How the Right Won the Media War — And What We Can Still Do About It

A three-part exploration of how the American right built a decentralized, emotionally resonant, and wildly effective media empire—while traditional media crumbled and progressives got stuck in outdated campaign tactics.

Part 1: The Collapse of Trust — How the Right Fills the Void Left by Mainstream Media

From local news to national credibility, here’s how mainstream media lost the narrative—and who picked it up

America didn’t just wake up one day flooded with memes, conspiracy theories, and cable pundits shouting in bad faith. The rise of the right-wing media machine didn’t happen in a vacuum. It grew in the cracks left by the slow collapse of mainstream media—especially local journalism.

And while progressives waited for CNN and The New York Times to “get the story right,” the right got busy building something stickier, louder, and closer to home.

Let’s break it down.

The News Isn’t Coming Back to Town

Between 2005 and 2024, America lost more than 2,500 local newspapers—many in small towns and post-industrial communities. What used to be the town’s connective tissue became a Facebook group with no editor, no standards, and no real information—just vibes, rumors, and anger.

In these news deserts:

· There’s no watchdog at the school board meeting.

· No local economy coverage explaining what’s happening to your factory job.

· No community forum you can trust when something goes wrong.

So when something does go wrong—when your rent spikes, your hospital closes, or your taxes rise—there’s no trusted messenger left to explain it. That vacuum gets filled fast.

And who’s waiting to fill that gap? Right-wing influencers, YouTubers, meme pages, and pseudo-local pages backed by dark money operations.

Broadcast Is Dying. The Right Isn’t.

In February 2025, Nielsen reported that broadcast TV hit a record low, accounting for just 20.5% of total TV usage. Streaming nearly doubled that share to 43.7% - more than either both broadcast and cable today.

Younger and working-class audiences—especially in factory towns and rural areas—aren’t watching TV news. They’re not subscribing to the Sunday paper. They’re scrolling.

And yet, much of Democratic campaign strategy is still built around a 2008 media world: broadcast buys, print op-eds, and “earned media” from institutions that no longer have cultural reach. Meanwhile, the right is flooding TikTok, Facebook, Telegram, YouTube Shorts, Podcasts, and text chains with content that speaks to people in the tone they trust.

Mainstream Media Lost the Narrative—and the Trust

Mainstream news institutions aren’t just suffering from audience decline. They’re suffering from a credibility crisis. After decades of both-sides-ism, elite detachment, and failure to connect with real people’s lives, they’ve lost the trust of wide swaths of the public—on both the left and right.

Here’s what’s broken:

· Tone: A patronizing, “fact-first” voice that often misses the emotional core of a story.

· Coverage priorities: Endless coverage of palace intrigue in D.C. but no real answers on housing, healthcare, or jobs.

· False balance: Giving anti-vaxxers or election deniers the same platform as doctors or democracy defenders, all in the name of neutrality.

The result? People tune out—or tune in to something that makes them feel something, even if it’s misinformation.

The Right Fills the Void

The right didn’t just create Fox News. They created an ecosystem:

· Fox sets the agenda.

· Memes simplify it.

· Podcasts explore it.

· Telegram groups radicalize it.

· Local influencers validate it.

And unlike the left’s top-down, compliance-heavy content distribution model, the right’s model is participatory. Their audience doesn’t just consume content—they spread it, remix it, add emojis to it, validate it, and send it to Grandma. They are part of the story.

This is why attacks on drag shows, schools, and immigrants spread like wildfire—not because people are watching Tucker, but because someone in their community shared something emotional, visual, and persuasive.

Where We Went Wrong

Progressives believed we could win with facts and institutional credibility. But when the institution itself is distrusted—and the facts come wrapped in elite detachment—we lose the attention war.

Here’s what didn’t work:

· Treating local media as an afterthought.

· Relying on “earned media” to break through in a fragmented landscape.

· Running ads on platforms your base no longer watches.

· Confusing credentials with connection.

What Comes Next

This isn’t just a media failure—it’s a democratic failure. When people don’t know where to turn for trustworthy information, they’re more vulnerable to authoritarianism, disinformation, and division.

In Part 2, we’ll dive into how the right turns this ecosystem into a weapon—using the “Firehose of Falsehood” model to overwhelm, disorient, and dominate.

In Part 3, we’ll explore what we need to build: decentralized, authentic, locally rooted progressive media that actually speaks to the communities we need to win.