Mainstream Media Heyday Over? Will Alternative Media Outlets Rule?

Using polling and other insights, the Daily Torch’s Bill Wilson makes the argument that Mainstream Media’s Heyday is now over. Alternative Media outlets, which could include resources such as this Patch and MHProNews, along with podcasts and other content communications methods will rule, per Wilson as readers will see in Part I of this article.

In Part II, your writer for this Patch will lay out some contrarian notions, and not because I think or want Wilson to be wrong. Wilson is a savvy and seasoned professional. So rather, the contrarian take will in Part II will be presented because the future is not etched in stone. Anyone who thinks that multi-billion-dollar conglomerates that includes stakeholders in them which have literally trillions of dollars available are not likely to let the power mainstream media has given them for years to just slip away without a contest.

That, a media giants infographic, and more are in Part II, because each view is potentially useful for thinking women and men.

Part I

The Mainstream Media’s Heyday is Over for Good as Independent Press and Citizens take Lead on Reporting the Truth

Bill Wilson
The election of President Donald J. Trump eight years ago after an election season riddled with false narratives that he was ‘unelectable’ caused a radical shift in the way Americans view the objectivity of the press.

During and after Trump’s first term, the press continued to vilify the president to such a degree that even moderates and independents lost trust in the media’s objectivity.

For many Americans, seeing the mainstream media’s blatant bias against Trump was the impetus for them to begin looking into alternative news – and views – and scrapping their allegiance to the mainstream media and the mainstream political system.

Four years after Trump won the presidency the first time, a slew of misinformation about the coronavirus further deteriorated public trust in the mainstream media.

Then, mid-election this year, the public learned that President Joe Biden was in fact, not well enough to run for reelection – and by the looks of it hadn’t been well enough to run the country for months at minimum.

The press, it seems, had managed to keep Biden’s deteriorating health hidden from a majority of Americans until a politically opportune moment when they unveiled Biden’s successor, Kamala Harris. However, that strategy proved to be a failing one.

Eight years after Trump entered the political scene, he won a sweeping victory with the popular vote on his side for the first time for a Republican candidate in twenty years, despite the barrage of mainstream polls and press coverage alleging that Americans wouldn’t elect Trump twice.

Trust in the mainstream media as an objective source of truth is deeply broken. Ratings for MSNBC and CNN have plummeted in the weeks following Trump’s decisive victory on election day. MSNBC’s prime-time ratings have fallen by half compared to pre-election numbers.

American’s trust in mainstream media is at a record low, according to multiple reports. A YouGov poll released this week finds a mere eight percent of Americans strongly agree the media “generally acts in the best interests of Americans”. The poll shows Americans say by twenty-three points – 58 percent to 35 percent – the media does not generally act in the best interests of Americans.

The media is third from the bottom out of twenty-three industries Americans were asked to rank, with only the tobacco and gambling industries ranking lower. Yes, Americans think less of the news media than they do of the pharmaceutical, advertising, and social media industries.

This was far from always true. According to Gallup’s tracker of public trust in the media going back to the 1970’s, public trust has eroded decade by decade. In 1976, 76 percent of Americans had a good or fair amount of trust in the media, but that is now down to just 31 percent, the lowest number on record for Gallup. The second lowest number on record for public trust in the media was 32 percent – right after Trump won the 2016 election despite the mainstream media hailstorm against him.

Trump is fighting back. On Monday the president-elect announced his lawsuit against pollster J. Ann Selzer, as well as The Des Moines Register alleging that polling done by Selzer and published by the Register was intended to sway the election against Trump in Iowa.

Without the mainstream media, where will Americans turn for news? Many Americans largely tune out the mainstream news networks and newspapers, especially when they consistently come up wrong or blatantly biased against alternative views.

This has given rise to a slew of independent online journals and magazines, as well as a web of influential podcasters and commentators.

The rise of independent voices on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, X, and Truth Social alone presents a huge challenge to mainstream news networks, but they sealed their own fate of descending into obscurity with their blatant disregard for the truth.

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Part II - Additional Information with Analysis, plus added topics

According to left-leaning Bing's artificial intelligence powered Copilot the article: "The 6 Companies That Own (Almost) All Media [INFOGRAPHIC]" on WebFX was posted on November 26, 2024."

MHProNews asked Copilot the following.

Corporate giants like BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, and Berkshire Hathaway often have an interest in media conglomerates. Certainly they do via advertising, but sometimes they have a direct investment in companies like those media conglomerates, right? Can you find how much of a recent stake those corporations have in one or more of those 'big 6' media empires?

Copilot responded as follows.

"Yes, you're correct! These corporate giants often have significant stakes in media conglomerates1. Here's a summary of their recent stakes:

• BlackRock: Holds 18% of Fox, 16% of CBS, 13% of Comcast, 12% of CNN, 12% of Disney, and 10% of Sinclair.
• Vanguard: Owns 10.2% of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS).
• State Street: Recently increased its stake in News Corp to 25,804,935 shares and holds 44,156,063 shares in Paramount Global5.
• Berkshire Hathaway: While specific recent stakes in media conglomerates weren't found, they are known to invest in companies like Apple and Amazon, which have significant media operations.

These investments highlight the influence these financial giants have over the media landscape. Does this align with what you were expecting?"

Before diving deeper into the Big 6 media firms captured in that graphic, let's see just how much money those big four financial giants have in terms of assets under management and each of those four enterprise's value.

With that in mind, let's pivot back to the big 6 media conglomerates per WebFX. Keep in mind that Copilot was correct in saying that the markets are fluid, so the specifics may shift on value and also what companies are in each of those media empire's corporate portfolio.

Let's note that there are 'print' media giants too. Nearby is the Lakeland Ledger which is owned by Gannett, the parent company for left-leaning USA Today. MHProNews (a.k.a.: Manufactured Home Pro News) has organized various media bias insights in the graphic posted below.

Notice that most of the media in the big 6 found in the infographic above are left-leaning. There is approaching half a trillion dollars in value, per WebFX, in those media operations. So, while one can hope that Wilson is correct, as was observed in the preface to this article, it would be surprising if those hundreds of billions of dollars in media just decide to roll over and allow 'new media' and alternative media to take over the highest perch on the proverbial U.S. media totem pole.

ICYMI, a mostly left-leaning CNN with a mostly left-leaning panel is explored and unpacked in the article linked below. They are concerned about the revelations made by the modestly right- leaning Wall Street Journal regarding Joe Biden's health and abilities. They should be concerned, for the reasons that Wilson aptly detailed in Part I. There are threats to their various perches in the U.S. media landscape. Those threats exist in part because they failed to give balanced reports. Some of their audiences have left them post-election as a result.

https://patch.com/florida/lake...

People do not want to be misled. While some people would rather hear, view, or read a favored lie, mature adults, regardless of their politics, usually want to be told the truth. The following quotes are by well known writers on the left.

Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman co-authored the insightful Manufacturing Consent. Does this writer agree with all that they have said or wrote? No. But they have nevertheless provided those who consider their basic contention a keen insight. Much of the mainstream media, they argued, 'manufacturers' consent by a propaganda like system. Americans were exposed to that once again in the 2024 election cycle.

This writer for MHProNews and this Patch has invested years trying to shed light on how the media actually operates vs. how some in the media want to portray themselves. It isn't that everything that this or that side of the media is all wrong. That's not how it works at all. There are elements of truth mixed in with elements of deception. That is called paltering. It is harder to spot than if everything was a lie. If everything was a lie, sooner or later, most people would tune the mass media out.

The good news is, as Wilson provided insights into, that a more conservative media echo system has taken shape. While there may be some areas where the right dominates, make no mistake. The bulk of the media and big tech are still left-leaning.

https://patch.com/florida/lake...

https://patch.com/florida/lake...

Perhaps the most important take away is that "We the People" have to be as media savvy as possible. This writer plans a deeper look into this issue in the days ahead, because too few in media are willing to take the time to expose how media operates. Stay tuned for that planned report and analysis, as well as a range of other topics like the ones below.

Thanks again for checking in. We hope to see you again soon here on this Patch.

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---> L. A. “Tony” Kovach is a publisher who has earned multiple awards in history. He and his family live in a manufactured home on private property in Winter Haven, FL. He is the co-founder of Manufactured Home Living News.com (MHLivingNews.com) and Manufactured Home Pro News.com (MHProNews.com), trade publications serving segments of the manufactured home industry. Having worked in several segments of the manufactured home industry for over 3 decades, Kovach is a widely acknowledged and often praised expert on manufactured housing. ###