You’re conservative or maybe libertarian.
You can’t stand the lying, fakenews MSM.
Where do you go for news and commentary?
If you’re like many conservatives you probably follow many “New Media” outlets. Like the “conservative blogosphere” that emerged when President Bush ran for re-election in 2004, New Media plays an important role in providing a “conservative” voice in an extremely liberal internet and an even more corrupt mainstream media. Unfortunately, many New Media outlets are just in it for the money. The easiest way to identify these posers is that they *make it all about them.* They offer themselves up as the defenders of conservatism and now, more often, as the gatekeepers of #MAGA and Trumpism.
The problem with many of these new media personalities, is they are not really conservative at all and most simply use President Trump as a stepping stone for their own enrichment. A stark example of this self-enrichment can be found in the recent “protest” of “Shakespeare in the Park” by Twitter personalities Laura Loom and Jack Posobiec. While interrupting the version of Julius Caesar, which depicts a Trump-like Caesar getting assassinated, they started a hashtag #freelaura and a Wesearchr fund to generate 25k in a matter of days from gullible conservatives. Mr Posobiec conveniently filmed the interruption and Laura Loom’s arrest – already mentioning the funding. Obviously a misdemeanor arrest costs next to nothing and a case like this will never go to trial. So the whole thing is just a cash grab – exploiting conservatives who want to make a statement.
Staged self-enrichment.
A lot of these “new media” folks are not really true Trump supporters and are one issue away from abandoning him. Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, has seen a massive resurgence in his popularity by blogging about Trump. But anyone who follows Scott knows that he also threw Trump overboard after the “tape” release and outright declared that he couldn’t have “his brand” associated with Trump, endorsing Gary Johnson. Then Gary Johnson imploded and he flipped back to Trump. Even today, he has stated he would work to impeach Trump if he acts against marijuana. It becomes plain to see that most of these “Trump Supporters” are really just self-serving exploiters. This is fine, of course, we support capitalism and monetizing, but when it comes to politics – monetizing brings out the worst and is the cause for corruption in government. Lobbyists and the corrupt politicians are all there serving themselves first and have no real morals other than those that enrich themselves and/or their donors.
Then there is the case of Mike Cernovich, author of “The Gorilla Mindset” who has a very active and rapidly growing Twitter following and is a President Trump supporter. Mr. Cernovich’s name has been boosted 1000 fold by his outspoken support of Trump and he has created a cottage industry around his combative attitude with the “never-Trump” personalities, most recently challenging actor Tom Arnold to a fist fight. In the case of Cernovich he is most interested in building his brand. The Trump agenda really isn’t a focal point for him. You seldom see him engage in talk about taxes, the wall or immigration. He spends most of his time battling others and fueling the cult of personality.
What About the pithy Ann Coulter? She was one of Trump’s earliest devotees and fans. However, she has a singular focus on immigration and the building of “The Wall.” To say she is disappointed in Trump would be an understatement. She feels betrayed after penning a book “In Trump We Trust – E Pluribus Awesome” and seeing her signature focal point – the wall – unfunded, unbuilt and weaseled away by the same folks that wanted amnesty for millions of illegals and open borders forever. She still knows Trump is her only hope for the wall, but you get the feeling if she could slap him in the face for betrayal, like a spurned lover, she would. She tweets now mostly critical tweets and President Trump likely won’t have her out at any rallies again anytime soon for fear she would lay into him for apparently breaking his promises. The second promise being the promised repeal of DACA. DACA was an executive amnesty for children of illegal aliens. We love Ann, but as a Trump cheerleader, the pom poms have been dropped and she is now leaning against the bleachers saying “rah – not.” It is hard to classify Ann Coulter as “New Media” because she has been “New Media” for the past two decades. The mainstream media now love to quote her cynical remarks and one has to wonder if she, like Cernovich, Adams and so many others, is now settling for “creating controversy, getting attention and clicks” rather than really supporting Donald Trump as he fights for his agenda.
Then we have Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, Conservative Treehouse and other online outlets for conservative, pro-Trump perspectives. These provide a contrast to the never-Trump outlets like National Review, Weekly Standard and other faux-conservative outlets that have played “good cop” to the leftist “bad cop” for decades. We could be nit-picky and say that these outlets also seem click-hungry, but the bottom line is they do appear to genuinely support the Trump agenda.
What about Matt Drudge and Drudge Report? His support seems fickle- much like Coulter’s – and as an aggregator of news he merely interjects his view by what he chooses to focus on and the headlines he writes. He is also “Old New Media” and while he has been invaluable in supporting Trump during the primaries, now that he is President, one senses a certain disappointment and frustration as well in the way he presents the news. It almost seems Matt Drudge uses his headlines to blackmail and punish Trump when he does something he dislikes.
No discussion of New Media would be complete without mentioning Infowars and its new star Paul Joseph Watson. Watson made a name for himself with YouTube video diatribes against his political opponents. Infowars has come a long way. For the longest time they catered to preppers and the fringe who embraced every conspiracy theory like it was a security blanket. In the Trump era they have “transmogrified” into a much more mainstream conservative outlet, shed much of the fringe stuff, and are now reaching a much broader audience. Paul Joseph Watson serves as a younger face as opposed to Alex Jones, and with his British accent has now replaced the shamed Milo Yiannopoulos as the internet’s fave outspoken Trump-supporting Brit. Like Milo, Paul has built a cult of personality which seems to be far more important to him than the actual politics he is defending. Fast forward just a few years and you have another Rush Limbaugh for whom monetizing is first and foremost his true goal.
Many of these new media outlets flirt with the “alt-right” and nationalism. The left has planted (fairly obvious) personalities that are used to discredit Trump and tie him into Nazi-sympathizers, white-supremacists and such. The MSM turned “nationalism” into a dirty word by association and coined the term “white-nationalist” as a propaganda tool to discredit the “America First” platform of President Trump. Many identify as nationalists, but are afraid to do so because of the success of the left in rebranding “nationalism” as racism.
So are these new media outlets harming or helping the President? The jury is still out. When someone like Paul Joseph Watson says he “is off the Trump train” because of Trump’s missile strike in Syria, you have to wonder if he never was really on it and is used as a tool to discourage Trump supporters and peel them away from him. More likely though, it’s all about clicks. Controversy sells and the new media, like the old media, are all about monetizing. Support Trump one week, tear into him the next. Rinse and repeat.
You may have noticed President Trump is extremely careful with whom in the media he associates with and he also instinctively uses many without much vetting. If you look closely, you can see he avoids much of the “New Media.” He doesn’t do many (or often any) interviews with Breitbart, Rightside Broadcasting or OAN (One America News). He doesn’t do Twitter shout outs or follow new media personalities. A careful observer would notice one or more of his children often do follow many of these new media types while President Trump follows some MSM personalities. His children’s follows show new media some support but keep President Trump a safe distance from those who might ensnare him in a controversy and use it to bring him down.
One sees the wisdom of this as many new media personalities implode in controversy. As a conservative and President Trump supporter it is clearly still a vast wasteland out there and there are painfully few outlets that truly support Donald Trump and work to accomplish his agenda as opposed to merely exploiting him for self gain.
At Directorate, we want to see President Trump succeed and work towards his success. We are not monetized, avoid any cult of personality and stay clear of most controversy. This is the only way we can ensure our readers that we are not compromised or are a fair weather friend to “America First.” We don’t pretend to be impartial or fair and balanced. We will provide commentary with as much honesty as we can muster in working towards these goals. A little self-reflection on the new media is long overdue and hopefully this piece puts some of the lack of new media unity against the corrupt MSM in perspective.
DIRECTORATE 