Did Vivek Just Make the Corrupt Media the 2024 Issue?

Did Vivek Ramaswamy just crack the code for defeating the Democrat Party’s smear machine and the corrupt media collusion as seen on Tuesday with the defeat of Republican candidates like Daniel Cameron in Kentucky? And has he finally forced Washington Republicans to realize they are suffering from spousal abuse syndrome—as they empower corrupt networks and newspapers that turn every political news story into an attack on fellow Republicans and conservatives?

At the third Republican primary debate in Miami Wednesday evening, which was hosted by NBC News, longshot candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stole the show not by going after his onstage GOP opponents, Donald Trump, or Joe Biden—but instead by launching a scathing attack on the national corporate media, and saying out loud what rank-and-file conservative voters have long known to be the truth. In doing so, Ramaswamy has let a massive political genie out of the bottle and exposed the corporate media as the real opposition party in American politics—a moment that provoked notable discomfort on the faces of the debate’s moderators.

“Think about who’s moderating this debate.” Ramaswamy said on the debate stage. “This should be Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk—we’d have 10 times the viewership, asking questions that GOP primary voters actually care about, and bring in more people into our party.”

“We’ve got Kristen Welker here,” he continued. “Do you think the Democrats would actually hire Greg Gutfeld to host a Democratic debate? They wouldn’t do it. And so the fact of the matter is, Kristen, I’m going to use this time—because this is actually about you and the media, and the corrupt media establishment—[to] ask you [about] the Trump-Russia collusion hoax that you pushed on this network for years. Was that real? Or was that Hillary Clinton made-up disinformation? Answer the question. Go.” The camera then panned to Welker, who awkwardly smiled and refused to answer Ramaswamy’s question as the crowd erupted in applause.

Ramaswamy’s question to Welker came on the heels of an AMAC Newsline column last week, which urged the debate’s participants to use the occasion to hold the media’s feet to the fire and suggested that a GOP victory next November will require candidates to start telling the truth about the media establishment and its longtime collaboration with Democrat Party operatives and the left-wing consultant class. The column also included other confrontational questions that Ramaswamy or other GOP candidates could feel liberated to use against left-wing moderators in future debates, and which could allow them to catch on to the fact that Donald Trump’s popularity is due to his courage in speaking the truth to the media—and about the media.

Attacks on the corporate media are effective for two reasons: first, they neutralize media smears against Republican candidates (which have long been among the left’s most effective political weapons), and second, they allow voters to realize just how deep-rooted the media’s corruption truly is—potentially laying the groundwork for a Republican landslide next fall.

But even though opposition to the media and the extremism of the national Democrat Party remains one of the most unifying issues among Republican primary voters, the GOP consultant class has largely failed to tap into these narratives. Ramaswamy’s anti-media rhetoric at Wednesday’s debate, however, provides a much-need path forward.

In recent weeks, the media’s credibility has been even further shattered by its coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas—including by recent allegations that several major networks and publications had advance notice of the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Because the corporate media functionally exists as a Democrat Super PAC—and the left maintains its political oxygen almost entirely thanks to its media apparatchiks—it remains perplexing why Republican consultants refuse to make the media a major campaign issue.

As Vivek Ramaswamy demonstrated on Wednesday night, whether it knows it or not, the Republican Party is sitting on a political goldmine. Should it choose to expose the media’s corruption for what it is and treat their collusion with Democrats as a serious campaign issue this fall, it could very well find itself on the path to an unprecedented electoral majority.

The blueprint for an effective national ad campaign against the corporate media and Democrat candidates actually already exists. While Washington-based consultants of course gobbled up all the major GOP cash for ineffective ads, one heroic conservative group, Frontiers of Freedom, in the months leading up to last year’s midterm elections, ran a highly effective ad blitz taking aim at the left’s and media’s extremism. Frontiers of Freedom was the only group last election cycle to make the corruption of the media a driving issue.

The ads, which targeted five incumbent Senate Democrats in New York, Arizona, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Nevada, alleged that the media is “the most powerful and corrupt institution in America” that seek to “smear” GOP candidates and protect their own “chosen candidates,” asking voters to “send a message to the media bosses” who are corrupting American journalism and give them a “miserable election night.”

The ad focuses on the media for trying to “crush dissent” and hide corruption, after displaying headlines about media scandals and smears—including its handling of the China Virus leak, censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story, promotion of the Russian collusion hoax, coverup for Hillary Clinton’s email scandals, and refusal to report on Biden’s blackmailing of the Ukrainian government. The ad also lists other political smears, like those against General Michael Flynn, students at Covington Catholic High School, and parents protesting anti-Americanism in their local schools. The ad goes on to blame the media for electing Joe Biden “by letting him run “from his basement” and “covering up his incompetence and ill health.”

The blueprint for GOP success next fall is ready and available for the Washington-based Republican consultant class. Whether or not it chooses to use it, however, remains to be seen.

Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.