We often hear people refer to the collection of leftist newspapers and television networks that once held sway over the dissemination of facts and opinions as the “mainstream media.”
In fact, there is nothing “mainstream” about them.
By definition, the dying legacy outlets are NOT mainstream. The clearest evidence for this is found in their declining sales, diminishing market penetration, and nonexistent economic viability. If the newspapers and networks that get so casually labeled “mainstream” actually were, they wouldn’t be laying off staff as their circulations and viewerships plummet.
Texas newspapers, for example, have fewer readers today than ever before, despite the massive surge in the state’s population. Sure, they will snivel about “online” readership, but the paywalls they established haven’t made any of them profitable.
Newspapers in Texas and around the nation are dying precisely because they are not in the mainstream. You might be able to say they were once mainstream, but they are not anymore. The legacy media does not sit in the “mainstream” of political or cultural thought but rather on the far-left bank.
For us to label them “mainstream” is to legitimize the illegitimate.
The establishment media operations are little more than shills for the anti-American progressives. They go out of their way to insult the values and beliefs of their audience and then become indignant when the audience walks away.
The state of the media has caused handwringing about the downfall of democracy and other such blather.
Frankly, each time a leftist publication lays off staff or closes its doors should be cause for celebration. Just like the party thrown when a bad officeholder loses an election, the contraction of a leftist media operation means that the people in that region have voted with their pocketbooks to unshackle themselves from the purveyors of lies and misinformation.
Honestly, the rapid decline of the crony establishment media might just be what saves our republic.
Despite what a couple of generations of newspaper and TV network reporters claim, the First Amendment to the Constitution has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the failing corporate media. The First Amendment did not create a special class – what some self-righteously describe as the “Fourth Estate,” as if it were a branch of government.
In fact, the First Amendment enshrines the right of the people, all the people, as individuals, to run printing presses, to publish, to speak, to broadcast. Every single one of us has the right to be the media, to be journalists.
Our republic sprang to life in part because our Founding Fathers formed committees of correspondence in each of the colonies – subverting the loyalist media of the day and keeping each other apprised of what was really happening in the colonies.
What’s old is new again. In the 21st century, citizens no longer outsource their personal responsibility as journalists to the establishment hacks. Thanks to social media, you can get news, information, and opinions from real people you trust, unfiltered and uncensored.
Technology has freed citizens from the tyranny of the establishment media. This is why the statists are seeking to place a stranglehold on real mainstream voices in social media. Apparently, the citizenry cannot be counted on to spread their lies. And it’s driving the establishment berserk.
The solution to their attempts at cencorship is for each of us must speak louder.
Someone is always keeping score in politics and government; I think it ought to be the citizens. But that only happens when the citizens know what is really going on. As a self-governing people, it is up to each of us to keep each other informed and engaged – so we can save the republic.
