Conservative media consumers are moving further to the right as they abandon Fox News for outlets they perceive as more loyal to Donald Trump, according to a new report.
The network's viewers are drifting away since Tucker Carlson was reportedly fired in the wake of a $787 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, and Trump has followed his supporters to fringier outlets by giving interviews to right-wing Twitch streamer Adin Ross and various podcasters, such as talk show host Dr. Phil, comedian Theo Von, computer scientist Lex Fridman and YouTuber Logan Paul, reported The Guardian.
“I used to watch TV news every morning — network news and the local news channel in New York,” said Adrianna Munoz, a 58-year-old from Queens, New York. “Now I don’t. They sold out, they don’t tell you the truth. I don’t want to hear that rubbish.”
Trump has total control over the right-wing media space, which used to influence Republican Party candidates, but now that relationship has been reversed, the Guardian report stated.
“If you don’t capitulate to what Trump and his enablers and his supporters are looking for, then they’ll shut you out,” said Julie Millican, the vice-president of Media Matters. "Since his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his influence has only increased, and “now he has a stronger control over the entire media ecosystem than he did previously."
Viewers drifting further into the fringes of right-wing media are exposed to stories that exist only in those spaces, which effectively seals them off from the news most other Americans are hearing about.
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“It’s like every day is a new conspiracy or a new attack, and it’s just hard to even keep up on it anymore,” Millican said. “Half the time, when you listen to somebody who consumes nothing but rightwing media, you have no idea what they’re talking about.”
Talk radio remains a dominant influence over conservative discourse, especially in rural areas, and many Trump fans have turned to Newsmax and One America News Network, which have amplified the former president's persistent lies about his 2020 election loss.
“Our biggest news thing we watch is Newsmax,” said David Fiedler, a 67-year-old retiree from Rock County, Wisconsin, who stopped watching Fox and local news.
Trump fans have also gravitated to the Epoch Times website associated with the the Falun Gong religion, despite a Justice Department lawsuit alleging that it operates as a money laundering and cryptocurrency scam. Its stories are often amplified by GOP politicians and right-wing influencers.
“I watch less Fox News now after they got rid of Tucker Carlson,” said Carlene, a 58-year-old Trump fan from the Upper East Side of Manhattan who gets her news from the Epoch Times. “It made me think Fox was just like everyone else.”
