The immediate after-action analysis by lots of Democrats following their 2024 election loss went something like this: We lost the podcast vote…ergo…we need our own Joe Rogan.
That assessment is not only drastically over-simplified but also underestimates the depth of the problem for Democrats when it comes to the online media marketplace, according to The Bulwark’s
, who covers right-wing media and the influencer community. (The new edition of his “False Flag” newsletter came out this morning!)“I think Democrats are in trouble in terms of partisan media operations,” Sommer told me in a Substack Live conversation on Wednesday night.
I asked him to explain. Here’s what he said:
I mean, you have kind of what we would classically think of as sort of like Republican media, like Fox News, Ben Shapiro, stuff like that, talk radio. But then you also have, I think, increasingly more of like lifestyle with a conservative tinge, but stuff that is otherwise very mainstream, like Candace Owens is getting into celebrity gossip, but also she'll put in a lot of right-wing stuff in that. Or you can think about how so many of these bro podcasters who were right-coded slightly, like someone like Joe Rogan, I think just in the past year or so have really become much more openly supportive of Trump and someone like Theo Von, for example. I really think Democrats are really lagging behind in a lot of different fronts.
It’s an interesting and important conversation. In addition to Democrats’ media issues, Will and I also talked about:
Laura Loomer — and how she got to be a voice in Donald Trump’s ear
The online cult of RFK Jr.
The rise of Instagram influencer Jessica Reed Kraus (and why it matters)
Dan Bongino and his detractors in the conservative-influencer sphere
What ever happened to QAnon?
Thank you
, , , , , and many others for tuning in. Make sure to download the Substack app so you can catch my next conversation LIVE!
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