Right wingers didn’t just start to dominate the media landscape overnight. They had a plan, numerous ones in fact, influenced by the infamous Powell Memo, written by former corporate lawyer turned Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell.
To fight back against the “counterculture,” they invested tons of money in creating “think” tanks (Heritage Foundation) to churn out fiction, media properties (Fox News) to bias the news, changed laws to help them gain dominance (fairness doctrine and ownership rules, which allowed talk radio and media consolidation) and radicalized existing organizations (NRA) or created fake new ones (Moral Majority) for fundraising and narrative.
The Left’s response has been like a puddle vs a vast ocean. Media Matters, Center for American Progress and others have done a great job, but they’re mostly on their own. It’s never made any sense that left-leaning billionaires didn’t do more, and now the imbalance is killing our democracy as it’s even grown as Putin’s media networks and bots amplify the RW filth.
A lot more here in this great conversation by Greg Olear and Cliff Schecter at The Blue Amp Channel. Go watch and SUBSCRIBE to Blue Amp for more crucial content like this!
