Trump Has Mainstream Media in Shambles

As the mainstream media has struggled to keep up with the lightning-fast pace of the first month of Trump’s second term, corporate newsrooms have also been rocked by plunging viewership and internal turmoil. At the same time, the Trump administration’s commitment to free speech and promoting ideological diversity has provided an opportunity for upstart and alternative news providers to take the place of foundering legacy outlets.

This shifting power dynamic of the media landscape was particularly evident during a White House press briefing last week when Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt welcomed Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski to ask the first question. Despite attracting nearly 70 million monthly users, the conservative alternative to YouTube has been elbowed out of access to the White House until now.

The inclusion of Rumble is part of the Trump press office’s commitment to providing a “new media” seat in press briefings. “We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House,” Leavitt said during the first press briefing last month.

For upstart and alternative news outlets, the new press rules are a welcome change from the last administration, which revoked access for 440 journalists, putting in place rules that favored the establishment media. Those changes severely restricted access by limiting who could have a “hard pass,” which allows for regular access to the White House. The Biden administration largely shut out journalists if they did not work for a news site with a permanent D.C. location and if they did not have access rights to cover another branch of government, according to Fox News.

But Leavitt and the Trump press office have taken precisely the opposite approach. “This White House believes strongly in the First Amendment, so it’s why our team will work diligently to restore the press passes of the 440 journalists whose passes were wrongly revoked by the previous administration,” Leavitt said. All badges were subsequently reinstated according to Reuters.

Trump’s embrace of new and alternative media outlets was obvious during his campaign last year when he famously embarked on a tour of some of the most popular podcasts in the country, including The Joe Rogan Experience, Barstool Sports’ Bussin’ with the Boys, This Past Weekend with Theo Von, and the NELK Boys, among others.

Now, podcasters who reach millions of Americans every day have the opportunity to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with journalists from CBS and The Associated Press to ask questions about issues that matter to their viewers.

But while Trump’s embrace of the new media may primarily benefit conservative voices that have been denied access under previous administrations, Leavitt has stressed that all are welcome to apply for press passes. For example, Leavitt noted during her first briefing that there were two new journalists in attendance – Mike Allen with Axios, which leans left, and Matt Boyle with Breitbart, a conservative outlet.

The Trump administration has taken similar actions with the Pentagon by instituting a rotating press pool that will allow four outlets a year to have special offices inside the building.

“The memo on a ‘New Annual Media Rotation Program’ said it would also remove National Public Radio, Comcast Corp-owned NBC News… and Politico, which must vacate their spaces by Feb. 14,” Reuters reported. “In their place, it would give dedicated office space to the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network, and HuffPost News.”

Legacy news outlets have predictably protested the Trump administration’s changes, with NBC News stating that they present “significant obstacles… to our ability to gather and report news in the national public interest.”

But as that statement itself unintentionally acknowledges, the outlets that do have direct access to the White House and top government officials by default have an advantage over those that do not. The media narrative on major stories is in large part determined by the answers that government officials give to questions journalists ask.

By restricting access to journalists from a few legacy outlets, those outlets have unfair control over the information flow from the government to the American people. As the cratering viewership numbers for outlets like CNN and MSNBC and declining readership for papers like The New York Times and The Washington Post make clear, the outlets that have long dominated White House press briefings are no longer where most Americans are going to get their news.

In another sign of the changing times across the corporate media landscape, top talent at several major networks has recently resigned or been let go.

Perhaps the most high-profile exit was that of vehement Trump critic Jim Acosta, who has been with CNN since 2007 and was once considered a rising star in the industry. But after CNN reportedly wanted to move Acosta’s time slot to midnight, the anchor chose to leave the network entirely. Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN) embarrassed Acosta during one of his last days on air, pointing out that “SpongeBob” cartoon reruns beat out CNN for ratings, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Late last month, NBC’s Chuck Todd also announced that he was leaving his network after nearly 20 years to pursue independent media projects. In addition, Washington Post opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin – another outspoken Trump critic – has left the paper with plans to start her own Substack. Both departures had all the hallmarks of passengers jumping into lifeboats fleeing the sinking ship of the legacy media.

There is a strong case to be made that the seeds of the corporate media’s demise were sown before Trump’s emergence on the political scene in 2016. But his first term and stunning political comeback last year seem to have solidified the rise of a new media class ready and willing to challenge the dominance of the legacy press.

AMAC Newsline contributor Matt Lamb is an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.