Right Wing Media Charts a New Course for Power and Influence | Pivot

1. KSKara Swisher0:00

   We've noted that Trump harnessed podcasts, YouTube, and non-traditional media al- along with the bro vote to great success. We've talked about this for a long time. But now there's tons of pieces about this. One piece in The New Republic argued that the year it became obvious that right-wing media had more power than mainstream media, wh- another thing we've talked about for a long time. And that it was Fox News, Sinclair, X, Joe Rogan, and others who, quote, "fed their audience a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win." Elon Musk has been telling his followers, "You are the media now," which we've heard before. Um, again, I think it's a- it's getting a little overdone in my opinion, but it's true, and it's also getting overdone. Um, that said, Democrats were slow to move away from legacy media, slower, as they always have been, 'cause they've owned legacy media for a long time compared to the right, which has been dabbling in radio and everything else for much- 'cause they were- they were kept out of the mainstream media, except for Fox. Um, Mark Cuban posted a podcast that he thought this- this ******* was only partially relevant for Trump's victory. I thought this was a smart observation as always. He thinks it's about social media echo chambers. He says that he told Fa- Harris to focus on reverse engineering the algorithms for each demo, but the campaign was stuck in 2020. Um, it's a complex story. I think it's partially ... And I thought Mark had a really good point, that by just saying, "Dems, you need your own Joe Rogan," it's not the answer.

2. SGScott Galloway1:18

   Well, I called you the other night. I'm obsessed with data and also the affirmation of strangers, and I'm always looking at the rankings of our podcast, and if you type in, "What's the most inf- influential category in podcasting as it relates to an election?" I think it would not be politics. I think it would be news commentary. 'Cause that's where people tune in to hear about the state of the world. And the top of the ten top news commentary podcasts, which by the way I would bet get dramatically more listenership, not only dramatically more listenership, but younger, more valuable, uh, consumers in terms of, uh, politicians or people running for office or advertisers.

3. KSKara Swisher1:57

   Sure. Mm-hmm.

4. SGScott Galloway1:57

   They're much more powerful than the top ten cable-

5. KSKara Swisher1:59

   Who's in there? Who's in that list?

6. SGScott Galloway2:01

   Uh, I was ... Y- y- I was- I was headed that way. So eight of the ten-

7. KSKara Swisher2:05

   Ah, s-

8. SGScott Galloway2:05

   Eight of the ten-

9. KSKara Swisher2:06

   Yeah.

10. SGScott Galloway2:07

    ... are hard red.

11. KSKara Swisher2:08

    Yeah.

12. SGScott Galloway2:08

    Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Charlie Kirk, Dan Bongino.

13. KSKara Swisher2:13

    That whole gang.

14. SGScott Galloway2:13

    I mean ...

15. KSKara Swisher2:14

    Yeah, what a party.

16. SGScott Galloway2:14

    Uh, I forget that other guy, a little bit older. I forget his name. Oh, it's, uh, John Bolen.

17. KSKara Swisher2:17

    Levin, Mark Levin.

18. SGScott Galloway2:18

    Mark Levin. The two blue, the two lone islands of blue are, uh, number six is Pivot and then number ten is On With Kara Swisher. You are literally the only islands, the only safe passage of blue in the top ten news commentary of the most popular or most influential medium, I believe, now in politics.

19. KSKara Swisher2:37

    Don't- don't Crooked Medias get in there? Don't Crooked Media?

20. SGScott Galloway2:40

    It's interesting. They're cata- they're- they're- they're categorized under politics, and they're number one or number two. If they were categorized under news commentary, I think they'd be number one or two. I think that's a fair point. But for whatever reason, Apple doesn't categorize them as news commentary.

21. KSKara Swisher2:55

    You know what's interesting? I- i- i- what I was just thinking, one of the things the right wing does do better, and I do think, I don't know if they're more powerful, is they join together a lot. They go on each other's shows. They cross-promote. They're always, you know how Rogan's doing the comics, that- that guy, Tony Hinchcliffe, is from a- is a Rogan acolyte down in Austin. They all work with each other as a group and- and I think one of the things we should do is, like, hang with the Crooked g- we should do something where we're always cross-promoting among our group. They're- they exist, but they're little islands. I'm up for shoplifting any old idea those sons of bitches have. Um, and so, uh, I think we should start doing that. But I think it's a little more complex than, "Let's make a Joe Rogan." You know? I think it's just, that seems reduct- the me- the legacy media's just woken up to something we've known all along, is that we have a lot of influence in the podcast space, much more so than they realize. Like, your little pod- I always get, "Your little podcast." I'm like, "I think we probably sold more books than a Washington Post review in- by far," or whatever it happens to be.

22. SGScott Galloway3:53

    Look at- look at-

23. KSKara Swisher3:54

    Anyway.

24. SGScott Galloway3:54

    Okay, MSNBC, 1,000,000 people, average age 70. Uh, Rogan gets 15 million downloads, average age 34. (laughs) I mean, where- where would you rather be? And if you really, th- th- but the reality is, a lot of these people ... Okay, so what do Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, um, Glenn Beck, uh, Bill O'Reilly ... I'm- I'm reading people in the top 15 here. What do these people all have in common? They were fired by traditional media. This is essentially ... This is- this looks like the outplacement office at McKinsey. It's all these formerly important people looking for a new job. And quite frankly, you want to talk about revenge of the formerly fired or the fired from broadcast, they have found a home in podcasting. And I ... There's just no getting around it, though. You have to acknowledge that traditional media was missing a big mar- th- these people have tapped into the same strategy that Rupert Murdoch tapped into 30 years ago.

25. KSKara Swisher4:55

    I- I- I agree. I do think media didn't fall down the job of reporting on it. I just don't think they're getting to people. I think that- that's a bullshit, though. Like, "They ignored it." I'm like, "No, there was a lot of reporting. It just was how they're getting to people." Th- that said, the reason I say it's overreach is 'cause I think they're- "You're the media now." You're not the media now, followers. You're just not. You're not gonna ... all ... you- you can be noisy, you know, and stuff like that, but one of the things that I- I- I ... was interesting, you know, that constant jazz hands, I don't know, wanker, Chamath Palihapitiya, who you know of, um, Mr. Spac, he wrote, "I canceled my New York Times and Washington Post subscriptions, just reallocated the money to subscribe and follow the following folks on X whom I believe help get me accurate news, including Michael Shellenberger, Kaneoka the Great, The Chief Nerd. I will per- uh, periodically publish accounts I subscribe to on X, and you may want to consider supporting them as well. Worst case, consider following them." Uh, this guy, ugh, I once saw him buy, I was noting, several bottles of $10,000 wine one night, and now he's on a budget. I mean, seriously.

26. SGScott Galloway5:58

    Yeah, but I- I don't-

27. KSKara Swisher5:59

    This ... we're gonna hear endless amounts of this bullshit.

28. SGScott Galloway5:59

    I- I- I just think what he's saying is, is that-... is that he's get- he, he feels like he's getting better information and better follows on Twitter than he does-

29. KSKara Swisher6:07

    Yeah.

30. SGScott Galloway6:07

    ... in traditional broadcast media. This-

Episode duration: 9:02