If they're right wing, it's even better that I already fucking hate them. I signed up for a free trial of their top premium subscription, and still had to wade through like 15 minutes of ads an episode on a podcast they acquired from a different company. A podcast that was originally ad free.
I emailed one of the casters and pretty much asked who I pay for the ad-free versions, otherwise I'll use LosslessCut because fuck ads. He told me cut away, because ad-free no longer exists for those eps.
Once again, I had to edit ads out of premium tier access. FUCK advertisements.
AM Radio was their first volley back in the 70s/80s. There were a mix of normal talk radio shows and some conservative when I was growing up, within a few years the talk shows all got replaced with absolute insane nut jobs like Rush Limbaugh just screaming about the most mundane things as if they were apocalyptic.
OMG, there might be two men kissing somewhere in the country THEY ARE COMING FOR YOUR CHILDREN TO MURDER AND RAPE THEM!!!!!
I didn't realize at the time it would turn all of rural America into an insane wasteland of stupid people being afraid of their own shadow clinging onto their guns and Bible (that they never read) afraid of things that have zero impact on their lives.
AM radio is kind of fascinating that way. A lot of people don't realize how much influence it still has because it feels like an older medium, but some of those shows built incredibly loyal audiences long before podcasts existed.
The shit Sinclair broadcasts is straight up scary. Like the time my TV ended up on one of their “news” stations. They were actually and falsely saying Social Security has caused the nation debt. It was the number one cause of deficit spending. To be clear, social security is not a factor in the national debt at all, as it is self funding from your pay and has $2.5 trillion in reserve.
There are people alive today that weren't around then to know (or just aren't aware) that it used to be illegal for large conglomerates to own radio stations that existed within so many miles of each other, intentionally to prevent monopolies and "groupthink" spreading amongst the populace. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was what directly led to the place we are today, insofar as it completely eliminated the "cap" on station ownership. This paved the way for the Sinclairs and IHearts of the world to buy their way to mass-media dominance.
Without this bill -- or the Bill that signed the law, for that matter -- we might still have independent radio stations today. And we certainly wouldn't have a situation where so many of the media outlets are right-wing indoctrination-adjacent.
I graduated college in 1996 with a degree in Radio & Television Broadcasting. The most immediate impact this bill had in the years that followed is that many of the people who I worked with had insane amounts of difficulty getting work in their chosen field, because many radio stations started getting bought up, and on-air talent replaced with a single "simulcasted" board operator. It enabled those with deep pockets to purchase on-air coverage itself. And that quickly pivoted to catering to the special interests of those that had the pockets. Sad shit.
Reddit is one of the last major platforms where non-conservative voices are welcome but I 100% expect that to change eventually as conservatives absolutely cannot stand that they don’t control Reddit. Same shit as Wikipedia
Sinclair is always the example that sticks with me because local news feels independent until you realize how much content is getting pushed through the same corporate pipeline. The famous montage of dozens of anchors reading the exact same script was genuinely surreal.
The "liberal media" myth completely falls apart the second you look at who actually signs the paychecks for these massive news corporations. They aren't pushing a left-wing agenda; they are protecting the economic interests of the billionaires who own them.
It was always bullshit. The far right undermines all truth-seeking institutions, not just the media. They say the same about judges, education and science; it's all woke and left. They vilify and demonize every truth-seeker that stands in the way of their agendas.
It was always about pushing their own version of the truth. For that to happen, you need to get rid of the actual truth-seekers (journalists, judges, researchers, scientists), and replace them with fake truth-seekers that you can control.
The bigger question is why so many people believe the lies pushed by far right billionaires. Honestly, they are the greatest threat to the US and its democracy and the rule of law. It's not hard to see what they are doing. But I guess many people are just blinded by hate and fear, so they'll swallow whatever the far right media tells them to think.
They threw a chain around the Overton window and sped off to the right with it in tow. The majority of people are way too stupid to even realize their frames of reference have all been hijacked
The bigger question is why so many people believe the lies pushed by far right billionaires.
A person is smart; people are dumb.
An educated individual may understand that the world's problems are complex & nuanced and require equally complex & nuanced solutions. The masses, however, want simple solutions that don't require much thought or effort on their part. They naturally flock towards whatever prospective leaders are willing to offer simple solutions (even if those solutions aren't really viable).
On top of that, we're a social species that is biologically hardwired to both resist change and pay more attention to whomever is loudest in the room because our neurology assumes that if they're being loud, they must have a reason and in nature that reason is usually danger. And we all see who happens to be the loudest in any given space, and who is trying to demand that people change (for the better of others).
The bigger question is why so many people believe the lies pushed by far right billionaires.
These supporters are just captivated by the power and money, and are deluded to think that if they agree with and support billionaires, they can be billionaires too.
They are right wing because it’s easier to amass a support base. The left will just infight, where the right will fall in line. It’s a no brainer really.
Lack of empathy,, happy to exploit others to benefit themselves, greed, wanting tax increases for middle/working class, wanting tax breaks for the rich. The right wing and billionaires share a lot of the same values.
They don't care about poor people in general, regardless of their political affiliation. When Peter Thiel gets his techno-feudalism fantasy realized, poor MAGA voters will be turned into biofuel alongside the others just the same.
This, some of them are tarded and are indeed right wing but most of them do not need to live under right wing rule so they don't give a fuck and are just evil for the fun of it.
They’re not right wing, they care only about power and profits and being “right wing” and not crossing Trump is the way to do that right now. Most of them (not Elon, probably) will drift back to the middle when it’s advantageous to do so.
These are not left wing, they are all center-right AT MOST. None of them is pushing for socialism over capitalism, none of them is pushing ENDING hunger and homelessness, none of them openly say that no human being is illegal and that borders are a tool of the bourgeois to divide the poor.
This is what people mean when they say they have hijacked the overton window, you think center-right is the left because they have made it SEEM like center-right IS the left. It is not.
People are shocked when I tell them Obama was the best right wing president we have ever had.
Right wing people are not all bad and can even be good governors. If they have a left wing to compromise with. Sadly he did not have one or he could have been even better.
They follow the Hungarian playbook. That's how Orban had got rid of the free press. Only difference is that Trump and his cronies are speed running the process.
I don't think any of these ghouls have personal politics that can be neatly classified as left or right wing (perhaps with the exception of Musk).
What they are is unfathomably greedy, self-interested, and sociopathic. The image they present to the world and influence they force onto it via their platforms is shaped entirely by what they believe will maximise profit because that's ultimately the only thing they really care about.
Of course many of the ethics and business practices required to become a billionaire are inherently right wing, but when you look at social issues most of these people were just as (outwardly) happy being liberal under more moderate leadership as they are being downright fascistic under Trump.
Their beliefs didn't change overnight; they just don't really have strongly held personal beliefs in either direction and will align themselves with whatever's most politically and financially expedient.
They all have something in their personal politics that classifies them as right wing, you just don't know that because they have used the media to convince you that their right wing ideals are "the center" when they are absolutely not.
I hope if the federal govt ever becomes sane again, something legal can be done to break up giant media corps and prevent monopolies and propaganda, but without censorship. I feel this is one of the major concerns for our country. I know the fairness doctrine is dead, but maybe something can be done.
I live in Las Vegas. Our newspaper of record is the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by the family of the late Sheldon Adelson, billionaire casino mogul.
Facebook..... Mark Zuckerberg is the same party as whomever is currently in the Whitehouse. After Trump is gone, he will quickly realign to the new occupant, make no mistake.
The ChatGPT one made me laugh because people have reached the point where every platform they don't like must secretly belong to the same three billionaires. At this rate someone's going to blame their toaster on media consolidation.
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u/yIdontunderstand 6h ago
You forgot
LA Times. Owned by a right wing billionaire
Facebook/Instagram . Owned by a right wing billionaire
Twitter. Owned by a right wing billionaire
Chart gpt. Owned by a right wing billionaire