The 2024 presidential election results reveal the diminishing influence of legacy mainstream media, whose relentless campaign against Donald Trump - unprecedented in scale and hostility - has largely backfired.
Over half of American voters have shown that they’re no longer swayed by the daily narratives from ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and PBS. They’re no longer buying what’s published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal (editorial page excepted), or other prominent outlets. Trump’s decisive victory underscores the waning power of this era’s “Yellow Journalism,” though it’s doubtful the media will change course.
But it’s not just the media’s ideological stance that has eroded public trust; it’s also the condescending attitude many mainstream outlets display toward everyday Americans. Those who hold traditional values or come from middle America are often portrayed as backward, “dangerous,” or “uneducated.” Such dismissive arrogance has only widened the divide, reinforcing the belief that the media serves an elite echo chamber rather than the American public.
Trump’s candid challenge to mainstream media - labeling them as “fake news” and “enemies of the people” - resonated powerfully with voters in 2024. Republicans, who previously refrained from taking on the media establishment, now feel empowered to question its motives and credibility openly. The election results indicate that the public believes Trump’s portrayal of the media over the narratives presented by his media critics.
Legacy media once held an uncontested monopoly on news, which it used, for example, to help drive President Richard Nixon from office following his landslide victory in 1972. As historian Paul Johnson described, Watergate was, in part, a “media putsch” - a feat possible then due to the lack of alternative media. Had today’s independent voices been around in the 1970s, Nixon’s fate might have been different.
Now, however, the legacy media competes with a vast landscape of alternative news sources: Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon’s War Room, Charlie Kirk, The Free Press, Newsmax, Real America’s Voice, Breitbart, Substack, Elon Musk’s X, Fox News, The American Spectator, and more. This diverse media ecosystem has given Americans choices, challenging the narratives and viewpoints of legacy media in ways unimaginable just a few decades ago.
* The American Spectator contributed to this article.
