Right Wing Media Charts a New Course for Power and Influence | Pivot
Kara Swisher (host), Scott Galloway (host)
In this episode of Pivot, featuring Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, Right Wing Media Charts a New Course for Power and Influence | Pivot explores right-Wing Podcasts Eclipse Legacy Media As New Political Power Brokers The conversation explores how right-wing podcasts and news-commentary shows have become more influential than traditional media in shaping political opinion, especially among younger audiences. Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway note that many top news-commentary podcasts are hosted by conservative figures previously pushed out of mainstream TV, who have now built powerful independent platforms. They argue that Democrats and legacy outlets were slow to adapt, underestimating the reach and economic strength of podcasting and social media echo chambers. While defending the continued importance of institutions like The New York Times and Washington Post, they conclude that attention, money, and political influence are rapidly consolidating in the podcast ecosystem.
Right-Wing Podcasts Eclipse Legacy Media As New Political Power Brokers
The conversation explores how right-wing podcasts and news-commentary shows have become more influential than traditional media in shaping political opinion, especially among younger audiences. Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway note that many top news-commentary podcasts are hosted by conservative figures previously pushed out of mainstream TV, who have now built powerful independent platforms. They argue that Democrats and legacy outlets were slow to adapt, underestimating the reach and economic strength of podcasting and social media echo chambers. While defending the continued importance of institutions like The New York Times and Washington Post, they conclude that attention, money, and political influence are rapidly consolidating in the podcast ecosystem.
Key Takeaways
Right-wing voices dominate top news-commentary podcasts.
Eight of the top ten news-commentary podcasts skew hard right, with only a couple of center-left shows like Pivot and On With Kara Swisher breaking through, indicating a structural conservative advantage in this medium.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
News-commentary podcasts are now more politically influential than cable news.
Hosts argue that younger, larger, and more engaged podcast audiences make this format more impactful on elections than aging cable-news viewerships averaging around 70 years old.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Democrats can’t just “clone Joe Rogan”; they must master algorithms.
Mark Cuban’s view, echoed by the hosts, is that success depends on understanding and reverse engineering social media and platform algorithms for each demographic, not merely launching a single star progressive podcast.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Conservative media excels at cross-promotion and network-building.
Right-wing hosts frequently appear on each other’s shows and build interconnected ecosystems, amplifying reach and loyalty—something Swisher and Galloway suggest liberal media should copy more aggressively.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Advertisers follow attention and demographics, favoring podcasts.
With podcast listeners skewing younger (e. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Displaced TV personalities are thriving as independent podcasters.
Figures like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Glenn Beck, and Bill O’Reilly, once fired or sidelined by traditional outlets, have rebuilt large audiences in podcasting, turning “revenge of the fired” into a profitable trend.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Legacy journalism still matters, even as its business model erodes.
Swisher defends The New York Times and Washington Post as doing high-quality reporting, but acknowledges that their economics are increasingly outclassed by lean, lucrative podcast operations.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Notable Quotes
“Eight of the ten [top news-commentary podcasts] are hard red.”
— Scott Galloway
“You are literally the only safe passage of blue in the top ten news commentary.”
— Scott Galloway (to Kara Swisher)
“By just saying, 'Dems, you need your own Joe Rogan,' it’s not the answer.”
— Kara Swisher
“Money always follows attention.”
— Scott Galloway
“They’re not [terrible]. They’re the best of a dying breed.”
— Kara Swisher on The New York Times and Washington Post
Questions Answered in This Episode
How could progressive or centrist media build a coordinated cross-promotion ecosystem to rival the right-wing podcast network?
The conversation explores how right-wing podcasts and news-commentary shows have become more influential than traditional media in shaping political opinion, especially among younger audiences. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What specific steps should political campaigns take to reverse engineer and leverage platform algorithms for different voter demographics?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where is the line between serving an underserved conservative audience and feeding them a “diet of slanted and distorted information”?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can legacy outlets like The New York Times and Washington Post integrate with the podcast ecosystem without diluting their journalistic standards?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If podcasts are becoming the new AM radio of politics, what regulatory, ethical, or transparency standards—if any—should apply to these influential shows?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
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.
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.
Sure. Mm-hmm.
They're much more powerful than the top ten cable-
Who's in there? Who's in that list?
Uh, I was ... Y- y- I was- I was headed that way. So eight of the ten-
Ah, s-
Eight of the ten-
Yeah.
... are hard red.
Yeah.
Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Charlie Kirk, Dan Bongino.
That whole gang.
I mean ...
Yeah, what a party.
Uh, I forget that other guy, a little bit older. I forget his name. Oh, it's, uh, John Bolen.
Install uListen to search the full transcript and get AI-powered insights
Get Full TranscriptGet more from every podcast
AI summaries, searchable transcripts, and fact-checking. Free forever.
Add to Chrome