Donald Trump’s comeback victory stems from the support of the right-wing U.S. media. Will journalism remain critical after Trump takes office?
When Donald Trump officially takes office in Washington as the 47th U.S. president on Jan. 20, it will be due to the fact that the right-leaning U.S. media actively supported him throughout the campaign. His landslide victory would have been unthinkable without the likes of highly-rated private broadcasters and obscure internet platforms. Why couldn’t the established commercial and non-commercial media hinder Trump’s reelection? It is due to a systemic change in media consumption by the U.S. public, and this certainly did not start with his reelection. Trump’s election victory was not only the result of cutting-edge multimedia technologies and business models in the digital age. Nor is it just about the role of the media in this major event. Trump’s erratic behavior before and after the Nov. 5 election only underscores the fact that with him, the entire democratic way of governing is in jeopardy.
The offender’s reelection is the most glaring sign that the relationship between the media, power and political influence is becoming increasingly complex. “Trump and his ultra-wealthy benefactors initially used social media for their own aims and then completely took control of it,”* asserts Ian Williams, president of the New York-based Foreign Press Association.
New right-wing media groups are now integral to shaping the ideological image that American societies see of the world. As it concerns the process of fundamental transformation, this worldview is much more radical and extends beyond the old conservative versus liberal divide. What kind of news stories actually reach the American people and how are they received? The debunked falsehoods about Haitian migrants in Ohio eating domestic pets first surfaced in the far-right media scene. “Trump models himself on the ring-wing media,” explains Williams. “Many of his ideas and themes are extracted directly from the right-wing media bubble. He absorbs far-right ideologies and that makes him particularly dangerous.”*
Pervasive Authoritarianism
Williams believes that this strategy will make Trump appear even more powerful. For the future president, it’s not just about being an opinion leader; he serves as a media-savvy megaphone for the existing prejudices of his electorate. Journalist Diane Nottle, the former editor of The New York Times and current lecturer at the renowned Newmark School of Journalism in New York, recognizes in Trump’s behavior the markers of pervasive authoritarianism on a global scale. “The yearning for a powerful male leader is a trend that can be observed in right-wing populist movements everywhere.”
While corporate right-wing media coverage has expanded, local newspapers and regional editorial boards in many U.S. cities have folded. “Fox News and its own news agency, Newsmax, One America News Network, the Sinclair Group’s radio, TV stations, and newspapers, iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel), the evangelical Bott Radio Network, podcasts by sports commentator and comedian Joe Rogan, and last but not least, the robber baron Elon Musk and X,” are included, adds Michael Tomasky, editor of the conservative political magazine, The New Republic. All the above now determines the discussion topics nationwide on their channels. “They have riled their target audiences with news that is distorted and one-sided, which is fundamental to Donald Trump’s election.”*
Take, for example, the Sinclair Group’s clandestine takeover of local news stations. Their expansion strategy has incorporated formerly independent local editorial offices and transformed them into synchronized mass media outlets, offering precisely coordinated news stories. This results in the broadcasting of specific political narratives to various target groups and communities, which, like an echo chamber, amplifies the message multiple times. Digital platforms in the U.S. have also forged new centers of concentrated power in parallel.
The “manosphere” podcasts, tailored to the alleged interests of young men, along with other right-leaning media channels “for the whole family,” exert an unprecedented influence on public opinion, reaching many corners of American society.
The Ownership Networks of the Right-Wing Media Sphere
The issue runs deeper, however, than the ownership of the right-wing media sphere. Nottle noticed the beginning of this process during Trump’s first election campaign in 2016 against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Back then, Republican candidate Trump secured much more media air time compared to the Democratic Party’s candidate, and he was often able to spread his political rhetoric unchallenged. Nottle likens U.S. election campaign coverage to betting on horse races and predicting sports results: “‘Who is in the lead today?’ ‘What do the pollsters say?’ Even in the 2024 election campaign, polls were extremely important once again, perhaps too important. Over time, I find their results barely meaningful.”*
Fixating on opinion polls with their partially questionable predictions can lead to serious consequences. When the media only tracks the daily poll results, it becomes increasingly difficult for American voters to weed out trustworthy information about everyday life from these prestigious news sources. The voting public loses faith in the fourth estate when they realize that the national media presents their economic reality in either a false or oversimplified way. Evidence-based journalism continues to decline.
The stakes are high. When Trump resumes office as U.S. president in a couple of weeks, the hamster wheel of non-stop media coverage, big money and political power will spin even faster. How can the U.S. maintain critical reporting throughout this frenzied political situation? How can American citizens gather unbiased information to further guarantee and protect the separation of powers in the democratic political system?
Not everything is in disarray, even if the situation on the eve of Trump’s transition to power in 2025 looks bleak at first. In many U.S. regions, innovative financial models now exist to support critical and independent local journalism, such as those from ProPublica, Democracy Now, and The Intercept. Educational programs providing instruction and tutoring in media literacy are likewise gaining ground.
A Major Overhaul
However, such initiatives and solution strategies take time to develop, and it requires much more than good intentions to bring about a change in biased media coverage. The political divide after Trump’s reelection calls for a major overhaul of how news is disseminated throughout the U.S.
The big question is not so much whether the U.S. media industry is capable of evolving. Rather, it’s fundamentally about whether this transformation will strengthen the tasks and responsibilities of democratic institutions. The way American society deals with this transformation will not only seal the fate of journalism, but ultimately determine the very existence of American democracy.
*Editor’s Note: While accurately translated, these quotes could not be independently sourced as some were behind paywalls.
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