This graphic by Media Matters clearly illustrates the MASSIVE failure of Democrats over the past 15-20 years or so to build an online presence, especially when considering that back in the 2000s, arguably Dems had the lead online (not counting talk radio, which was has been dominated forever by the right wing – another massive failure by Democrats; and also TV news, which was/is…yep, dominated by the right wing and/or “both sides”/false equivalence media). Note that even some of the blue-colored circles, like The Young Turks, aren’t pro-Democratic by any means. As Media Matters summarizes, “As Americans increasingly get their news from online shows and streamers, the influence of this media ecosystem becomes more prominent — and Media Matters has found that the most popular of this content is overwhelmingly right-leaning.”
So yeah, total f’up – and a truly disastrous one -by Dems, who: a) failed to invest in building an online media ecosystem, while the right-wing most definitely did so; b) actually were hostile/scornful towards the online pro-Democratic media that existed, such as the “SoapBlox” network of state-based pro-Democratic blogs); c) never seemed to grasp the power of online media, even though it was glaringly obvious that this is where people increasingly were getting their information (or, more to the point, misinformation and disinformation), and even though right wingers clearly figured it out; d) still, to this day, don’t seem to “get it,” or invest accordingly, a failing that almost certainly played a major role in Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in November 2024.
In short, this failure by Democrats was totally avoidable, but somehow was NOT avoided, and instead turned into a major disadvantage for Democrats…one that’s still not showing any serious signs of being corrected. Which proves yet again that Democrats are very good at policy but HORRIBLE at politics, framing, communications, messaging, etc etc.; while Republicans in contrast are HORRIBLE at policy, but excellent at (or at least pour huge amounts of $$$ into!) politics, framing, communications, messaging, etc, etc. Given that asymmetry, and given the way humans actually get their news these days, which of those two do you think is going to be more effective??? Hmmm…
P.S. I’m not surprised to see Republican VA Del. Nick Freitas on here, as he’s put a lot of effort into his YouTube channel (which now has 1.19 million subscribers, with dozens of videos with >100k views and two videos >1 million views) providing a steady stream of right-wing “red meat” content for his audience. I’m also not surprised to see zero Virginia Democrats on this list, sad to say, as it’s pretty much par for the course for Democrats (and so far at least, there’s no sign the new DNC Chair understands online media; we’ll see about the new DPVA Chair).
“Incredibly bleak how all the top conservative shows are all in for republicans and the top 3 left shows are lukewarm on democrats at best”
************************
“5. There is a lot of talk right now about influencers in political circles. But, be warned. Many of same extremely incompetent consultants that have been messing up Dem campaigns for years are porting their paid media approach to influencer space by way of “pay to post content.”
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
