In the syllabus assignment for Drudge and Brietbart, the question was asked, “Do mainstream media give more attention to inaccurate indies than to credible ones?” I think they probably do, not because they support them, but because they want to mock them.
This same theory applies to conservatives in the mainstream media as well. The liberal elitist media loves to include conservative guests in important conversations in order to pretend that they aren’t biased and in order to try to put down conservatives.
Conservatives feel very isolated. The media is against them, the pop culture (basically every famous celebrity) is against them, and academia is against them. Over the years, the left has embraced this exclusion tactic and looked down upon conservatives, dismissing them as stupid, racist, sexist, religious nutcases, rednecks, delirious old people, out of touch/privileged, etc.
Conservatives have similar self-righteous and condescending tactics to put down the left as well, but they don’t have the power that the left has. They don’t have control of the media, academia, pop culture, etc. The left does, and as a result, the right often finds themselves in defense position and to some degree isolated/excluded from society.
It’s maddening - enough to make someone go crazy.
A great example of this is what happens in college campuses across the country. These liberal colleges are using their power & control of academia to censor conservative speakers on campus. Places like Berkeley turn into war zones over one conservative speaker. I’ve never heard of that happening to liberal speakers on college campuses, though I’m sure there have been a few instances.
Another important point to make is that the conservative movement is a mesh of a bunch of ideas from different movements that get rejected by the leftist culture that dominates society. As a result, economic conservatives, religious conservatives, military hawks, libertarians, etc are forced to work together - and it’s not a strong union. But the one thing they all have in common is that they completely despise the left.
This is a big part of the reason why I think conservative outlets like Drudge and Breitbart (outlets that I don’t ever really use, by the way) are able to thrive. They feed conservatives what they want - fodder for taking on the liberal elites that have treated them so poorly. They give conservatives tools to move from defense position to offense position.
And because conservatives can become isolated from society as a result of leftist domination, they can become more radical, which is something that Drudge and Breitbart take advantage of. I am not convinced that they are intentionally taking advantage of this. I think it’s more a subliminal thing and something that results from them getting sucked into this stuff as well.
I mean, obviously they are trying to produce content that will keep their readers interested - just like any other media outlet. But I don’t think that they are intentionally scheming this behind closed doors. It’s a subliminal thing and in some cases, it might even come from the competition.
In an interview with Politico, former Speaker of the House, John Boehner had a similar theory about how Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity “turned to the dark side” or became radicalized. He said it was the result of competition from Mark Levin.
What it also comes down to is the simple truth that there is a big vacuum of power on the right. As a result in part of that awkward union of ideology, forces like Drudge and Breitbart are able to seize influence within the movement. It’s unfortunate.
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