News websites representing both sides of the political spectrum suffered huge drops in unique visitors in March 2024 compared to March 2020. But Donald Trump’s Truth Social generated 5 million unique visitors in March, its largest traffic volume ever since its February 2022 launch.
By David Lieberman: Trump’s managerial shortcomings are legendary. They include a parade of bankruptcies (e.g. Trump Taj Majal and Trump Entertainment Resorts) and failures (e.g. Trump Shuttle, Trump University, Trump Vodka, Trump Mortgage, GoTrump.com, and Trump Steaks).
Results Show Steep News Audience Erosion in the Four Years Since Last Election. This new feature, which will be released monthly throughout 2024, examines traffic to 15 right wing news websites from 2020 and contrasts it with their 2024 traffic. TheRighting will also run a similar comparison to the three mainstream news brands it has followed regularly since 2019: CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
By Kevin Howley: Sidney “release the Kraken” Powell’s plea deal was big news last week unless you read conservative news media, where there was precious little original reporting, and even less opinionating from the hot air crowd.
By Kevin Howley: We ignore the nihilism of House Republicans at our own risk. Despite their best efforts to do just that, right wing media can’t help but mirror the politics of dysfunction and distraction that defines today’s GOP.
By David Lieberman: The deal will have far-reaching implications for right wing media and messaging from both companies. And Salem, home to conservative commentators like Dinesh D’Souza, Sebastian Gorka, and Charlie Kirk, desperately needs the cash after the stock cratered earlier this year.
By Michael Lovito: The born-again Christian has written 30 novels in nine years. But her biggest fan just might be Donald Trump, who has a habit of linking to her articles about him that she writes for RSBN. In September alone, she published more than 100 stories on the obscure right wing news site.
By Michael Lovito: Kirk Cameron, the “Growing Pains” star turned social conservative icon, announced a nationwide campaign titled “See You at the Library,” which encourages parents to reserve space at their local libraries on August 5 so that they can read books that promote Christian values.
By Amanda Coopersmith: If anything, the right wing pushback only seemed to stoke Barbie supporters online and convert others who were initially uninterested in the big-budget corporate picture.
By Jaden Satenstein: While figures like singer Sheryl Crow have condemned Jason Aldean (above) for misrepresenting the BLM movement and promoting racial violence, Republican presidential hopefuls are riling up their bases by showing support for the song. And it isn’t the first time Republicans have stirred the pot with their campaign song choices.
By David Lieberman: PublicSq is well-steeped in right-wing grievances. That suggests it’s primarily a marketing play – a bet on its ability to prod like-minded consumers to become so invested in the idea of shopping as a political act that they’ll overlook potential shortcomings including relatively high prices and limited selection.
By Kevin Howley: The party of esteemed cold warriors for generations of hardline Republicans is challenging US military spending, and raising the alarm over a third world war. What, you may ask, explains this abrupt about-face in Republican defense policy? It all comes down to the vision of one man. Donald J. Trump, peacenik
By Kevin Howley: The fallen Fox News anchor had a star turn at last week’s Family Leadership Summit where he had a star turn as inquisitor of 2024 GOP Republican contenders like Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott.
By Jon Friedman: The former Green Bay Packer quarterback is an aggressive anti-vax proponent. He may find that he is a stranger in a strange land. New York City is notoriously liberal in its political views, including positions on embracing Covid-19 vaccinations.
By Jaden Satenstein: Meta is trying to distinguish its new social media platform Threads by framing it as a place for “friendly” conversations, not news and political debates. Unlike Twitter, which has devolved into a far-right-friendly hellscape, Threads doesn’t promote political content.
By Jon Friedman: What matters here is that the Republican-tilting media are going down a bad road by criticizing environmental regulations like wood-burning pizza ovens as “woke.” Inventing scandals, which at root make no sense anyway, seems amateurish at a time when data show that inflation is receding as a national threat to our way of life.
By Howard Polskin: For the week beginning July 10, I followed Trump’s voluminous Truth Social posting of links to right wing websites . Breitbart seems to have a special place in Trump’s world view, according to a review of the past seven days.
By Kevin Howley: In recent weeks, climate scientists have issued dire predictions that 2023 is on track to be the hottest year in recorded history. But the denial is strong in conservative circles. And we’re not referring to the results of the 2020 presidential election. With few exceptions, right wing media have hit peak stupidity this summer.
By Amanda Coopersmith: “Sound of Freedom” actor Jim Caviezel , who plays a former Homeland Security Agent who saves trafficked children, stoked controversy for the film with a number of eye-raising comments including support of Q’Anon and fringe conspiracy theories.
By J. Max Robins: Nigel Farage certainly checks the boxes on the job description for Raging Right-Wing Ranter. A major MAGA fanboy during The Donald’s 2016 White House run, he got up close and cozy with the campaign, forging an alliance with Brexit fellow-traveler Steve Bannon and Trump himself.
Kevin Howley: From Hunter’s laptop to “Cocainegate,” right wing operatives cast Joe’s boy as a drug-addled liar whose political connections are the only thing standing between him and prison. A review of recent headlines castigating Joe’s boy for scurrilous behavior demonstrates the right’s obsessive-compulsive disorder with Hunter Biden.
By Amanda Coopersmith: The casting of Black R&B singer Halle Bailey as Ariel in 2019, a character traditionally portrayed as white, began a sustained years-long criticism of the film “The Little Mermaid” by right wing media.
By Jon Friedman: If the right-wing media wrote damning stories about Trump, they’d not only risk incurring his well-honed wrath. They’d also risk angering his flock of followers, who might then prefer to get their brand of information from a source that had expressed total fealty to the former president.
By Kevin Howley: Who are GOP leaders like Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan gunning for this summer? It depends who you talk to. For some, Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is public enemy number one. For others, it’s Attorney General Merrick Garland. Still others are out to get President Joe Biden – aka the boss of the “Biden crime family.”
