The corporate and leftist media has had a rough year, with layoffs in the thousands affecting many major publications. Gawker shut down in February. Buzzfeed axed staff in April. Condé Nast trimmed its payrolls in New York, laying off hundreds of employees. NPR is downsizing by ten percent; Vox Media by four percent. And that’s just the online news; TV is even worse. Ask yourself: does anybody even watch Meet the Press anymore? The fact is, the “mainstream media” is failing in the only mainstream that matters: the marketplace of ideas. Jones, on the other hand, is flourishing.
Now, I’m the first to admit that I love pinning the economic woes of my ideological enemies on their ideology. Go woke, go broke, right? Well…yes, but that’s not all. When it comes to Vice’s bankruptcy, Gavin McInnes opined that it had less to do with wokeness, and more to do with the fact that they couldn’t run the books.
This is honestly even less surprising than no one wanting to read their woke whining. Most folks in journalism lean left, and don't take business talk seriously. Witness the Washington Post union, which recnetly staged a one-day work stoppage for better deals. The one thing none of them even acknowledged was that these better deals needed to be funded, and yet the Washington Post hemorrhages cash. Granted, Jeff Bezos can bail them out indefinitely, but that's not a real business model. Bezos isn't Santa Claus. He might be using the Post for ulterior motives, but he's still a businessman. He obviously wants the newspaper to make money.
Jones for his part understands the game completely, as does Tucker Carlson. Both have launched shows on X and are lapping up advertising dollars and brand deals that may not appear on the pages of the Washington Post, but can easily prop up an operation like theirs. And let’s face it, the alternative media is becoming less and less alternative every day; it’s an open question whether it’s “alternative” at all, except in name. More people watch Tucker’s Twitter interviews than watch Jake Tapper. If you’re a Republican presidential candidate, who are you going to want to be interviewed by to maximize your impact: Tucker Carlson or Morning Joe?
Ever since Amazon web servers yanked the rug out from under Parler, conservatives have been frantically building their own infrastructures online. Elon taking over Twitter was just a bonus win in a fight that’s already started to see the tide turning towards the right in the info wars. Jones could still do what he wanted to do (if the government weren’t trying to bankrupt him), regardless of his access to social media. Now he’s just got access to more eyes and ears than before, and it’s growing. The next big fight will be a legal one, and will hinge on whether Musk’s gambit will see him turn X into a profitable platform, or whether he ends up like Bezos, throwing billions into a fruitless media venture for fun.
Companies like Rumble have been slowly but steadily building up themselves as alternatives to the ban-happy YouTube, and apps like Public Square have been remarkably successful in creating a counter-economy away from Bezos’ claws. Thousands of eager sellers who are unable to advertise on many outlets finally have somewhere they can spend their dollars, although I’m told that gun shops are still unable to advertise on X (help em out Elon!) Heck, my own patriotic merchandise shop saw our sales double by connecting to their marketplace, and as Public Square’s tide has risen, my own personal fortunes have shifted. That’s happening with other conservative business owners around the country too. That’s real, life changing power. That’s making yourself cancel proof. That’s what’s needed: a separate and independent digital infrastructure to support conservative and libertarian initiatives going forward.
Ten years ago, conservatives were losing on nearly every front, digital, informational, political, legal, cultural. Now the tides have turned. Companies’ investors are backing off their ESG initiatives to the tune of $14b, Roe v Wade was overturned, the Daily Wire is making counter-leftist-cultural films and documentaries, Alex Jones is back on X, and if the general election were held today, Trump would be restored as president of the United States. Battles are being won, the advantage is turning in our direction, and all we have to do now is avoid snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The next election is less than one year from today.
