, but “news readers” that read teleprompters from a script. Long gone are the days of veteran news anchors like Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, who were experienced war correspondents. Where is Edward R. Murrow when we need him?
On the local level they are ambulance chasers, police crime reporters with the daily car chase reality TV thrown in for more titillation. Did I mention the prominence of the sexy weather girls strutting their fashions? Need we really ask why the populace are in numbed disbelief anymore?
So, if you are looking for some relief from the drum beat of the not so liberal 24/7 news cycle, try some alternatives. Democracy Now! heard locally on KPFK (90.7 FM), is a good start, in fact all of the programs on this station are different in their perspectives, public/community stations like KCRW (89.9) (NPR/Variety) and The SoCal Sound (88.5 FM) for music discovery are great alternatives to the drone of commercial radio. One of my personal favorites is The Thom Hartmann Show (also known as The Thom Hartmann Program or The Hartmann Report), a nationally syndicated, progressive talk radio and podcast hosted by Thom Hartmann, focusing on politics, science and culture from a left-leaning perspective, airing weekdays and available online and on various radio/TV platforms like Free Speech TV. It’s a refreshing antidote to corporate media.
If you have someone in your life that has fallen off the far right side, offer them some alternatives. Hey, you might even buy a subscription to this newspaper for that father or uncle that you can no longer talk to. At the very least, it could be a start. If you want to know the political perspective of someone you just met, just ask them if they listen to Fox News.