Corporate news media is officially dead-Long live independent media!

New data this week backs this up

I’ve long written that corporate media is not our friend. Rather, it’s simply a vessel to make money. However, in the time of Trump, I updated that phrase to reflect that corporate news media is actually our enemy. I reached that conclusion given so many corporate executives have either submitted to Trump or refuse to cover him with the tenacious honesty demanded. In either case, they are helping Trump usher in his dreams of being a fascist leader.

But given two pieces of data released this week, I have a new outlook on corporate media. Here is the headline: Corporate news media is dead.

And the chances of reviving legacy media just get worse given the latest development involving CBS News hiring an “anti-woke” activist to head their news division.

First, let’s look at the new data that tells us we are witnessing, “Dead media walking.”

Earlier this week Gallup released its annual survey looking at whether Americans trust “mass media” -which we would refer to as corporate news media. The famed polling company asked Americans, “In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio — when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly?” The option given to each person was “a great deal, a fair amount, not very much or none at all?”

For context, when Gallup began measuring trust in the news media back in the 1970s, more than 70% of Americans expressed confidence. What did the new poll tell us? Only 28% of Americans have either a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in corporate media. This 28% number is the LOWEST ever in a Gallup poll going back to when the question was first asked 50 plus years ago.

Worse for corporate media, seven in 10 U.S. adults now say they have none to almost no confidence in news media. It’s almost impossible to get 70% of Americans to agree on anything yet they do when it comes to people on the right, left and center saying that corporate news media is untrustworthy.

The odd wrinkle in the poll is that Democrats still have the highest trust in media, coming in at 51% compared to only 8% of Republicans. (Yes, just 8% for GOPers!) But this likely goes to the fact that as Democrats we are hardwired to defend journalists.

But the second piece of data released this week indicates it’s people on the left and center left who are turning off cable news channels at a rate four times higher than the right. What I mean is that the cable news ratings for the past quarter of July through August were just released—and they tell us so much.

When you compare the primetime TV ratings for Fox News over the past three months to the same time in 2024, they lost about 9% of viewers. What about CNN and MSNBC, you ask? Well, MSNBC lost 46% of their viewers while CNN was down 42%. That means MS and CNN have lost four times more viewers on a percentage basis than Fox News.

It’s true that in presidential years ratings go up and then drop the following year, but this is different. Despite more Republicans not trusting corporate media, they still are tuning into Fox in a non-presidential year in big numbers—averaging of 2.5 million viewers each night in primetime.

Meanwhile, MSNBC now attracts nightly in primetime about 800,000 viewers and CNN a paltry 530,000. That means combined, MSNBC and CNN now barely have 50% of the viewership of Fox News during primetime.

And it’s about to get worse in terms of us being able to trust the corporate news media. CBS was recently purchased by Skydance in a deal funded by Trump ally and GOP megadonor Larry Ellison. While Ellison’s son David is technically running the company, the real power is Larry-who Trump praised just months ago as “an amazing man and amazing business person.” (See photo below of Larry Ellison was at Trump’s White House in January.)

Well the Ellison’s first big move with CBS is reportedly hiring to head the news division, anti-woke activist, Bari Weiss. As The Guardian reported, “More than any other figure in her age cohort, Weiss wrote the playbook on canceling anti-Zionists and “woke” progressives.”

While in college, Weiss did her best to silence any professor who dared advocate for Palestinian humanity or criticized Israeli policy in ways she didn’t approve. And later at NY Times, the now 41 year-old resigned after a backlash when she defended GOP Sen Tom Cotton’s op-ed urging President Trump in his first term to use the military against Black Lives Matter protesters.

It’s likely that CBS News will soon resemble Fox News—although it will be more insidious because people may not know that the network has shifted to becoming the home of right-wing propaganda.

Now here is the reality that many reporting on the collapse of cable news ratings and trust in the media are missing. It’s not that the people who are concerned with Trump’s march to fascism and his right-wing agenda have given up. No, they have just turned off the television and instead tune into programs they trust. That is why we see the growing visibility of more progressive and Democratic leaning YouTube shows, podcasts along with platforms like Substack.

And yes, there are still some great journalists on MSNBC and even CNN (although much smaller number), but they are forced to navigate in the for profit, right leaning corporate media world. It’s why people like my friend Joy Reid was pushed out of MSNBC—she refused to serve up the BS the executives demanded. Same for former CNN anchor Jim Acosta.

The hope is everyone reading this will support those in independent media taking the fight to the aspiring tyrant Trump in defense of our freedoms. We need to grow all of them heading into 2026 election and beyond. That is how we, the people build the platforms needed to get our message out to win elections.

To sum up: Corporate news media is officially dead. Long live independent media!

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