What exactly is the target audience for the biased narratives disseminated by the so-called legacy media? Only the most low-information voters—or “no-information” as No Spin News host Bill O’ Reilly puts it—buy into what educated and informed voters on both sides of the aisle know is leftist propaganda. “Low information” is a watered-down synonym for politically ignorant.
The conservative Republican right, especially the MAGA Republicans, understand that the legacy media is simply the propaganda and psychological operations arm of the Democratic Party. CNN’s Anderson Cooper and his ilk can’t blame former President Trump for that; Rush Limbaugh was talking about the “drive-by media” back when Donald Trump was a Democrat. It’s a safe bet that most conservative and Republican citizens don’t believe a word that comes out of the legacy media machine—and haven’t for years.
The educated, politically-aware left also knows how shading, twisting, and omitting truths work electing Democrat leaders. There are virtually no savvy left-wingers who don’t know that Kamala Harris essentially lied in the recent debate when she omitted context for Trump’s Charlottesville and “bloodbath” comments, and averred that Trump would seek a national abortion ban if elected.
If all conservatives and Republicans (including Never-Trump Republicans) and the educated left can decipher the propaganda from the legacy media, who’s left to hoodwink? Only the low-information ignorant. They represent the ideological sweet spot by which the goals of the Democratic Party and progressive media can be achieved.
Imagine three major voting blocs heading to the polls on November 5th, (and on any number of days, weeks or months in our interminable elections): (1) a right-of-center cohort for whom the legacy media is totally discredited, even perceived as “the enemy,” (2) the smart, partisan left and Republican turncoats like Dick and Liz Cheney, who knowingly celebrate the spin and deception that orchestrates false psyops like the Russia hoax, the Ukrainian phone call impeachment, and the amalgamation of unfounded lawfare cases against Trump. Finally, (3) the politically ignorant, who only see and hear what the propagandists feed them via substandard, biased and weighted information sources.
Unfortunately, for those concerned about the potential election of an empty-vessel ideologue like Harris, the combination of partisan left and ignorant voters represents a huge swath of the electorate. It’ll fall to the nation’s right, and tradition-minded Independents and disaffected Democrats in the swing states to forestall the disaster of a Harris victory.
The legacy media long ago lost the engaged right, and long ago consolidated the informed left. If only those two blocs could vote, Trump would win in a landslide simply by virtue of common sense about what’s best for America. But there are legions of people who still might think that Trump recommended drinking bleach during the Covid pandemic, who now believe that while Harris’ “values haven’t changed,” she fully supports fracking, and that Minnesota Governor Tim “Tampon” Walz is the political reincarnation of Vince Lombardi.