The Left has a Media Problem

The left wing of American politics has a media problem. The lack of any substantial media infrastructure promoting progressive policies and ideology has left a vacuum within the public opinion. That vacuum has become filled by those who wish to diminish and villainize progressivism, with organizations such as Fox News, Breitbart, and One America New being the leaders in that cause. This makes sense, at least on the surface. These networks are actors within conservative propaganda efforts, and thus they are going to do everything they can to amplify the evils of progressives/democrats to the good ole American people.

But, even the media networks who supposedly have no political lean, the Politico/CNN/WaPo’s of the world, the commentary has swung decisively negative. Some of this is undeniably deserved. The inability of the Biden Administration to pass key pieces of the campaign, such as climate action through Build Back Better and student debt cancellation, has given traditional media an easy political target. Yet, I worry that it is the traditional media’s commentary that has allowed for the target to be made.

In a world in which the traditional media infrastructure is criticizing the Biden administration and liberal politicians for every step that they take, echoing the conservative propaganda spewed by the aforementioned Fox News, etc., it is much easier for politicians such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to ride the fence, and inhibit the flow of progress which their party ostensibly represents. It allows them to neglect the fact that the policies that the administration is trying to make law such as climate action, childcare for all, student debt cancellation, and so on and so forth, are broadly popular. And the ideas have remained popular throughout the first year of the Biden presidency, despite his own declining approval ratings because of lack of performance and conservative propaganda efforts.

A progressive media infrastructure needs to be developed, and it needs to be done quickly. It is likely too late for the Democratic party to maintain Congress in 2022, and possibly even the Presidency in 2024. The impact of conservative media and rampant misinformation at present is too strong at the moment. It is going to take years to develop progressive media strong enough to contend with the work that the right has been doing for the past several decades. But, in order to preserve democracy past 2024, and to allow for the needed progressive policies to take hold so that America can survive and help the world throughout the 21st century, we need to get to work on it now.

There are some networks taking shape. Collectives like Crooked Media, the media company behind the wildly popular Pod Save America, are attempting to shape political conversations and convey the strength of progressive policies in conjunction with organizations such as Fair Fight Action and Data for Progress. Yet this is not enough. We must think bigger, and better, and begin to create media that a wide range of the American people will consume. Whether that be through a solid understanding of the Facebook algorithm, infiltrating traditional cable, or developing news websites that people ages 18 to 99 can enjoy, we need to start working on it, tomorrow.

I wrote this article in large part as a response to a cursory search of Biden’s Build Back Better, to see if there had been any significant progress since Joe Manchin’s announcement that he would not vote for the progressive infrastructure legislation on Fox News. Instead of articles questioning Manchin’s motives (blue politician in a red state who is likely to run for governor), or acknowledging the damage that his no vote does for climate action, or even acknowledging the popularity of the agenda among Americans, I found negative coverage on the agenda itself, and the administration which crafted it. This, instead of thoughtful commentary of the failings of this agenda, Joe Manchin. Some of the negative coverage is undoubtedly warranted. The democrats have failed on this front. But it is a failure largely influenced by the right media infrastructure. Democrats, and progressives, must acknowledge this, and begin to do the work to make sure that this doesn’t continue to happen until there is a point where there is no hope for progress. We must develop a progressive media infrastructure. Hopefully, Why Not can be a part of that.