Triumph of the right wing independent media

Kamala Harris's defeat wasn't ultimately about economics or culture, it was about media and messaging

Photo by @felipepelaquim on Unsplash

There are a mass of opinions and theories out there about why Kamala Harris lost the recent presidential election. So I’ll go ahead and add mine.

A lot of pundits seem to think it was mostly economic issues. Basically inflation, “the cost of groceries,” and higher interest rates on mortgages and car loans sank Harris. Then there is a smaller group of pundits, like David Brooks, who think the primary reason Harris lost was socio-cultural. Basically their argument goes that over the past few decades educated Americans have created a social and economic system that benefits them. Many working class Americans, without college degrees, feel left behind and disrespected by these college educated liberal “elites.” (In 2016, when Hillary lost, we heard the same damn argument 🎻 ).

But I don’t believe the economic or socio-cultural arguments capture the deeper, yet simpler, reason why Kamala Harris lost.

To be clear, I do think perceptions of a struggling economy, and that liberals seemed out of touch with some of the socio-cultural issues that concerned a lot of working and middle-class Americans, did contribute to Kamala Harris’s defeat. Perceptions do matter. But what matters more is how people came to have those perceptions.

Here is my theory. A big reason Harris lost was because of the proliferation, coordination, and domination of right wing independent media across the internet.

For over a decade in America, the political right and their billionaire donor class have been investing hundreds of millions of dollars in online independent media. Besides “conservative” business men buying up large mainstream newspapers, there has been a ground swell of right wing media sites (blogs, podcasts, Youtubers, etc, etc) across the internet for a long time now. Over the last, say, 4 years or so it has reached critical mass.

Day in and day out the right wing media eco-system amplifies its message across America. There isn’t nearly enough online left leaning independent media out there to counter this right wing media eco-system. Another disadvantage is that unlike a number of right wing independent media sources, the left wing independent media doesn’t have their billionaires funding them. That’s one of the big reasons the independent right wing media has been so successful. Without a counter, for balance, we get a one-sided extremist set of views dominating the medium. This is bad for democracy.

Taylor Lorenz recently published a book called Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet. She was recently on a podcast called the Home Front with Reed Galen. The episode was aptly entitled Does the Left Need Its Own Joe Rogan? She said:

The right has created their entire own media and tech eco-system built to amplify their messaging. Not to mention regular social media is also built to amply their right wing messaging. There is no technological infrastructure to boost leftest messaging, there is no funding for independent media entities on the left.

Lorenz continues.

The conservative media eco-system amplifies its own, it boosts its own, it really welcomes people. If you’re an up and coming content creator, a big name conservative politician will go on your show, to validate what you’re saying. If they like your ideology they’re going to show up for your show. Even if you only have 20 thousand listeners.

Across America, day in and day out, moderate and left leaning media, both main stream and independent sources, are out gunned by a well funded, united front of online right wing media (and add in radio) that reaches millions of voters.

So is the economy bad? Well, it’s not perfect, but it’s the envy of the world. Were the socio-cultural issues (like liberal elitism) what defeated Harris? These issues probably did hurt her, but I’m not sold on the idea that it was a significant reason. Remember In 2020 Joe Biden ran on a much more progressive platform than Harris and handily defeated Trump. The same exact socio-cultural issues were in play then.

The biggest mistake Joe Biden made during his presidency was how he handled illegal immigration at our southern border. Yes, illegal border crossings are down by almost seventy percent. But Biden waited way too long to act. His failure to read the public sentiment and act much quicker, say, in the first year of his presidency, was a big mistake. I did feel Biden was out of touch on this issue. It clearly angered a lot of people. Whatever drag the border problem may have had on Harris was Biden’s fault. He waited too long and effectively handed Trump a political club to beat Harris with.

But here is the thing. The economy may not be perfect, but it’s clearly not bad either. Again, by most measures the American economy is the best in the world overall. The socio-cultural issues might have played a part in Harris’s defeat, but it wasn’t something she couldn’t have overcome, just like Joe Biden did in 2020. But regardless of what may or may not be true about these economic or socio-cultural issues, the right wing independent media was instrumental in shaping how many voters perceived and understood these issues.

Simple facts matter, yes, but more often the selective interpretation of those facts matters even more. If you’re someone listening regularly to right wing independent media sources, and their interpretation of the facts (or presentation of alternative facts), you might be someone who believes the 2020 election was stolen (a complete falsehood) or the January 6th insurrections—many who violently stormed the building and injured dozens of police officers—were just angry “tourists.” The voices needed to challenge these right wing narratives (left leaning independent media) have been largely absent in many areas of the country where they’re needed to provide a counter balance to the hard right wing messaging those voters are getting daily.

So I call on moderates and liberals to start building and/or supporting more and more center left or left leaning online independent media sources. Democracy only works for the people when its citizens are adequately informed on the issues. Voters will enter the voting booth with their individual biases and prejudices and concerns. It’s up to each individual to decide what matters most to them. That’s just the way democracy and freedom work. But it’s a bad idea to let one side of the political equation have so much influence in shaping how voters see and feel about the issues.

Without a lot more democratic-liberal-progressive leaning independent media, democrats will continue to be at a disadvantage in reaching many American voters and getting the democratic-liberal-progressive message out. We need a more balanced online independent news media environment.

Secondly, I call on America’s liberal billionaires to start seeing their country and the health of our democracy as their main charity for a while. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and other wealthy Americans should cut back on spending hundreds of millions of dollars on non-media charities, and consider buying some American media companies and start funding liberal-progressive bloggers and podcasters.

We should all start investing in the maintenance of American democracy, before it’s too late.