Conservative Analyst Blames ‘Collapsed’ Right-Wing Media for ‘Crackpot’ Russia Conspiracy Theories
Conservative analyst John Ziegler blamed right-wing media for the resurgence of the Russiagate scandal, telling Dan Abrams that media integrity has “collapsed” in the changing news environment.
Ziegler joined The Dan Abrams show on Tuesday to discuss the latest accusations of corruption from the Trump administration. These center around Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard, who recently released documents claiming that former President Barack Obama and those around him instigated “a years-long coup against President Donald Trump” through investigations into Russian election interference.
When asked by Abrams why this widely disproven conspiracy is gaining steam among the MAGA base, Ziegler attributed it to “the media environment [having] fundamentally changed from what existed in 2017.”
Ziegler said:
Now, you and I both know because we’ve lived it that things were already changing in 2017, but they had not yet collapsed. And in 2017, 2018, the mainstream news media still had legitimacy outside of the left wing in this country. They still had larger audiences than they have today. The New York Times and The Washington Post still had a lot more credibility than they did, they do today, especially on the right, but there was a still an element of the right-wing media during that time period that had a semblance of credibility and a willingness to stand up against absurdity. And both of those flanks, if you think about this as a war, both of those flanks have collapsed in the last seven or eight years.
Ziegler used the example of a recent New York Times report that showed that emails widely circulated in conservative spaces as proof of a Russia “hoax” were actually created by Russian disinformation campaigns.
“In 2017, 2018 that type of report in The New York Times would have been taken seriously by a significant portion of the right-wing and even in the right-wing media. But today, Dan, it’s the opposite,” said Ziegler. “Not only is it not taken seriously, it is seen as a sign of the righteousness of their own cause. Because if The New York Times is against you, you must be telling the truth. You must be on the side of right. And then there’s nobody left within the right-wing media echo chamber that is willing to stand up and say, ‘Guys, in this case, The New York Times is right.'”
Ziegler told Abrams that the lack of backbone in conservative media spaces comes due to a shift away from legacy media and the changing incentives for pundits.
“In this case, this scenario, this conspiracy doesn’t even make any sense because they have now all realized there’s nothing in it for them. There is nothing in it for standing up against the Trump mythmaking,” said Ziegler. “And Tulsi Gabbard understands her boss extremely well. She is giving him exactly what he wants, creating this myth that the base loves.”
He continued:
The base is in love with this myth about the Russiagate investigation. And so effectively, this is like giving therapy to their customers and the right-wing media. And people that used to stand up and I mean look– I’m going to name some names here, but you know, Tucker Carlson once upon a time might have stood up. Glenn Beck absolutely would have stood up. A friend of yours, Megan Kelly, would have stood up, but they’re all in the independent media now. There’s nothing in it for them to stand up. So, they will all go along with this and pretend to even believe it because that’s what the customers want. And it’s all about servicing the customer and it’s not anything having to do with the truth.”
