OPINION: The Mainstream Media’s Heyday is Over for Good

Independent press and citizens take the lead in reporting the truth

The election of President Donald J. Trump eight years ago after an election season riddled with false narratives that he was “unelectable” caused a radical shift in the way Americans view the objectivity of the press. During and after Trump’s first term, the press continued to vilify the president to such a degree that even moderates and independents lost trust in the media’s objectivity. For many Americans, seeing the mainstream media’s blatant bias against Trump was the impetus for them to begin looking into alternative news — and views — and scrapping their allegiance to the mainstream media and the mainstream political system. Four years after Trump won the presidency the first time, a slew of misinformation about the coronavirus further deteriorated public trust in the mainstream media. Then, mid-election this year, the public learned that President Joe Biden was in fact, not well enough to run for reelection — and by the looks of it hadn’t been well enough to run the country for months at minimum. The press, it seems, had managed to keep Biden’s deteriorating health hidden from a majority of Americans until a politically opportune moment when they unveiled Biden’s successor, Kamala Harris. However, that strategy proved to be a failing one. Eight years after Trump entered the political scene, he won a sweeping victory in 2024 with the popular vote on his side for the first time for a Republican candidate in 20 years, despite the barrage of mainstream polls and press coverage alleging that Americans wouldn’t elect Trump twice. Trust in the mainstream media as an objective source of truth is deeply broken. Ratings for MSNBC and CNN have plummeted in the weeks following Trump’s decisive victory on election day. MSNBC’s prime-time ratings have fallen by half compared to pre-election numbers. American’s trust in mainstream media is at a record low, according to multiple reports. A YouGov poll released [recently] finds a mere 8 percent of Americans strongly agree the media “generally acts in the best interests of Americans.” The poll shows Americans say by a margin of 23 points — 58 percent to 35 percent — the media does not generally act in the best interests of Americans. The media is third from the bottom out of 23 industries that Americans were asked to rank, with only the tobacco and gambling industries ranking lower. Yes, Americans think less of the news media than they do of the pharmaceutical, advertising, and social media industries. This was far from always true. According to Gallup’s tracker of public trust in the media going back to the 1970s, public trust has eroded decade by decade. In 1976, the data shows 76 percent of Americans had a good or fair amount of trust in the media, but that is now down to just 31 percent, the lowest number on record for Gallup. The second lowest number on record for public trust in the media was 32 percent — right after Trump won the 2016 election, despite the mainstream media hailstorm against him. Without the mainstream media, where will Americans turn for news? Many Americans largely tune out the mainstream news networks and newspapers, especially when they consistently come up wrong or blatantly biased against alternative views. This has given rise to a slew of independent online journals and magazines, as well as a web of influential podcasters and commentators. The rise of independent voices on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, X, and Truth Social alone presents a huge challenge to mainstream news networks, but they sealed their own fate of descending into obscurity with their blatant disregard for the truth.   

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Bill Wilson was a founding board member and former president of Americans for Limited Government (ALG), a conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that says it is dedicated to restoring constitutionally limited government, allowing individuals to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. This article is drawn from ALG’s Daily Torch publication.