It’s no secret that bias exists in American news media. The statement that news networks in the United States are politically motivated would be widely welcomed as true, both in the United States and abroad. The American left consistently blames the likes of Fox News, politely speaking, as conservative propaganda. Likewise, the American right would rightly assert that all other news networks in the United States are spokesmen for the Left and the Democratic Party. This is the way the news media have been in the United States for decades. Gone are the days of famed reporter Walter Cronkite, reading the news to the American public and letting them draw their own conclusions on domestic and global events. We are fully in the era of political spin, where every news story and event in the mainstream media of the United States is dominated by political agendas and, rather bluntly, the agenda of the left.

How Have We Gotten Here, and How Has This Affected American Culture?

Bias in favor of the Democratic Party in the United States has dominated American news outlets for generations, and the origins of this activist, biased reporting can be traced all the way back to the 1960s and 70s. Reporting started to be less neutral and more about activism during the advent of the Vietnam War, and that activism started to be more directly about advancing the political agenda of the Democratic Party in the 1980s during the Reagan Administration. Coverage of the Reagan Administration was so skewed and in favor of the Democratic Party, that a Gallup poll from 1985 reported on by the LA Times found that most prominent news anchors at the time like Dan Rather of CBS, Peter Jennings of ABC, and Tom Brokaw of NBC had a 28 per cent, 25 per cent, and 24 per cent believability rating from the American public respectively.

For many conservatives in the mid to late 1980s, it seemed like it was going to be impossible for any conservative viewpoint to be taken seriously in any major news network. News networks of the time had already begun spinning their coverage of the Reagan Administration and any and all Republicans they spoke to in favor of the left. And at the time, it was arguably illegal. In the context of the time, fair and balanced reporting was the legal obligation of all news networks. In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States passed what was known as the Fairness Doctrine. Under the Fairness Doctrine, all news, radio, and television networks were legally obligated to ensure that any and all discussions about public issues in their programming remained balanced and provided diverse viewpoints in their coverage. This obligation for the news to provide fair and balanced reporting was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1969 in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, which stated that all criticized ideas and persons have the right to rebuttal and have their arguments heard.

‘Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters’

By the 1980s, it was clear this was no longer happening, but nothing was being done about it. Instead of ensuring the integrity of reporting and enabling diverse points of view to be heard in the media, the Fairness Doctrine was weaponized by the Democratic Party as early as the 1960s to censor Conservative and even Christian broadcasters and public speakers. President Kennedy and President Johnson used their Administrations to encourage elected Democrats and activists to file as many complaints against conservatives as possible. Their goal was to hit as many Conservative and, eventually, Christian broadcasters with so many frivolous lawsuits that they would inevitably not have the resources to continue in their work and be forced to shut down. And everyone in the news media and government knew this was happening. Bill Friendly, the then president of the CBS news network would eventually publicly admit that in private conversation with Bill Ruder, President Kennedy’s Assistant Secretary of Commerce, told him that  ‘Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue.’

In the face of this decades-long strategy by the Democratic Party to censor conservative speech and slant reporting, President Reagan and the Republican Party did what they thought was necessary and successfully had the Fairness Doctrine repealed. While this allowed and led to the explosion of conservative news media and allowed for the formation of networks like Fox News, this also led to the ability for all other networks to skip the pretense and allow their coverage to be totally slanted in favor of the left. Now, we have a media ecosystem in the United States where every single major news source is at least slanted to the left if not entirely fully aligned with the Democratic Party, with the sole exception of Fox News.

‘With Democratic control of the media…most Americans are stuck in political echo chambers where Democratic propaganda is strictly enforced’

It should be evident that this is a serious problem. Many Americans often complain that civility in the U.S. is dead, and that civil discourse in politics has gone the way of the dodo—completely extinct. And they’re right, but probably don’t realize that this has all been done by design. What has been seen by many as a random, chaotic, societal de-evolution resulting in the death of American civility has been, in truth, a carefully laid out process and strategy put in motion by the Democratic Party since the 1960s.

• Step 1: Use the government to harass and silence as many voices that disagree with the Democratic Party as possible.
• Step 2: Dominate and control media coverage so that the only opinions Americans hear favor the Democratic Party and its policies.
• Step 3: Use the media to convince everyone that anyone who disagrees with what is being reported on is a threat to America, undesirable, and alienate them from society.

This strategy has been wildly successful. With Democratic control of the media and the rise of social media, most Americans are stuck in political echo chambers where Democratic propaganda is strictly enforced. This is why so many Americans are left unable even to comprehend how someone can disagree with what they’ve been led to believe is true. This is what has led to the infamous scenes on college campuses across America, where some students have even become violent or inconsolable when they either hear an opposing viewpoint or learned that President Trump won either the 2016 or 2024 presidential election.

‘To be intellectual, a person or culture needs to have the ability and want to engage with a diverse subset of ideas’

These echo chambers constructed over the decades by the leadership of the Democratic Party have led to the death of intellectual and civil discourse across the United States. To be intellectual, a person or culture needs to have the ability and want to engage with a diverse subset of ideas. This complete domination of the media by the Democratic Party has robbed generations of Americans of the opportunity to have open and frank discussions with their fellow citizens and create understanding between individuals who may disagree. This is the essence and political aim of cancel culture that the Democratic Party has carefully crafted. Silence dissenters, promote only the ideas we agree with, and destroy everything else. The result is an anti-intellectual culture of citizens, either unwilling or too afraid to listen to or immerse themselves with ideas they may initially disagree with. In other words, a culture that is perfect for dividing and conquering for the Democratic Party.

Do echo chambers exist for the Republicans? Of course, but they are minuscule in comparison. Their echo chamber is limited to one major news network and a handful of individuals online. The Democratic Party has successfully taken the rest of the media, entertainment, and seemingly all of American pop culture. In this current status quo, Americans are left with few options to get an authentic glimpse of viewpoints they might disagree with. And an environment where individuals feel they can’t even meaningfully engage opposing viewpoints and can’t even comprehend how someone can disagree with the mainstream is an environment ripe for tyranny.

‘The moment we see Americans talking to each other again, you will know America has been made great again’

Where do we go from here? How do we overcome the systemic obstacles constructed by the Democratic Party that prevent our ability to freely and openly exchange ideas? By doing exactly what the Trump campaign did and what Conservative activists like Charlie Kirk continue to do. Engage people, be bold and respectful, and refuse to back down to the bullying tactics of the Democrats. Encourage discussion, and shift away from the Democrats’ strategy of focusing on the individual, rather than the ideas they espouse. The road ahead is long, and overcoming a strategy that has been in effect since the 1960s will take time. But the cracks are beginning to show. The moment we see Americans talking to each other again, you will know America has been made great again.

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