Originally published by alt-market.us.
If the past year has confirmed anything it is that the mainstream media is thoroughly dishonest. Yes, most people already suspected this, but the last 12 months have provided more confirmation than the past several years combined. 2021 has made it clear that the mainstream media is a propaganda arm of political and corporate elitists, from big government to big pharma.
While there have been a few shining examples of independent and mostly unbiased journalism in the MSM, these moments are as rare as Loch Ness Monster sightings and almost as unbelievable. The public has been lied to so consistently that sometimes we ignore legitimate journalism when it pops up because it’s safer to assume the media is disingenuous at all times.
I’ve personally noticed a wash of commercials lately paid for by major legacy media platforms like the New York Times desperately trying to convince the public that they are still relevant. The message is that they are the only “true source” of news information while they beg people to start subscribing and reading their hot garbage once again. Leftist media is crumbling, with online propaganda peddlers and click-bait prostitutes like Buzzfeed and Vox imploding. The lack of profits is obvious and the layoffs have been aggressive.
These platforms survived for the past few years on tech media hype and venture startup capital, but the free money has run out and now they don’t know what to do. Buzzfeed’s scheme was to go public and sell shares, but this plan failed so completely and the company’s stock plunged so hard that the event has exposed all other fledgling tech media to wider scrutiny. In other words no one has faith in these outlets, at least not enough to invest in them, and now the veil of their supposed “success” has been lifted. Buzzfeed used to claim they were worth $1.5 billion; reality revealed they are worth almost nothing.
Legacy media has also seen its audience numbers plummet over the past ten years, but the last year in particular has been especially unkind to them. ALL of the major corporate news channels saw their audience ratings decline, with CNN seeing the largest drop overall. CNN is facing an epic cut of 68% in its prime time numbers in 2021, while MSNBC now has the smallest prime time audience it has witnessed since 2016. Fox also dealt with audience declines this year but continues to remain the most watched cable news outlet so far, probably because of the continued popularity of commenters like Tucker Carlson.
Some might blame the loss of election coverage, but it’s not as if there hasn’t been enough news to hype in 2021. With millions of people still working from home and facing intermittent covid restrictions this year (in blue states), you would think that this would represent a captive audience for the fear machine. Even YouTube and other social media platforms are forcing MSM content into our faces daily while burying any alternatives. Yet, their numbers are still plunging and audiences are laughing.
YouTube has even removed the “Dislike” button just to protect the corporate media and the White House from the hilarious bombardment of thumbs down they receive on every video. It’s unacceptable for us peasants to have the ability to voice our discontent.
So, where are people turning for their news if not the mainstream? While stats are not as well tracked for independent sources, it is obvious from viewership and subscription numbers that the alternative media is quickly becoming the dominant force in information. My own audience numbers have jumped at least 30% in the past two years alone and this seems to be the trend across the board for conservative and libertarian media. Websites like Social Blade, which tracks YouTube channel stats, support the conclusion that the alternative media is becoming the go-to media.
Why is this happening? It’s actually been a long time coming. Mainstream media numbers have been in decline for many years and their audience age brackets have been increasing dramatically. This accelerated after 2016 when the mainstream media mask came off completely and what we now know as the “Culture War” revealed itself.
The migration of audiences is undeniable in entertainment and pop culture media. Mainstream platforms funded by a steady cash flow from the corporate coffers of Disney, Time Warner, Comcast, Viacom, etc, used to reign supreme in entertainment publications. Moderately sized tech media operations clamored to remain in the good graces of these corporations in exchange for favors and special access. Now, operations with billions of dollars behind them are being thwarted by low cost do-it-yourself YouTube channels like Geeks And Gamers, The Quartering, Nerdrotic, Clownfish TV, etc.
The bloodletting has been so horrific that social media companies (with a shared agenda) have partnered with the majors to suppress these types of channels, demonetizing them or erasing them from public view with their algorithms. Alternative channels get so much attention because they offer something people want – An honest opinion and analysis instead of an opinion bought and paid for with corporate dollars.
In the political and social sphere there have been numerous success stories, including Joe Rogan’s podcast, Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, Blaze TV’s ‘You Are Here’, Tim Pool the list goes on and on. In economic media, outlets like Zero Hedge continue to bring in millions of readers that most other mainstream institutions WISH they had.
To be sure, some of these information sources are still playing catch-up to those of us once considered “conspiracy theorists” a few years ago. That’s okay. I’m not saying that there isn’t more that could be done. What I’m saying is that there is a revolution happening in how people consume media and at least some truths are getting out there to the normies.
I have been working and publishing within the alternative media for 16 years and I don’t think many who are new to the field realize how much Americans have broken free from the mainstream narrative in that time. When I got started, to even dream of the audience numbers we now have was considered naive fantasy. Today I continue to find great hope in the growth of independent journalism.
The fact of the matter is, for decades corporate institutions conned the masses into believing only THEY were qualified to act as gatekeepers and guardians of the information bottleneck. Only they were the true “journalists.” They have now lost the respect of the public and their gatekeeping is over. On that note, lets examine just a few of the reasons why trust in the mainstream has imploded. Lets look at some of the biggest lies perpetuated by the MSM in 2021…
The Jan 6th “Insurrection”
Probably one of the most fake news stories of the decade. The mainstream media has relentlessly parroted the propaganda that the conservative protest at the Capitol Building on Jan 6th was some kind of planned attempt at a national takeover and violent coup resulting in multiple deaths. The reality was much less sexy.
First, the FBI has been forced to admit there is no evidence supporting the claim that the protest was an organized coup. And when an institution that is extremely hostile to patriots admits this, you know the government has NOTHING.
Not a single death originally attributed to the Jan 6 protesters was actually caused by them, so that tall tale has been tossed down the memory hole. While there was violence and an unarmed protester was shot and killed by police (Ashli Babbitt), the result of the event was nothing close to an insurrection. Protesters walked in, milled around for a little while, some people stole some souvenirs, and then everyone left. It can barely be considered a “riot.” Compare this to the BLM riots across the country which resulted in multiple actual killings by people directly participating, not to mention billions of dollars in property damage. The media called these riots “peaceful protests” while condemning the Jan 6 participants as monsters.
When conservatives protest something at least we go to the source instead of burning down the homes and businesses of innocent people. And I want to explain something else to leftists because I don’t think they get it – When you do see a conservative “insurrection” (rebellion against centralized tyranny), they will not be unarmed like they were on Jan 6 and they will not stop until all corrupt elements of the establishment are removed from power. If you were hiding under your beds over the events of Jan 6th, you really have no clue.
The Texas Power Grid Failure
Wow, what a politically charged mess the coverage of this event was. Multiple people die from a freak winter storm hitting Texas and taking down parts of their independent power grid and the first thing the mainstream media does is write hatchet stories about how this “proves they could never secede from the union.” These people are obsessed with centralization to the point that they lose their minds if you generate your own electricity.
Paul Krugman, a notorious spin doctor for the establishment, went on a tirade in the New York Times dismissing any and all evidence that federally funded Wind Turbine failures led to the Texas power grid crisis. The facts on this are buried to this day.
The numbers prove Paul Krugman and the MSM utterly wrong. The Mises Institute published a comprehensive article on this based on analysis from the Institute For Energy Research, but I’ll summarize:
The MSM and Paul Krugman argued that the entire incident was caused by Texas’ ill prepared natural gas powered grid and that Wind Turbines had nothing to do with it. By extension, the MSM asserted that this makes any notion of a state like Texas becoming independent from centralized governance and a centralized grid “laughable.” It’s important to note that Krugman offers no real stats to support his arguments. An “economist” should know better.
The truth is that failing wind turbines were indeed the primary source of the power grid decline. Leading up to the winter storm in February, wind turbines were generating around 28% (nearly one third) of Texas power while natural gas was providing 43%. By the end of the freeze wind power had dropped to 6% while natural gas took up the slack and increased to 65% of the grid. In other words, Krugman either lied, or he was oblivious to the actual stats. While there were failures in some natural gas plants, the majority of the fault was in federally funded wind power. During the grid down crisis, natural gas lost 7% of its overall output while the federally funded wind turbines lost 47% output. THIS IS A FACT.
Also keep in mind that power demand in the state skyrocketed at this time breaking all previous records, perhaps because the state population jumped from 29 million to 30 million from the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2021. Millions of people had just transplanted to Texas in a matter of months to escape blue state policies such as high taxes and oppressive covid mandates. And here is where we find what is likely the core motive behind the media’s lies about Texas – The establishment does not want Americans to migrate and congregate to fight against the mandates. Lying about Texas at any opportunity, even during tragedy, reveals their underlying fears.
Fauci’s Gain Of Function Research
Anthony Fauci is perhaps the highest paid liar in recent history, but his lies go beyond simply acting as a propagandist for the government. The covid pandemic has luckily resulted in a very low average Infection Fatality Rate (only 0.27% officially), meaning, over 99.7% of the population at any given time has very little to worry about from the virus. With the mild Omicron variant now in circulation the death numbers are falling even further. However, there have been fatalities that did not need to happen and Fauci is partly to blame.
Despite the fact that the largest Level 4 virology lab in Asia is in Wuhan, China right down the street from the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak, the mainstream media at the behest of the government and the medical establishment has fought tooth and nail to deny any connection. If this was a murder investigation it would be like a detective walking in a room to find a dead body and a neighbor standing over it with a bloody knife, and then buying the suspect ice cream and sending him on his merry way. If you didn’t witness the actual stabbing, why investigate further?
Why was the media so adamant about ignoring the obvious? Maybe because government agencies like the NIAD and NIH under the direction of Anthony Fauci were involved in funding clandestine “Gain of Function” research of corona viruses at that very lab in Wuhan. This would explain why the initial strain of Covid that spread around the world in early 2020 was a 96% match to samples held at the lab since 2013. The other 4% could be attributed to genetic manipulation through gain of function.
Fauci denied any involvement in gain of function research, which is predominantly used for the weaponization of a virus or other microorganisms. The media violently defended him and accused anyone critical of Fauci of being crackpot conspiracy theorists. Well, it turns out he was lying again. The release of over 900 documents related to coronavirus research funded by Fauci and the US government in Wuhan proves the media either blindly defended Fauci without looking at the evidence, or that they share the same agenda.
The Pandemic Of The Unvaccinated
“Breakout case” is now a common term used in the media to describe fully vaccinated people who still get sick from and die from covid infection. But not long ago the narrative was that anyone and everyone falling ill from the virus was unvaccinated. The media and the government still push the notion that unvaccinated people are filling up hospitals and ICU beds, but there is ZERO evidence to support these claims. Meanwhile, the most vaccinated countries on the planet are also dealing with some of the highest infection rates on the planet and continuing deaths.
In Ireland, for example, over 63% of recent covid deaths were fully vaccinated individuals. In Israel, nearly 60% of covid hospitalizations are fully vaccinated. Uruguay, Bahrain, Maldives and Chile all have overwhelming majority vaccination rates and all of them have seen spikes in covid deaths and infections.
If the vaccines actually work, then how is this possible? Conclusion: The vaccines don’t work, at least not in the way that pharmaceutical companies initially claimed. Add to this the fact that people with natural immunity are 13 to 27 times more protected from covid than people who submit to the jab. One has to ask – What is the point of these experimental mRNA vaccines with no long term data to prove their safety?
“Transitory” Stagflation
Mainstream media denial of US inflation has been commonplace for some time. Now, they can’t hide it anymore. With price inflation hitting 40 year highs (according to official numbers), the pocketbook of the average American is taking a massive hit, and it’s only going to get worse from here on.
The media appears to be specifically invested in hiding real economic data from the public and protecting the Federal Reserve and central banking practices in general. I won’t get into my theories on why this is the case (I already wrote extensively on this issue in my last article), I’ll only say that an unprepared populace is an easy to control populace when an economic crash occurs.
Covid Keeping Audiences From The Movie Theaters?
The movie industry was on the decline well before the covid pandemic happened, and it is undeniable that this was largely due to the extreme leftist propaganda implanted into Hollywood films since 2016. Yes, Hollywood was woke before then, but nowhere near as bad as the industry has become in the past five years. Hollywood calls this politicization of films “inclusivity,” but having more black and brown people in films is not the issue. Rather, it is the injection of leftist woke ideology and cultism into everything from films to TV series to commercials.
The culture war is VERY real, and sadly, the biggest mistake of conservatives was to mostly ignore the fight in popular entertainment until recently. There is hope, however, and it is found in the mantra of “Get Woke Go Broke!” Audiences are voting with their wallets and the consensus is that they do not want woke politics poisoning their entertainment. For the past couple years leftists in the media have said that the crash in theater profits has been caused by public fear over covid. This excuse was recently destroyed by the latest Spiderman film, which has no woke politics and had audiences coming to theaters by the millions. The film made over $1 billion in 5 days breaking previous records.
Clearly, covid is not a factor at all, but if you look at almost every failed movie this past year there is a thread that connects them – Woke propaganda. No one wants it, no one likes it. The media has no other means of denying it any longer.
There are many other lies I did not get a chance to cover here, but I think you get the picture. Who knows what the next year will bring in terms of spin from our corporate gatekeepers? At least, for now, the alternative media has stepped up to fill the void and bring facts where there was once only deception. In order to get rid of the truth, they will have to get rid of us. Otherwise, the free market has spoken.
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Originally published by alt-market.us.
Author: Brandon Smith
Brandon Smith founded the Alternative Market Project in 2010-2011 after writing for 4-5 years at Neithercorp.us. His goal is to educate the public on facts, evidence and philosophies that the mainstream establishment refuses to discuss in an honest way while focusing on SOLUTIONS, not just threat analysis, to help people start decoupling from the existing system and become more independent as individuals, and to help communities adopt localized economic networks, including barter markets, to insulate themselves from the ongoing decline of the corrupt financial structure. In other words, if centralization is the problem, then decentralization is the answer. Alt-Market is about freedom, in the purest sense, and stands against those that are working relentlessly to undermine our most fundamental values.
