Conservatives and the Media: If You Can't Beat 'em Buy 'em
When you think about it, one of the most “American Dream” type stories has been the conservative movement’s relationship with the mainstream media. From the very start it seems, conservatives have never been given a fair shake with mainstream media outlets. Oh sure, no one knew what a raging liberal Walter Cronkite was, and that was the way it was supposed to be. After Cronkite’s departure, Dan Rather may have started with fair and balanced intentions, but as soon as his Bush Derangement Syndrome kicked in, he could just never let go of the fact that those Texas National Guard documents surrounding former President George W. Bush’s service were fake. It would not be a surprise if even today, he still thinks they are real.
So, while the mainstream media was busy mischaracterizing conservatives as racist, sexist, bigoted homophobes, and deciding they would treat them like stepchildren, we got busy building our own media empire. And what a media empire it has become! First, there were the pioneering days of National Review, the brainchild of the father of conservatism William F. Buckley. And if Mr. Buckley was the father, Rush Limbaugh was the firstborn son. Rush not only created the doorway for the next generation of people like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Larry Elder, and Mark Levin, but he kicked it in. When it came to conservative dominance on the internet, it was the great Andrew Breitbart paving the way for others behind him like The Drudge Report, The Daily Caller, TownHall, and my personal favorite, RedState.
Rush used to say that conservatives dominated the internet because liberals could get what they were looking for in the mainstream media, it was being teed up for them right there, they didn’t need to go anywhere else. But now, there may be another way around media outlets that insist on not telling the truth about those they don’t like or agree with, and it is being introduced to us by former 2024 GOP Presidential candidate, and a favorite for a possible Trump VP pick Vivek Ramaswamy. Back in March, Ramaswamy purchased a 7.7 percent stake, consisting of 2.7 million shares in the political website BuzzFeed. He purchased the shares for between $1.47 and $2.51 a share. This acquisition makes Ramaswamy an activist shareholder, which allows him to put a bit of pressure on management. If they do not want to maintain their status as the internet version of “The World” supermarket tabloid, they would do well to listen to Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy sent a letter to BuzzFeed, urging them to “apologize and acknowledge” that they have “repeatedly lied on issues of national importance” to their audience. He urged them to own up to things like failing to fact-check, losing sight of fairness, and most of all, “failing in our obligation to tell the truth by both omission and commission.” Ramaswamy then urged them to own up to their failures, take responsibility, which will enable them to create a new kind of media entity. He listed some of BuzzFeed’s journalistic boondoggles, such as publishing the now infamous and thoroughly debunked Steele dossier, which was the centerpiece of the Trump/Russia collusion hoax. BuzzFeed also called Hunter Biden’s 2020 emails that implicated Joe Biden in his overseas business deals as “stolen,” with no backup for that description. In one bit of humor, Ramaswamy stated “The silver lining is that your competitors’ records are equally bad.” BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti told Ramaswamy there would be no apology issued but was open to hearing more from him.
Here’s the thing. Vivek Ramaswamy just might be on to something. While all of us in the conservative movement don’t have Vivek Ramaswamy money, there are a few that do. If they find shares in a news outlet like BuzzFeed that, in Ramaswamy’s words are “undervalued and represent an attractive investment opportunity,” would it be out of the question for them to purchase those shares? If running a media outlet isn’t their thing, hire someone whose thing it is to run it. Are there outlets whose shares are public that could be purchased with a few dollars here and there? The point is, is that Vivek Ramaswamy is not trying to turn BuzzFeed conservative, he is just trying to make them fair. Above all, he urged diversity of thought. For every Tucker Carlson, hire a Bill Maher.
Conservatives have had to scratch and claw for every bit of fair and balanced media content we have gotten. We have a deep bench with a lot of talent, and there should be no reason we could not populate BuzzFeed with conservative talent. If there are other outlets like BuzzFeed out there, let’s go get ‘em, whether it is by purchasing large shares of stock, or average Americans who happen to be conservative, buying a few shares at a time, we can expand our empire that much more. It also allows us to mentor the ones coming up behind the Limbaughs, the Hannitys, and even the local radio conservatives. Too often, conservatives look at each other not as having the same goal, the advancement of conservatism, but as competitors in the same business. That needs to stop.
In his letter, Vivek Ramaswamy brings up smart, doable ways that an outlet like BuzzFeed can completely remake itself into a legitimate carrier of news content. Not conservative, not liberal, just fair. It is also a very tantalizing proposition to be able to acquire the leverage to rebuild the content of a website from the ground up, molding it and stocking it with the right people. The rebuilding of BuzzFeed might be the first of its kind, and it is definitely food for thought that it shouldn’t be the last.